Green catapults: BEIS steps up investment in cities and transport innovation

The government has stepped up its investment in UK green city transport innovation, announcing plans to merge the UK's Future Cities and Transport Systems Catapults with a view to better "tackling problems of modern city living and shaping the future of mobility".

The government expects the world of transport to "transform dramatically" over the coming decade due to new technology - such as zero carbon energy sources, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data - which it said promise to "radically transform" movement of people, services and goods around UK towns and countryside.

As such, operating from sites in London and Milton Keynes, the new combined Catapult will help businesses to more easily access the UK's research and development (R&D) expertise in order to boost growth, create jobs and "keep the UK at the forefront of urban transport innovation", BEIS announced earlier this week.

Business Secretary Greg Clark confirmed the move as part of plans to invest a further £215m in the UK's Future Cities, Transport Systems, Digital and Medicines Discovery Catapult innovation centres.

The additional funding support will fund the Catapult network for the next five years, he said.

"The Catapult network offers the technical expertise and equipment to allow businesses to take on the challenges and opportunities we expect to face in a future world," Clark added. "We're backing experts to push new boundaries, so our future economy reaps the benefits of new technologies with more highly skilled jobs. Investment in research and development is at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy as we build on the UK's reputation for scientific innovation."

It came ahead of the first meeting of the new cross-government Ministerial Working Group on the Future of Regulation yesterday, which was also attended by Clark alongside other ministers and cabinet colleagues.

The working group is aimed at harnessing regulation to support innovators in bringing new ideas to market, helping regulators to keep pace with technological advances such as self-driving cars and AI.

"We have a world-beating regulatory environment in the UK which has set standards that have been exported around the world, but we can't move forward by standing still and we must prepare for the technologies and industries of the future," said Clark. "By being the 'prime mover' in reforming regulation to support technological innovation, the government will be able to grow domestic industries and attract investment from the rest of the world."