The Technology Strategy Board, Welsh Government and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will jointly invest up to £5.4 million in R&D and knowledge exchange projects to help stimulate innovation and develop UK supply chains in the power electronics and energy sectors.
The TSB will make £4.4 million available in grant funding to support collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects and feasibility studies to help innovative UK businesses that are interested in building up capability and new supply chains in power electronics, a field that covers the control and conversion of power.
The funding will support a range of activities, including pre-industrial technical feasibility studies focusing on early stage concepts and CR&D projects where businesses can work together, and with the research base, on ideas with high growth potential.
Cross-cutting applications are encouraged from businesses working in different areas such as transport, the built environment, materials and ICT that may have technologies or ideas that could be transferred into the energy sector with the common ground of power electronics.
A further £1 million will also be made available from the Technology Strategy Board, Welsh Government and the EPSRC for up to 12 projects through thematic Knowledge Transfer Partnerships that will look to embed innovation and transfer knowledge from academia to industry.
The competitions open on 4 February 2013.
