§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much his Department provided for research and development on civil aerospace in each of the last five years; and if he will make it his policy to increase the amount provided. [62373]
§ Mr. BattleThe information on CARAD and launch investment refers to support for civil aeronautics and excludes support to the space industry.
Funding provided for civil aeronautics through the Civil Aircraft Research and Technology Demonstration (CARAD) Programme during each of the five years FY1993–94 to FY 1997–98 was:
£k 1993–94 23,040 1994–95 23,358 1995–96 24,538 1996–97 23,844 1997–98 24,635 As far as CARAD is concerned, no decisions have yet been made about detailed DTI budget allocations in future years.
68WSupport is provided by the Government for development of civil aerospace projects in the form of a repayable risk-sharing investment known as launch investment. For the period requested this funding was:
£ million 1993–94 0.0 1994–95 0.0 1995–96 16.4 1996–97 1.3 1997–98 50.0 Applications for launch investment are considered on their merits and against other competing demands on public expenditure.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) also invests in aerospace related research. Over the last five years £12.5 million has been targeted through the industrially led Innovative Manufacture Initiative (IMI) Aerospace Programme.
£ million 1993–94 0.0 1994–95 0.0 1995–96 5.8 1996–97 2.7 1997–98 3.5 Note:
Forecast outturn for IMI in 1998–99 is £2.5 million and another £2.5 million has been committed to this programme for 1999–2000.
More broadly, EPSRC has funded £87 million (including funding for inter-disciplinary research centres and an engineering design centre) over the last five years in research related to manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft and their components. In addition, underpinning research amounting to £7.3 million currently exists for aerodynamics.
Further opportunities for support of civil aerospace research and development exist in the recently launched managed programmes on Systems Integration, Materials Processing and Integrated Design and Manufacture with annual budgets of £4.5 million, £6 million and £1.5 million respectively.
Finally, EPSRC expects to consider funding proposals arising under Defence and Aerospace Research Partnerships (DARPs), a recent initiative launched by the Defence, Aerospace and Systems Panel.