Member Article

Government reveals £229m Industrial Strategy investment for two new R&D centres

Business and Energy Secretary, Greg Clark, has announced a £229m investment package for a pair of new UK research centres in one of the government’s first major investments in its £4.7bn Industrial Strategy programme.

The funding, which progresses Prime Minister, Theresa May’s pledge to nurture innovation and science across UK manufacturing, will support the creation of a new world-leading advanced materials research centre at the University of Manchester and a new centre of excellence for life and physical sciences in Oxford.

The Sir Henry Royce Institute will receive £126m in grants to help it establish a research centre at the North West university to carry out materials research directed toward areas including energy, engineering, functional and soft materials.

It will also help to grow a UK-wide network of satellite centres at the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College, further supporting research into advanced materials such as graphene.

The second investment has been granted to the Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI) which is located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxford, with the £103m funding set to be channeled into its life sciences centre of excellence bringing together research and academia.

Following the announcement of the investments, Clark commented: “Research and development has a proven track record of making our economy more competitive and creating new products, services and better ways of doing business.

“For these reasons, we’ve placed the UK’s strengths in science, research and innovation at the core of our modern Industrial Strategy.

“Government investment in these two centres for advanced materials and life and physical sciences will support growth across a range of sectors, provide the skills and training to grow our expertise in these cutting-edge fields, and facilitate positive collaboration between industry, academia and Government.”