Part of this money will support the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund – a new cross disciplinary fund intended to encourage collaboration between business and the UK’s science base. This, said the Chancellor, will set ‘identifiable challenges’ for UK researchers to tackle.
Explaining the move, he said the Fund would be modelled on the US’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, managed by Innovate UK and the Research Councils, with technologies to be decided by an evidence based process.
There will also be more money for innovation, applied science and research. This cash is angled towards providing more research capacity and to ‘unlock the full potential’ of the UK’s science base.
This will be managed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which will award funding on the basis of national excellence. It will see what the Chancellor called a substantial increase in grant funding through Innovate UK.
UKRI was set up earlier in 2016 to replace the existing Research Councils.Amongst the reasons were a greater focus and capacity to deliver on cross-cutting issues and the ability to provide a unified voice for the UK’s research and innovation funding system
Professor Dame Ann Dowling, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “The investments announced by the Chancellor and the formation of a new industrial strategy represent a major opportunity to get Britain back on its feet and to accelerate the growth of emerging engineering technologies – such as robotics – that are going to have the most transformative impact on society in years to come. It will be important to match these investments with a substantial drive to attract and train more skilled engineers to ensure they make a real difference to productivity and to communities across the UK.”
