Cable announces £20 million for UK industrial biotechnology
Business Secretary unveiles the winners of a multi-million-pound competition to bring innovative UK biotechnology projects to market.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has unveiled the winners of a multi-million-pound competition to bring innovative UK biotechnology projects to market. A total of 23 projects, ranging from making biofuel from household waste to using bacteria to make the building blocks for new medicines, will share almost £20 million from the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst – introduced in January 2014 to support collaboration between UK researchers and the emergent industrial biotechnology sector.
Industrial biotechnology is a rapidly emerging sector in the UK and is predicted to be worth up to £12 billion by 2025. With the support of the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst, British researchers have already helped develop new technologies in everything from plastics produced from plant residues to chemicals from yeast to be used in sunscreens and cancer treatments.
The multi-million pound fund has been pledged by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Innovate UK to support UK researchers and companies to work together to bring their biotechnology innovations to market and to help cement the UK’s position as a world leader in this sector.
