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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund of £4.7 billion, recently allocated to the Research Councils, they estimate will go to the cultural and creative industries; and what proportion of the first round of spending will be allocated to the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

We are increasing research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. As part of this, the new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) will help capitalise on our strengths in science and innovation.

In the 2017 Budget we announced an initial investment of £270 million in 2017-18 for the ISCF to kick start the development of disruptive technologies which have the potential to transform the UK economy. The first wave of investments will include funding challenges to develop batteries to power the next generation of electric vehicles, robotics systems for hazardous environments, and new medicine manufacturing technologies.

Details of further ICSF investments for 2017-18 will follow in due course.