To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 176 of the Levelling Up the United Kingdom White Paper, what steps his Department is taking to welcome Regional Defence and Security Clusters in (a) all regions of England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland by 2023; and what proportion of the funding for those clusters will be spent on Research and Development.
Answered on
15 February 2022
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is supporting industry and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in piloting a network of new Regional Defence and Security Clusters (RDSCs). Discussions are at a variety of stages of development with all regions of England, Scotland and Wales, and an initial approach has also recently been made to Northern Ireland, via Invest Northern Ireland.
Following the successful launch of the first pilot in the South West of England the creation of further Regional Defence and Security Clusters (RDSCs) has been led by the individual regions. MOD has supported and facilitated this approach and deliberately not attempted to lead this activity in order to encourage regional growth without sole dependency on MOD opportunities.
These clusters, which may be physical or virtual, will allow industry and government to share ideas, promoting collaboration and commercialisation. They are intended to develop innovative regional industrial capabilities to contribute to UK military capability by creating collaborative pathways for SMEs as a route into the Defence supply chain.
The MOD does not plan to fund RDSCs directly but will offer access to funded competitive opportunities via the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Open Call for Innovation and Themed Competitions. Since DASA’s launch in 2016, it has agreed funding worth more than £170million for innovative ideas that could benefit Defence and Security. RDSCs will also be able to access other routes to funding supporting the regions such as the Defence Technology Exploitation Programme.
In addition, RDSCs will be able to take advantage of the DASA Regional Partnerships (RP) Fund (£3.1million over four years) that aims to promote growth by targeting regional innovators. It seeks to leverage regional-based equity by mandating that 100% DASA RP funding for technology development is supported by regional investment to build the business.