T H E U K S T R A T E G I C I N V E S T M E N T F U N D – I N T E R I M R E P O R T
Box A : Industrial Biotechnology Demonstrator
The £ 12 million investment is building on existing facilities in the North East which have already provided support to businesses from across the UK since 2007 . Industrial biotechnology ( IB ) is not a true sector , as it is technology based and as such that technology can be applied across sectors . The UK has significant strengths in IB development , with key operations spread across the UK . Demand for the new facility indicates that it will benefit the industry by providing access to new facilities and expertise to IB companies as well as companies from the chemicals and chemistry-using sectors . Considerable interest has already been expressed from a range of IB companies as well as companies operating in the chemicals and chemistry-using sectors , located across the whole of the UK . These include pharmaceuticals , personal care , coatings , food processing and beverage companies , as well as businesses operating in other sectors such as energy , automotive and aerospace , and have an aggregate output of some £ 1150 billion and an added value of over £ 550 billion .
Box B : Airbus Launch investment
In August 2009 , Government announced agreement to provide £ 340 million of repayable launch investment to Airbus for the development of the A350 XWB .
The support , drawn partially from the SIF , will ensure the UK plays a leading role in the development of the A350 XWB , with world leading capability in wing , landing gear and fuel integration systems technologies .
This Airbus investment builds on HMG ’ s track record of support for earlier Airbus programmes , such as the A380 in which we invested £ 530 million from 2000 . In total , since 1997 HMG has provided around £ 1.5 billion of support for strategically important civil aerospace programmes and received repayments to date of £ 1.7 billion .
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