Complete waste of money26 Jan 2023 09:55
Throwing good money after bad!!
What will £8 million achieve ... nothing. The funding is too little to make a difference, mere state funding for jobs for boys in academia and private companies whose only survival mode is sponging off the tax payer. Nothing will ever materialise that will be translational. They will do just enough to apply for another grant 3 or 4 years years down the line and on and on it will go.
In the meantime, serious players in USA/China/South Korea/Japan backed by serious money will develop the technology which we will all be using few years down the line.
If they are serious about developing this, put serious money (hundreds of millions even billion) the most viable idea be it here or someone else and go for it full throttle. But they won't, they will throw around pennies everywhere to keep everyone happy and as long as its seen as that they are investing in "new technologies" of the future, all is good.