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Southampton: Innovative Future Town project underway

13 August 2020
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A new Future Towns Innovation Hub is being built at the University of Southampton Science Park where leading academics will collaborate with businesses and the region’s towns to develop low-carbon and sustainable engineering and technology innovations to create happier, healthier, and more prosperous places to live and work.

Enterprise M3 LEP is funding almost £3 million from the government’s Local Growth Fund along with £1.5m from Research England , to support the £14m project, which will focus on addressing challenges of energy efficient housing, water conservation, sustainable transport, carbon neutral waste management and recycling, and improving health outcomes.

Minister for regional growth and local government Simon Clarke said: “We are determined to deliver a green economic recovery and to ensure our towns have the investment they need to innovate and transform their services so they are innovative, efficient and sustainable.

"That is why we are investing £3m in the new Future Towns Innovation Hub, delivering innovative new facilities for University of Southampton Science Park.

"This Hub will help towns, businesses and communities across the country to experience the benefit of the latest cutting-edge research.”

Enterprise M3’s head of policy and strategy Sue Littlemore said: “Our Local Industrial Strategy and Recovery and Renewal Action Plan highlight the importance of ensuring our towns provide a sustainable, vibrant, high quality of life for our businesses, employees and their families.

"The impact of Covid19 lends that vision an extra impetus. The Future Towns Innovation Hub will offer world-leading engineering research excellence from the University of Southampton to business partners and town leaders to offer opportunities and practical solutions to real problems, including some of our greatest environmental challenges.”

Professor Mark Spearing, vice-president of research and enterprise at the University of Southampton said: “This is a very important investment from the University which will maximise the impact of our research related to the environmental and sustainability challenges faced by local towns and their businesses. We look forward to working with businesses throughout our community, helping them find solutions to these challenges and ensure towns in our region and across the UK can meet the demands of the modern world.”

Professor Paul Kemp, the innovation director of the Future Towns Innovation Hub said: “This is an exciting opportunity to apply our research to help towns in the region recover and renew from the economic impact of  the pandemic. Although the Innovation Hub is still under construction, we have already begun to forge working relationships with local authorities and other innovators to start work grasping the opportunities and addressing the challenges our towns and high streets face.”

More information on the Future Towns Innovation Hub can be found at: https://futuretowns.soton.ac.uk/


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