Venture capital investing is in the midst of a revival and experiencing major changes.  It is certainly creating a different story from its past, based on Wall Street’s new found appetite for venture backed technology companies

Details about incentives to spur companies to innovate and grow, including £75 million of additional funding targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, have been published by the government.

A three-year £180 million programme, to be managed jointly by the Technology Strategy Board and the Medical Research Council, will support some of the UK's leading life science companies and academia, enabling them to move more quickly from discovery to commercialisation.

As the Technology Strategy Board published a directory of Trusted Services research and development projects (Trusted Services Directory), Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, announced that the government’s Identity Assurance programme would receive an extra £10 million in funding (Identity Assurance).

UK companies are being invited to take part in a competition for funding for collaborative research and development projects that aim to develop and stimulate technology within the European Organic and Large Area Electronics (OLAE) community.

Businesses from across the country are being invited to compete for a share of nearly £18 million of new government funding to develop technological innovations that may create growth for the UK.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will announce today that the government plans to invest at least a further £15 million in projects to accelerate the commercialisation of low carbon vehicles.

Over fifty research projects and studies aimed at developing healthier, safer and more nutritious food are to share over £7 million of government investment.

The Technology Strategy Board (www.innovateuk.org) - in collaboration with fellow partners in the Global Food Security Programme, Defra, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Scottish Government - is to invest nearly £16 million in twenty-nine major new collaborative research and development projects that will help to secure the sustainable supply of protein such as meat, fish and animal feed. A sustainable supply of such protein, for consumption by humans and animals, is essential for future food security.

The Technology Strategy Board (www.innovateuk.org) is to run a competition to fund the development and commercialisation of innovative processes that will generate high value chemicals through industrial biotechnology. Up to £2.5m will be invested and applications are invited for both feasibility and collaborative research and development projects.