UK Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a series of initiatives designed to support the UK tech and innovation sector. His comments came as he joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hanover to open IT business trade fair CeBIT 2014.

His speech set out how the UK and Germany should partner to lead the next digital revolution. According to the Prime Minister, strengthening the innovation sector will help to create a new wave of jobs and provide a more financially secure future for Britain, for hard-working people and their families.

He said it was the government’s ambition to make the UK the most digital nation in the G8 and his mission to show the world that it was getting there.

He set out three specific areas where the UK wants to work with Germany:
1.    5G – faster Internet quick enough to download a full length feature film in less than a second.
2.    Internet of Things – getting everyday objects talking to one another to simplify daily life.
3.    Strengthening the EU’s digital single market.

He also unveiled a package of measures to achieve this, including:
•    £45 million funding for research in areas linked to the ‘Internet of Things’, taking total pot available to £73 million
•    a new spectrum strategy that aims to double the economic benefits of spectrum to £100 billion by 2025
•    a new ‘innovation one stop shop’ within UKTI for securing science and innovation investment from large international funds and corporate companies
•    review by government’s Chief Scientific Advisor to identify how the UK can exploit potential in this area
•    £1 million ‘European Internet of Things’ grant fund to support companies who want to exploit these new opportunities
•    new collaboration to develop 5G between the University of Dresden, King’s College University in London and the University of Surrey

Further details of the government’s spectrum strategy will be revealed March 10th.

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