The UK government has announced £20 million of funding for regions across England and Wales to support local innovation ecosystems and the development of technologies including AI, autonomous systems and clean energy.

The investment comes from the £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund and is intended to speed up the development and commercialisation of emerging technologies by backing regional clusters.

Under the latest round of funding, the South West will receive support to develop autonomous technologies such as drones operating on land, sea and air. The Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor will focus on combining work on autonomous vehicles, high-performance engineering and space technology to move innovations from testing into real-world use.

Greater Lincolnshire will receive support to develop applications that combine agri-tech and defence technologies, with the aim of turning research into commercial products.

Two connected clusters in South-West Wales will target energy security and materials security, including scaling offshore wind, hydrogen and critical materials processing.

In the East Midlands, funding will support manufacturers working on clean energy and advanced production technologies, including new testing facilities and commercialisation support to help smaller firms work with global manufacturers.

The government said the investment is intended to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies, including AI-enabled systems, by strengthening collaboration between local authorities, businesses and research institutions.

Local partners will also work with UK Research and Innovation on projects aligned to regional strengths. The initiatives are expected to support collaborative R&D, attract specialist talent and speed up the move from prototypes to market-ready technologies.

Science and technology secretary Liz Kendall said the programme backs innovation “in everything from defence to AI and clean energy to space tech” and aims to “help create jobs and growth from Teesside to Cornwall”.

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