10.10.19
£88m in Government funding to boost UK business productivity.
The Government has announced today (October 10) an £88m cash injection to boost productivity power of UK businesses.
The UK falls behind other countries around the world in terms of productivity, and this new funding hopes to close the gap and supercharge British business.
Some UK sectors are among the highest in Europe, however, some industries like chemicals and textiles struggle to maintain the same growth.
The investment will fund the next generation of supercomputers, aiming to improve efficiencies such as providing live weather forecasts.
New technologies, made available as a result, will help smaller businesses to expand and reach new audiences. The result of this will be a more competitive market and ultimately better products and fairer prices for UK customers.
£43m of the pot will be used to support top researchers and analysts in their efforts to effectively boost productivity, with the help of a new institute. The site, location yet to be confirmed, will see work carried out to solve issues like productivity imbalances, poor management practices and skills investment.
Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said:
“Productivity matters – if we produce more, we can earn more, as individuals and as a society.
“Today’s investment will allow us to develop pioneering software to harness the power of supercomputers and create a state-of-the-art Productivity Institute.”
The remaining £45m will be invested in developing cutting-edge supercomputer software, which will aim to transform entire sectors, from agriculture to pharmaceuticals.
Included in this will be hyper-accurate weather predicting software. A technology that will help farmers to protect crops, help airports keep flights running and support businesses in future-proofing infrastructure that might be damaged in extreme weather conditions.
The project, named ‘ExCALIBUR’ will aid the UK in meeting scientific and engineering challenges and push sectors further forward with their future productivity goals.
The government is making the unlocking of productivity potential a priority. The £88m in total is part of the Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF), which supports high quality multidisciplinary research and development, and reconfirms the government’s dedication to investing at least 2.4% of GDP in research and development by 2027.