Government announces £50,000 for 17 projects tackling pressing UK challenges

Article summary

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has announced that 17 projects across the UK focussing on 'some of the world's most pressing challenges' will receive up to £50,000 government funding. Challenges include the acceleration of building offshore wind farms in the South West, digitising construction sites in the North East, heating homes and businesses using low carbon heat from disused mines in Glasgow, and researching quicker ways of diagnosing cancer. The funding is part of the government’s plan to drive local economic growth, upskill workers and create high-value jobs as part of the coronavirus (COVID-19) economic recovery plan. If the early stages of development are successful, projects will be able to apply for £10-50m further long-term investment later in 2020 under UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund. It follows a first-wave of funding in June 2020, which provided £400m of government and industry funding to seven research and development...