Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he plans to take to maintain excellence in scientific research and development in the Midlothian constituency.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) supports the Roslin Institute and is committed to its future through Institute Strategic Programme Grants and Core Funding. The current funding plan involves support of £8.02m in financial year 15/16 and £8.04m in financial year 16/17. BBSRC also supports the Easter Bush Campus and made an investment for major capital works of £2.75m in financial year 12/13, which contributed towards the development of an avian research facility.

Further to this, the BBSRC has invested £5m alongside the Scottish Government and Edinburgh University in order to develop a new innovation hub on the campus. This builds on BBSRC’s previous significant capital investment which enabled the Roslin Institute to move into new purpose built buildings in June 2011.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Higgs Centre for Innovation, currently under construction at the UKATC, is a £12.7 million investment in a state-of-the-art facility. It will house business incubation facilities, employing 30-40 people in high-tech, start-up companies and providing direct links with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Harwell Campus.

Institutions in Midlothian and across Scotland are eligible to apply for grants from all seven of the UK Research Councils, which are awarded to support excellent research driven by both researcher curiosity (responsive mode grants) and strategic priorities (managed mode grants).