Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched a £50 million investment from Innovate UK to nurture the latest, potentially game-changing technologies.
The four-year Emerging technologies and industries strategy will help UK business and academia to transform ideas into reality in seven areas:
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- synthetic biology
- energy-efficient computing
- energy harvesting
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- non-animal technologies
- emerging imaging technologies
- graphene
- quantum technologies
Iain Gray, chief executive of Innovate UK, said: “Much of Innovate UK’s funding and expertise goes to support business innovation where the commercial opportunities are well understood and the technological challenges known. But it is vital that we also look further ahead, scanning the horizon for the breakthroughs of tomorrow.
“With our strong and inventive research base, the UK is an excellent source of high potential early-stage technologies. This new investment will help make the push for full commercialisation, creating real economic growth for the UK in the process.”
The plan represents a doubling of Innovate UK investment in emerging technologies over the next four years. All these areas can already boast a world-class research base and/or world class industrial potential within the UK.
How new technologies are changing the world
Innovate UK’s ambition is to see the UK as a leading player in one or more new growth sectors from an emerging technology area as it would mean a sector generating £1 billion turnover a year.
The strategy also highlights how Innovate UK will be identifying and supporting as-yet unknown technologies as they emerge from UK universities.
The seven areas mentioned above could all offer world-changing solutions to major global challenges including new drugs, ‘hyper-spectral’ cameras for advanced detection systems and autonomous sensors.
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