The three competitions are designed to accelerate the development of new technologies in three different areas: materials technologies for use in energy generation, transmission, distribution and storage; strategies to improve the resistance of buildings to climate change; and information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the manufacturing and construction sectors.
The competitions are called Energy Materials, Design for Future Climate, and ICTs for High Value Manufacturing and Construction.
The Technology Strategy Board plans to invest up to £3m of the £12m total in collaborative projects that demonstrate how new materials might be produced for the energy generation, transmission, distribution and storage sectors. The focus of the competition will be on projects that address challenges in scaling up technologies from initial laboratory proof of concept to small-scale technology demonstrations and pilots in a representative environment.
A further £2.4m investment will assist design teams developing strategies to improve the resistance of buildings to climate change. Projects must relate to a specific building or refurbishment project, with a client and design team both applying together for the funding. The funding covers all building projects with a cost greater than £5m.
Lastly, an investment of £7m aims to stimulate the use of ICTs in the manufacturing and construction sectors. The focus of the competition will be on applying recent developments in ICTs to challenges in manufacturing and/or construction, and encouraging new partnerships between businesses in the ICT, manufacturing and construction sectors.
In addition to the new competitions, the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has offered to support a recently launched funding competition by providing an additional £500,000 for research and development projects.
The Nutrition for Life funding competition is intended to encourage the development of processes and technologies with an emphasis on providing ’healthy’ and ’safe’ food and drink, and will support both feasibility studies and collaborative research and development projects.
Further information about the three new competitions will be available shortly on the competitions page of the Technology Strategy Board website.
Nanogenerator consumes CO2 to generate electricity
Whoopee, they've solved how to keep a light on but not a lot else.