Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to announce SEVEN new Prosperity Partnerships projects

Seven new Prosperity Partnerships projects that will build links between the UK’s research base and leading industry partners such as AkzoNobel , AstraZeneca, Google, Rolls-Royce, Tata Steel, and Weir Group, plus small-to-medium enterprise, Oxford PV will be unveiled today by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) at Prince Philip House, Carlton Terrace, London. This EPSRC £20.4 million investment has leveraged in £16.8 million from industry partners and a further £4.9 million from universities.

Prosperity Partnerships are EPSRC’s flagship approach to co-investing with business in long-term, use-inspired, basic research. They are five-year, multimillion pound research collaborations on topics of national and global importance which have been co-created by leading UK universities and businesses with a strong research presence in the UK.

Now in its second year of investment, Business partners are vocal in the value they place on this approach and the co-construction of the collaborative research programmes enabled by EPSRC. Partnerships from the first round are seeing additional foreign investment from the business partners to strengthen relationships even further.

From a UKRI perspective, the programme is making an important contribution to achieving Government’s aspiration of investing 2.4 per cent of GDP in R&D by 2027. This is not only through the initial investment from business but through acting as a gateway for businesses to derive impact from the new knowledge in internal R&D programmes.