Daresbury to benefit from science investment

THE £235m advanced materials centre for Manchester was not the only major science investment from the Autumn Statement.

The North West will also benefit from investment in a £113m Cognitive Computing Research Centre at the Hartree Centre, Daresbury.

This has been described as a “major partnership with IBM” which will enable non-computer scientists to gain useful insights from big data.

And there will be a £31m investment into Energy Security and Innovation which will be spread across two test centres, including one at Shell Thornton near Chester.

The Autumn Statement also confirmed a £60m investment in extending the capabilities of the National Nuclear Users Facility (NNUF), which supports nuclear research. The NNUF includes facilities at the Central Laboratory of the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) in Cumbria, the Dalton Cumbrian Facility, which is part of The University of Manchester, and the universities of Lancaster and Liverpool.

The Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials Science will be based in Manchester with branches in Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield.

The idea came about after academics responded to the Chancellor’s challenge for Northern universities to propose a “Crick of the North” when he delivered his “Northern Powerhouse” speech in Manchester in June. The Crick Institute is a £700m centre in London for life science research that opens next year.