- Research partnerships to keep the UK at the cutting edge of efforts to develop quantum computers and hybrid electric vehicles, reduce the time and cost of producing new drugs and protect against cyber attacks
- Industry names including Microsoft, Jaguar Land Rover and Eli Lilly and Company team up with leading UK universities
- Six new Prosperity Partnerships, funded with £40 million, launched by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Leading researchers will team up with major industry names to place the UK at the forefront of efforts to build quantum computers, protect wireless networks from cyber-attacks and research the next generation of hybrid electric vehicles.
Eight universities will team up with industry partners such as Microsoft, Jaguar Land Rover and Eli Lilly and Company in six new Prosperity Partnerships after a £40 million investment was announced on Friday 18 October 2019, by Secretary of State Andrea Leadsom. She announced the new Prosperity Partnerships alongside a major investment in cyber security partnerships with industry partners.
Funded partnerships include:
- A project led by Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Oxford to research a new generation of electrified, hybrid vehicles that will reduce demand on the electricity grid and be prepared for new forms of fuel
- A partnership led by Toshiba Research Europe and the University of Bristol to protect the wireless networks we rely on at work and in our social lives from cyber-attacks
- A collaboration led by Eli Lilly and Company and Imperial College to significantly reduce the time and cost of producing new drugs, speeding up new treatments for a range of conditions.
The five-year partnerships announced today are supported with £18 million of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, £18 million from industry partners and £4 million from universities.
They are the latest in a series of Prosperity Partnerships, launched to support existing, strategic, research-based partnerships between business and universities and deliver societal and economic impact. To date, £195 million has been invested by EPSRC, industry partners and universities in 30 Prosperity Partnerships.
EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Lynn Gladden said: “By combining expertise from across academia and industry, the Prosperity Partnerships will break new ground in areas of fundamental research that also provide major commercial opportunities.
“The partnerships announced today demonstrate the critical role that collaboration between UK researchers and industry partners will play in developing the revolutionary technologies of tomorrow.”