MORE than £3 million in funding is being made available to bring the latest cutting-edge technology to Hampshire.

Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has made the announcement to help take forward two of the key recommendations in the Science and Innovation Audit (SIA) for Southern England region – known as Innovation South.

The two projects - Knowledge-to-Market Accelerator and Quantum Supply Chain Initiative - are seeking funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to ensure the region is ready to take advantage of the commercial opportunities of new technologies.

This will involve partnerships between organisations engaged in the procurement and development of digital enabling technologies, universities with a track record of commercialising research, and the region’s network of Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Dr Mike Short CBE, who chairs both Enterprise M3 LEP and Innovation South’s strategic steering group said: “We are pleased to see these ERDF calls related to the Science and Innovation Audit.

“This is great news for the Innovation South economic area, which has been established as a backbone of UK’s digital economy and a global powerhouse of research and innovations across a range of industrial sectors. These funding opportunities will no doubt, reinforce the region’s capacity to support UK’s global competitiveness.”

With the funding the aim is for a collaboration between business, and academia to maximise the commercial application of digital enabling technologies. It will also ensure that Innovation South is among global leaders in innovation across the digital, marine, health and life science, as well as advanced engineering sectors.

It is hoped that the EU funding made available will to help move research ideas into viable commercial ventures across the south of England.

For more details about the funding and its uses, go to enterprisem3.org.uk/innovation-south-sia.