Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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Government invests £200m in technology centres
More than £200m will be invested by the Government in a network of elite Technology and Innovation Centres to drive growth in the UK’s most high-tech industries, it was announced today.
The centres, which were announced by Prime Minister David Cameron in a speech to the CBI today, will bridge the gap between universities and businesses, helping to commercialise the outputs of Britain’s world-class research base.
Business secretary Vince Cable said:
“We need to do more to ensure the UK benefits from its world-class research.
“These centres will help take ideas from the drawing board to the market place. They will play a key role in helping firms develop new products and processes so they can grow and prosper.
“Companies will be able to access technology and skills that would otherwise be out of reach.
“High-tech industries are the future of the British economy. Growing sectors that exploit these new and emerging technologies will help re-balance the economy and provide the highly skilled, well-paid jobs we need.
“Thanks to this major investment, British companies will be at the forefront of innovation.”
The centres, which will receive the money over the next four years, will be based on the model proposed by Hermann Hauser and James Dyson. The network will support businesses in developing and commercialising new technology.
They will allow businesses to access equipment and expertise that would otherwise be out of reach as well as conducting their own in-house R&D. They will also help businesses access new funding streams and point them towards the potential of emerging technologies.
Each centre will focus on a specific technology where there is a potentially large global market and a significant UK capability. Areas identified as possibilities by Hermann Hauser included plastic electronics, regenerative medicine and high value manufacturing.
The network will be established and overseen by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) but individual centres will have a high degree of autonomy so they can respond to business needs. The TSB will work with industry, universities and other interested parties to identify the areas the centres will support.
The TSB will determine which existing centres to invest in by April next year and will then consider requirements for new centres.
Notes to editors
1. Hermann Hauser's review titled The Current and Future Role of Technology and Innovation Centres in the UK was commissioned by the Government and published on 25 March 2010 (http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/innovation/docs/10-843-role-of-technology-innovation-centres-hauser-review).
2. James Dyson's review, Ingenious Britain: Making the UK the leading high tech exporter in Europe, (http://media.dyson.com/images_resize_sites/inside_dyson/assets/UK/downloads/IngeniousBritain.PDF), was commissioned by the Conservative Party and published in March 2010. The coalition agreement committed the Government to consider the implementation of the Dyson Review.
3. The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the government. Its role is to promote and support research into, and development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic growth and improve the quality of life. It is sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). For more information please visit www.innovateuk.org.
4. BIS' online newsroom contains the latest press notices, speeches, as well as video and images for download. It also features an up to date list of BIS press office contacts. See http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom for more information.
Contacts:
BIS Press Office
NDS.BIS@coi.gsi.gov.uk
Michael Gibbs
Phone: 020 7215 1635
michael.gibbs@bis.gsi.gov.uk
