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Press Release 3 January 2008 - Research into technologies to integrate and improve energy efficiency of light sources to receive £10m investment

Research and development into the integration and advancement of more energy efficient lighting, lasers and displays is set to be stimulated through a £10 million investment by the Technology Strategy Board.

The Technology Strategy Board has allocated the money to invest in industry-led, highly innovative collaborative research in areas such as lasers, high brightness LEDs (in-organic and/or organic) and displays.

The Technology Strategy Board’s investment will provide partial funding for winning projects in one or more of these areas, and which involve businesses working collaboratively with other businesses and/or with research organisations and academic institutions.

The Advanced Lighting, Lasers and Displays competition – part of the Technology Strategy Board's autumn 2007 call for proposals in a number of innovation and technology areas – will stimulate UK companies to address the challenges of establishing solutions which improve device efficiency while reducing energy consumption or successfully integrating new and existing component technologies to provide physical proofs of principle. The investment will help to accelerate development, bringing the technologies quickly and cost effectively to market.

Explaining the background to the decision to invest in this area, Technology Strategy Board Chief Executive Iain Gray said: “Lighting accounts for up to 20% of the UK’s power. As we move towards a lower carbon economy, and recognise the need for more efficient energy use, developing advanced light sources becomes increasingly important.”

“The Technology Strategy Board is committed to stimulating the development and deployment of technologies which, while contributing to the UK’s climate change goals, also represent major business opportunities for the UK. Advanced light sources are an area where the UK has both an excellent reputation for world-class research activity and a healthy industrial base with the capability to exploit the results globally.”

Projects are invited that will result in improvements in the overall efficiency with which light is generated, across a range of applications from solid-state lighting through brighter displays to laser systems. Projects that demonstrate system level improvements in light generation/extraction techniques are particularly welcomed in the following areas;

• Electronic, packaging and optical coupling techniques to enable reliable, sustainable, cost-effective, high-brightness, quality, high-efficiency organic and/or inorganic, general and task lighting systems as well as mood lighting, indicator lighting and display lighting systems.
• Research, development and design of advanced diode and non-diode laser systems such as solid-state and fibre lasers, and their innovative use in healthcare, manufacturing and other applications.
• Integration of component technologies to provide physical proofs of principle and demonstrations of practicality. Proposals could involve advances in thermal/power management, packaging technologies, improved optical extraction technologies, driver integration or other techniques.

Applicants must register their intention to apply for funding, and submit an outline of their proposal, by 22 February 2008 and the final closing date for applications is 27 March 2008. Further information is available at www.technologyprogramme.org.uk

Notes to Editors

To arrange an interview about this competition with a senior technologist at the Technology Strategy Board please contact the Board’s media relations manager (see below).

The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the government. Its mission is to promote and support research into, and development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic growth and improve the quality of life. It is sponsored by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).

The Technology Strategy Board's Collaborative Research and Development Programme is investing directly in new and emerging technologies and has been designed to help businesses work with each other or with academic partners to develop technologies that will underpin products and services of the future. Since 2004, the programme has supported about 700 projects across 40 technology areas with a combined business and government investment worth over £1 billion.

On 8 November 2007 the Technology Strategy Board announced a new competition for proposals for collaborative research and development, representing a Government investment of around £100 million. The competition is designed to generate innovative proposals in which the business and research communities collaborate on research and technology projects to deliver successful new products and services. Submissions have been invited in eight technology areas: Cell Therapy, Material for Energy and High Value Manufacturing (opened 8 November 2007), Low Carbon Energy Technologies, Advanced Lighting, Lasers & Displays and Technologies for Health (opened 19 December 2007), Gathering Data in Complex Environments and Creative Industries (opening 30 January 2008).

For further information about the Technology Strategy Board please visit www.innovateuk.org

Issued by

Nick Sheppard
Media Relations Manager
Technology Strategy Board
Block B, North Star House
North Star Avenue
Swindon
SN2 1JF

Switch: +44 (0)1793 442700
Direct: +44 (0)1793 442772
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E-mail: nick.sheppard@tsb.gov.uk