Innovative Scottish projects in areas from museums in the metaverse to chemical robot farms are set to receive funding from a £100m Levelling Up pot.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed in his Budget that 26 projects in three high-tech clusters in the UK would share the funding.
The scheme is designed to help those areas become global hubs that attract private R&D investment, create new jobs, boost regional economic growth, and develop the technologies of tomorrow.
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Eleven projects in Glasgow City Region are part of the scheme, alongside 10 in Greater Manchester and five in the West Midlands.
The Glasgow projects focus on key growth innovation sectors including advanced manufacturing, space, and precision medicine. They have been selected by government, business and R&D institutions alongside Innovate UK.
Speaking on behalf of the eight local councils, Susan Aitken, chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet and Glasgow City Council Leader, said: "Glasgow has a remarkable history rooted in industry and innovation and is home to world-leading science and technology expertise. The IA programme will support the Region’s key economic aims of increasing productivity, delivering inclusive growth and achieving net zero. It will create new jobs at all levels and grow the number of successful businesses. Vitally, through leveraging extensive private sector investment and building on our growing international profile it can turbo charge our innovation economy to the next level.”
Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation at DSIT, George Freeman, said: "Record investment in our UK science, technology & innovation sectors are creating new career opportunities in the campuses, clusters & companies of tomorrow.
"R+D is key to levelling-up by growing the R+D Innovation Economy outside the Greater South East.
“That’s why UKRI is putting clusters at the heart of its strategy and why our £100m Innovation Accelerator Program provides £33m each to 3 emerging clusters to attract industrial co-investment and become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation.”
Indro Mukerjee, chief executive at Innovate UK, said: "As the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK is dedicated to building strong regional partnerships to boost local innovation and commercialisation. Our Innovation Accelerators will attract further private sector investment in city regions, driving economic and societal growth and benefiting local communities. Together, we can unleash the full innovation potential of every community in the UK."
Here are the Glasgow City Region projects that will receive part of the £100m innovation pot:
- ‘Fusing a future from Glasgow’s proud heritage: Schedule Guaranteed High- Integrity Structures for a Secure, Safe and Resilient Transition to Net Zero’, Led by University of Strathclyde. (Sector: Net Zero)
- ‘Risk Stratification Tool for Colorectal Polyp Surveillance’, Led by University of Glasgow. (Sector: Health)
- ‘ReMake Glasgow’, Led by – University of Strathclyde. (Sector: Energy)
- ‘FinTech – Centre of Innovation in Financial Regulation’, Led by Fintech Scotland. (Sector: Digital)
- ‘Museums in the Metaverse’, Led by University of Glasgow. (Sector: Creative)
- ‘Pilot Accelerator for National Institute for Quantum Integration’, Led by – University of Glasgow. (Sector: Electronics)
- ‘Modular Chemical Robot Farms for Chemical Manufacturing’, Led by Chemify Limited. (Sector: Manufacturing)
- ‘Data-driven Design and Manufacturing Colab (D3M_Colab)’, Led by University of Strathclyde. (Sector: Digital)
- ‘Innovation Accelerator in Neutral Atom Quantum Optimisation’, Led by M-Squared Lasers Limited. (Sector: Emerging Tech)
- ‘Next Generation Remote-Sensing Technologies’, Led by Thales UK Limited. (Sector: Electronics)
- ‘Stratellite Space and Photonics Glasgow Impact Accelerator’, Led by University of Strathclyde. (Sector: Space)
