£51m UK Government backing for Welsh innovation

Britain’s researchers and entrepreneurs in Wales will benefit from an additional £51m to create the technologies of tomorrow, the Chancellor announced today.

Philip Hammond will expand successful ‘catapult centres’ which are fuelling innovation across the country, including in Wales, as part of the UK’s ambitious, modern Industrial Strategy. This new funding backs Britain’s brightest talent – supporting work in high-tech labs, cutting-edge factories and advanced training centres.

So far this has helped create hundreds of new products, services and inventions, including a portable pollution sensor that parents can attach to a child’s buggy, cellular therapies to fight cancer and improve recovery of stroke victims, LED treatment for blindness, and more-efficient wings for aeroplanes.

The Chancellor made the announcement on the day GDP figures showed the UK economy has grown by 0.4%.

The funding will go to the Compound Semiconductor Catapult in Cardiff, which will open its Innovation Centre in early 2019.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, said: “We are backing innovative British companies to grow and create jobs, as we build an economy fit for the future. Today’s £51m investment for Wales will support innovators across the country to create the technologies of the future and the better, highly-paid jobs we all want to see.”