Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support research and development in ceramics.

Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), ceramics, along with the other 5 sectors that make up the foundation industries, are eligible for a share of the £66 million Transforming Foundation Industries. This Challenge looks to reduce environmental impact (including carbon emissions) through resource and energy efficiency. It is funding a number of projects relevant to the ceramics industry including hybrid sintering, development of new ceramic fibres for enhanced filtering, heat recovery in furnaces, robotics based optimisation and non-combustible cladding systems.

The Midlands Industrial Ceramics for Industry 4.0 project were recently awarded seedcorn funding of up to £50,000, under wave 2 of the Strength in Places Fund. The investment will build on existing ceramic and manufacturing strengths to help to make the Midlands a global leader in advanced ceramics. .

The Government is implementing its ambitious research and development roadmap to ensure the UK is the best place in the world for scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs to live and work, while helping to power up the UK’s economic and social recovery and level up the UK.