The government has launched a £50m fund aimed at bolstering cutting-edge research in UK tech and science.
The Research Ventures Catalyst fund, based on partnerships with private and philanthropic investors, aims to help drive new discoveries across the health, tech and science sectors.
Funds will go toward research tackling diseases, climate change and developing emerging technologies.
The UK Science and Technology Framework published by the Department for Science and Technology in March set out to unlock greater private and philanthropic investment in UK R&D and the government has committed to invest a total of £20bn in R&D in 2024-2025.
The framework came after it was reported in January that 70 per cent of firms said they were planning on moving their R&D operations abroad this year, with 69 per cent doing so in 2022 in a UK-wide exodus.
Secretary of State Michelle Donelan said: “From Edward Jenner’s invention of the very first vaccine, to the scientists in Manchester who isolated graphene, so many of the Great British breakthroughs which have changed the world would not have been possible without people who dared to do things differently and take calculated risks. In today’s world, that approach is just as important as ever.”
“Research and innovation hold the keys to a vast range of benefits and opportunity, from radically improving healthcare to creating whole new industries in fields from quantum to engineering biology. But this work is impossible without funding. That is why, I am making an open invitation to private and philanthropic partners in the City and beyond to work with us through the Research Ventures Catalyst to put real financial firepower behind the world-leading science happening in the UK.”
More on tech and science funding
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Target Global to deploy €130m into tech companies – The global VC will back tech companies in fintech, edtech, healthtech and business software, both at seed and venture stage
