Plastic electronics is one of the early beneficiaries are the coalition government’s plans for the high tech sector.
An £8.4m investment is being aimed at local R&D for rollable electronic displays, lighting and solar cells.
The investment was announced today by the Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, during a speech to the Tomorrow’s Giants conference in London.
Thirteen projects, involving more than 30 industrial and academic partners, will benefit from the funding allocated as a result of two competitions run by the government-backed Technology Strategy Board.
“The funding I’ve announced today is important in supporting UK businesses to be world leaders in one of the key industries of the future. Commercially exploiting the outputs of the UK’s world-leading science and research base has a vital role to play in helping our economy to grow,” said Willetts.
According to Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, the UK is “among the world’s leading players in plastic electronics, and the opportunities to be a major part of a whole new manufacturing sector are very real.”
Willetts estimated the global market for plastic electronics as being worth almost $2bn (£1.337bn) and it is forecast to grow to as much as $120bn (£80.19bn) by 2020.
£7.4m has been offered to eight projects to help build the supply chain and to overcome the barriers to UK exploitation of plastic electronics technology, including over £800,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
A further £1m has been offered by the Technology Strategy Board to five projects to encourage UK businesses to use plastic electronics in their product development by producing demonstrators with potential for real commercial value.