Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the £100 million funding for Direct Air Capture R&D announced in the Plan for Jobs is part of the £22 billion R&D funding announced in Budget 2020; and who will be responsible for distributing that funding.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced up to £100 million for new research and development of Direct Air Capture on June 30^th. Part of this will be funded through the more than £1bn announced in Budget 2020 by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer for Net Zero Innovation to stimulate commercial activity in this essential technology. As with the current £505 million Energy Innovation Portfolio, this will be distributed by BEIS. The other part will be distributed by UKRI under its Strategic Priorities Fund, to accelerate innovation by universities.

The new funding is part of the Government’s ambitious plans to increase public research and development (R&D) investment to £22 billion per year by 2024 to 2025 announced in Budget 2020. Later this year, the Spending Review will provide the opportunity for the government to set out further detail on the long-term priorities for R&D investment as part of those plans.