UK govt to invest GBP 246m in battery tech

The UK government will spend GBP 246 million (USD 315m/ EUR 294m) over the next four years on "batteries for clean and flexible energy storage" as part of a GBP-1-billion fund to support cutting-edge technologies.

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) is part of the government's commitment to increase investment in research and development by GBP 4.7 billion over the next four years.

Business secretary Greg Clark announced today that the GBP 1 billion in funding will be invested across six key areas. Three of them, including clean and flexible energy, were announced at the 2017 Spring Budget.

The investment planned for clean and flexible energy technologies is designed to help UK businesses take advantage of the opportunities created by the shift to a low carbon economy and ensure the country leads the world in the design, development and production of batteries for electric vehicles.

Innovate UK will be supporting a GBP-10-million first wave of projects through the ISCF in each of the six areas with a number of smaller projects, starting in 2017 to 2018, the government said.

The other areas are healthcare and medicine; robotics and artificial intelligence; self-driving vehicles; manufacturing and materials of the future; and satellites and space technology.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.282/EUR 1.193)

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