Cardiff, 26 June 2020: The UK Government has today announced the first wave of funding through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund in which a major £43.74M project with South Wales’ compound semiconductor cluster has been approved and will be supported by £25.44M funding from Strength in Places.

The project “CSconnected” is based around integrating research excellence with the unique regional supply chains in advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Compound semiconductors are critical components across a wide range of new technologies and the primary aim of the CSconnected project is to develop a competitive advantage in key enabling technologies which will allow the UK to increase trade globally in critical sectors such as communications, 5G, autonomous and electric vehicles, medical devices – all opportunities the UK must act on to secure our long-term future prosperity.

The project partners include:

• Cardiff University (lead partner)
• Cardiff Capital Region City Deal;
• Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult;
• Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC);
• IQE Plc;
• Microchip Technology Caldicot Ltd;
• MicroLink Devices UK Ltd
• Newport Wafer Fab (NWF);
• Rockley Photonics;
• Swansea University;
• SPTS Technologies; and
• Welsh Government;

Activities to be coordinated by CSconnected Limited.

Dr Wyn Meredith, CSC and lead author of the SIPF application commented:

“Today’s announcement is excellent news for Wales and the UK, providing a unique opportunity to harness the excellent research and innovation capabilities in a way that translates into world-class UK based manufacturing for new and emerging global technology markets“.

CONTACT

CSconnected: Chris Meadows [email protected]

Cardiff University (Lead partner for CSconnected programme): [email protected]

ABOUT CSCONNECTED

CSconnected represents the world’s first global centre of excellence for Compound Semiconductors, a unique eco-system of high technology capability leading the way in applied research, advanced applications, collaborative innovation putting Wales and the UK at the forefront of new and emerging material and device to market.

CSconnected is a cluster of academic institutions, innovation organisations and industrial partners collaborating to providing thought leadership and expertise to foster and promote the role of Compound Semiconductors as a key enabling technology.

Visit www.csconnected.com to learn more, and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

ABOUT UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

UK Research and Innovation works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish. We aim to maximise the contribution of each of our component parts, working individually and collectively. We work with our many partners to benefit everyone through knowledge, talent and ideas.

Operating across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of more than £7 billion, UK Research and Innovation brings together the seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England. www.ukri.org

ABOUT STRENGTH IN PLACES FUND

Led by UK Research and Innovation, Strength in Places Fund (SIPF) is a competitive funding scheme that takes a place-based approach to research and innovation funding, to support significant local economic growth.