To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2022 to Question 119564 on Carbon Emissions: Research; if he will publish details of the open competition referred to; whether the research programmes will be regionally targeted; and how much and what proportion of the £75 million for Net Zero-related R&D will be spent on (a) offshore wind and (b) advanced manufacturing.
Answered on
7 March 2022
This budget is for the future financial years and contracts for that expenditure have not been placed at this time. We will follow Defra procurement policy and best practice in determining the optimum route to delivering the requirement, which could include the approach to potential suppliers. Open opportunities, where applicable, and resulting contracts will be published on Contracts Finder.
Currently £51.9 million of the overall budget has been allocated internally to specific programmes in advance of procurement. The remainder is reserved for emerging priorities, and collaborations with other Government departments and research bodies, which will be allocated over the course of the Spending Review period. From this initial allocation £3.5 million is allocated to enabling offshore wind and marine spatial prioritisation. No budget is currently allocated to advanced manufacturing.