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Scotland’s universities will benefit from a £10.15 million investment into adapting and improving their research laboratories as part of an £88 million UK wide scheme. The capital investment will support work on research challenges such as climate change and COVID-19 and will be distributed by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in Scotland. An additional investment of around £1.7M will make similar COVID related adjustments to UK Research Partnership Investment Fund supported projects in Scotland’s universities.
Research labs will receive COVID-safe upgrades, such as changing the layout and equipment to move workstations further apart, installing screens, and improving air-handling and filtering systems.
The UK wide funding will help laboratories continue their vital work, contributing to knowledge, to our health and to our economy through adapting to allow working in a COVID safe manner.
Today’s announcement arises from the £300 million investment in world class research infrastructure announced by the UK Government’s Business Secretary Alok Sharma in July.
Stuart Fancey, Director of Research and Innovation at the SFC said:
“The Climate Crisis and the COVID-19 global pandemic further highlight the importance of investment in Research and Innovation. Scotland’s labs are playing a crucial role at the forefront of research in these and other important areas.
“This funding will enable vital COVID-related upgrades and other modernisation to existing research labs in Scotland. We welcome this investment by UKRI which will enable this essential work to continue throughout the pandemic”
