Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support investment in science research at universities in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
The Government announced we will publish a new ambitious Places Strategy for R&D in the R&D Roadmap. The Places Strategy will ensure that our research and development system delivers real economic and societal benefits in cities, towns, regions, and devolved nations right across the UK.
We are making a long-term investment in core research. By 2023-24, the government will be investing £1.4 billion more per annum in core funding for its world-leading research base compared to 2020/21.
As an example, we recently announced a £65 million boost to the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), part of which will be used to complete a first-of-its-kind UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry, creating 100 high-skilled jobs. Organisations across the automotive, rail and aerospace sectors will have access to a unique battery production facility combining manufacturing, experimentation and innovation.