SCIENCE

In today's Budget statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced more than £20M capital funding for STFC science. This announcement follows a recent visit to the STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory by the Minister for Science, David Willetts MP. The money is expected to help research in areas such as the computing industry and climate change as well as future security scanners. 

Commenting on the announcement, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable MP said: "This investment is a real boost to our world class research base and space industry, and demonstrates further the Government's commitment to science following the Spending Review and the ring fencing of the science budget. It will create new businesses and improve existing ones, attract highly skilled scientists and technicians, and become a focus for international investment." 

STFC projects benefiting from this announcement are: 

STFC Accelerator Centre at Daresbury Laboratory 

£10M will enable STFC to make important new capital investments in technologies and testing for next-generation science-driven accelerators, advanced ultra-sensitive security scanning techniques, and new medical accelerator developments. Much of this work will be in collaboration with industry. 

The funding will also enable design changes to be made to EMMA, a prototype accelerator, to make it suitable for hospital-based proton and other therapies. 

ISIS Second Target Station Phase Two Instruments 

£10M will ensure that all four instruments planned for phase two of the ISIS Second Target Station project will go ahead. 

In 2009, the ISIS neutron source completed a £145M building programme to increase scientific capability and add capacity. The new instruments on the Second Target Station will lead to scientific developments in aerospace, the computing industry, environmental science and healthcare, and advanced techniques in the areas of polymer science, bio-materials and food science and civil engineering. 

Funding for the first instrument, Chipir, a new facility for testing the electronics used in the aerospace and supercomputing industry was confirmed by the Minister for Science, David Willetts MP during his recent visit to ISIS. (http://www.stfc.ac.uk/News%20and%20Events/24161.aspx) This latest  announcement confirms that three further instruments, Imat, Larmor and Zoom can go ahead. The project to build them will start next month. 

International Space Innovation Centre at Harwell 

As a partner in the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) at Harwell, STFC will benefit from the £10M funding that has been allocated to start the National Space Technology Programme. ISIC brings together industry, national laboratories, academia, international space agencies and Government to maximise and exploit space research and technology, reinforcing the UK's competitiveness and spearheading national growth in the global space market. 

The initial focus of ISIC will be understanding and countering climate change, ensuring the security of space systems and services and exploiting and visualising data generated by Earth observation satellites. 

This new funding will enable development of space technology with a UK focus. 

 

STFC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Keith Mason welcomed the announcement: "We welcome this investment in our scientific facilities and capabilities at the Daresbury and Harwell Science and Innovation Campuses which will help us promote blue skies thinking and economic recovery."