Low carbon cars and buildings to receive fresh R&D funding

The UK Technology Strategy Board is to launch two new programmes to accelerate the development of low carbon vehicles and low impact housing, which will see the body invest £10m a year in each initiative.

Speaking following her keynote address at the UK technology Innovation and Growth Forum, Dr Allyson Reed, director of strategy and communications at the government-backed body, said that the two new Innovation Platforms would be formally launched this May alongside a separate initiative focused on assisted living technologies.

She explained the aim of the three programmes – which follow two similar initiatives launched in the areas of intelligent transport systems and network security – is to facilitate greater collaboration between companies, researchers and investors and provide funding for innovative projects.

"We're putting £10m a year into each of the programmes and that will be matched by funding from industry and government departments," she said. "We'd expect to raise £70m to £80m a year for enabling the networking between different organisations and investing in R&D projects."

Reed said in addition to the specific programmes for low carbon cars and housing the Technology Strategy Board was looking to invest £1bn over the next three years in innovative research and development projects, many of which will be in the clean technology sector.

"The aim is to provide the collaboration and funding to deliver risk new technologies and make them attractive to a bank or investor," she explained. " We focus on that "valley of death" [between R&D and commercialisation] where so many ideas fail. We do that by putting money where we see a funding gap and using our expertise to bring together different groups that would not otherwise meet."