Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of science and innovation on job creation in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Science and innovation are vital to our mission to kickstart economic growth and create jobs in every part of the country.

For example, Research England invested £5 million into the HyDEX programme, which Keele University leads on behalf of the Midlands-based Energy Research Accelerator. This is helping build a Midlands hydrogen economy by working with established national businesses and accelerating local SMEs’ work.

Through the Strength in Places Fund, UKRI invested £18.3 million in the “Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0” programme led by Staffordshire company Lucideon. This led the Applied Materials Research, Innovation, & Commercialisation Company to be established.