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<p>We are investing in new scientific infrastructure on a record scale by delivering
on the £6.9 billion science capital commitment in our manifesto, and at Autumn Statement
2016 we announced that we will make the UK the global go-to nation for scientists,
innovators and tech investors, by investing an extra £2 billion a year in R&D
by the end of this Parliament.</p><p>As part of this, there will be a new Industrial
Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) to back priority technologies - such as robotics and
biotechnology - where the UK has the potential to turn strengths in research into
a global industrial and commercial lead.</p><p>Examples of Government investment in
the technology sector in the three cities in question are set out below.</p><p>In
Greater Manchester, the Citylabs development is a flagship redevelopment of Manchester’s
former Royal Eye Hospital into 94,000 sq ft of bespoke-built biomedical facilities.
Located on Oxford Road, it sits within Europe’s largest clinical and academic campus,
made up of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University
of Manchester. Citylabs opened in September 2014 and is the first phase of a health
innovation campus. The second phase will include a private hospital and health/well-being
centre. The Citylabs project received just under £1million ERDF for enabling works
and £3.75million ERDF for the main works.</p><p>In Birmingham, Growth Deal funding
will be used to create a Virtual Reality and Robotics Development Centre, developing
the skills required to create and work within virtual reality environments, as well
as the programming languages used in robotics. Growth Deal funding has also supported
an extension of the incubator building at the Innovation Birmingham Campus providing
an state of the art enterprise space enabling local universities to collaborate with
business start-ups, many of which work in the technology sector.</p><p>In Edinburgh,
the EPSRC has funded The Li-Fi R&D Centre, which conducts internationally leading
research in collaboration with, and on behalf of industry. It aims to accelerate society’s
adoption of Li-Fi and emerging wireless technology through engagement with major industrial
partners, to fully harness the commercial and innovative potential of Li-Fi, and to
help establish a major new £5 billion ($8.5 billion) Li-Fi industry by 2018.</p>
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