Leeds and Sheffield universities to benefit from £126m '˜cutting-edge' research fund

The Government has awarded £126m from the pot of money to the Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, which has hubs at both Yorkshire universities.

The money will be used to fund research into graphene – an ultra-light but incredibly tough and flexible material that scientists claim is set to “revolutionise” almost every part of everyday life.

Announcing the fund, Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Greg Clark said he hoped it would support growth and training “across a range of sectors” while encouraging closer collaboration “between industry, academia and government.

“Research and development has a proven track record of making our economy more competitive and creating new products, services and better ways of doing business,” he added.

“For these reasons, we’ve placed the UK’s strengths in science, research and innovation at the core of our modern Industrial Strategy.”

The Rosalind Franklin Institute, which is based at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Cambridge, will also receive £103m from the fund to establish a new national centre of excellence for life and physical sciences.