More than 2,500 jobs to be created with £127m UK innovation funding

More than 2,500 UK jobs are set to be created as the government announces £127m of funding for research and innovation projects across the country.

The funding, which comes through UK Research and Innovation’s Strength In Places Fund (SIPF), will be allocated to five projects set to boost economic growth in their regions.

The projects, based in Northern Ireland, Stoke-on-Trent, Rochdale, Edinburgh and Cardiff, will span digital dairy farming, nano-manufacturing, greener ceramics, machinery manufacturing growth and sustainable media sector growth.

Overall, the funding is expected to support the creation of more than 2,500 jobs, with 2,000 being created by Cardiff’s media project and 560 set to be created in Rochdale’s machinery manufacturing sector.

Professor Ottoline Leyser, UK Research and Innovation’s chief executive, said: “UK Research and Innovation funding through the Strength in Places Fund brings researchers, industry and local leadership together in outstanding collaborative programmes that catalyse significant economic growth.

“The projects funded in this round are excellent illustrations of how local partnerships in research and innovation can contribute to building an inclusive knowledge economy for the UK.”

Kate Barker, panel chair for the Strength in Places Fund, said: “The Strength in Places Fund, led by UK Research and Innovation, is unique as it is the only UK funding programme that provides place-based investment in research and innovation activity to support sustained and significant local economic growth across the UK.

“These five projects have the potential to deliver research and innovation that will transform activity within their target industries, in a way that is deeply rooted in local strengths and well linked to wider local economic plans.”

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