The funding is expected to help the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology to meet the Prime Minister's important priorities, including strengthening the UK economy and providing better-paying jobs and opportunities for people across the country
UK announces a funding commitment of nearly £3.5bn to advance the country's scientific and technologic future. (Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has announced a commitment of nearly £3.5bn to advance the British government’s goal of making the country a scientific and technologic superpower.
The announcement has been made as a part of the Spring Budget delivered by the Chancellor to the House of Commons, which outlines his fiscal plans for the coming financial year.
The funding is expected to help the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology to meet the Prime Minister’s important priorities, including strengthening the UK economy and providing better-paying jobs and opportunities for people across the country.
UK Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: “This week, we’ve shown that actions speak louder than words in our push to make the UK a science and technology superpower.
“We stepped in to protect the finances of our burgeoning tech sector over the weekend, set out our roadmap to regulate the industries of tomorrow and committed huge sums of investment in the Spring Budget.
“When I launched this Department, I promised to ensure every lever of government was behind our plans to drive growth through science and innovation.
“Yesterday’s Budget shows that as a government, we are putting our money where our mouth is, backing the industries that will create jobs, provide the firepower to invest in our public services, and ultimately improve lives.”
A total of nearly £1bn has been earmarked for the next generation of supercomputing and artificial intelligence (AI) research in order to build the UK as a science and technology superpower, stated the government.
Besides, the government has launched a new quantum strategy to attract more capital investment in quantum technologies. The strategy is backed by a public funding of £2.5bn over the next 10 years.
The commitment to science and technology also includes an investment of about £900m into a new exascale supercomputer and a dedicated AI Research Resource.
Furthermore, the budget stated that the best research into AI will be awarded a £1m prize every year for the next 10 years by the government.