Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made on the Great Challenges programme; and what recent steps the Government has taken to support that programme.

Good progress has been made in relation to the Grand Challenges Fund, with approved business cases enabling numerous projects to start. For example the Hartree Centre at Daresbury, a ground-breaking collaboration between IBM and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, has leveraged in £200m of IBM investment to work on data centric and cognitive computing.

All projects forming part of the Grand Challenges Fund were announced subject to detailed business cases in accordance with published HM Treasury requirements. All projects falling within the fund are receiving support from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Research Councils.