University of Bath expert comments on Government’s green investment pledge
Professor Matthew Davidson from the University of Bath has commented on the announcement of more green investment as part of the UK Government’s International Investment Summit.
Professor Davidson, Executive Director of the Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST) at the University of Bath, said, “The climate crisis affects all of us and it is clear that there is a significant and growing appetite to invest in green technologies as highlighted by this week’s Investment Summit and by the new National Wealth Fund.
“However, there is currently a gap between publicly funded researchers developing new sustainable solutions and UK companies scaling them up and bringing them to market.
“So not only does the UK need to invest more, but it also needs to put the infrastructure in place to bridge this gap and create an ecosystem inclusive of universities, high growth tech companies, business incubation and investors that can deliver green economic growth.”
The Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST) was established in 2021 as a £17 million R&D and collaboration hub for companies working on clean technologies. It focuses on translating sustainable chemical technologies research into commercial applications to tackle the global challenges such as the climate emergency, sustainable development and plastics pollution.
iCAST brings together industry with expertise at the universities of Bath and Oxford, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s Sustainability Partnership (National Composites Centre and Centre for Process Innovation), innovation experts at SETsquared, Swindon Borough Council and investors.
It is funded by the Research England Development Fund, an initiative from UKRI that drives innovation in research and knowledge exchange in higher education. Already, this new and agile model for collaborative innovation is bearing fruit: iCAST has convened a cluster of over 120 cleantech companies and delivered around 40 joint industry projects which have so far led to over £12 million company investment and £18 million of further research projects.
