The Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (www.nda.gov.uk) is to give £500,000 to Innovate UK’s £1.5 million Energy Game Changer fund, which aims to encourage smaller businesses to find new ways of solving some of the energy industry’s technical challenges.

The allocation of funding will take place through a competitive process led by Innovate UK, with SMEs welcome to submit stand-alone project ideas or to work collaboratively with partner organisations of any size.

Melanie Brownridge, head of technology at Innovate UK, said: “The UK is home to a number of world-leading companies in a wide range of cutting-edge fields such as robotics and computer gaming. We want to harness this dynamic and creative thinking in order to address some of the long-term challenges that the nuclear decommissioning industry faces.

“Innovative solutions can mean that our decommissioning work is achieved more safely, sooner and at a lower cost for the taxpayer. We want to stimulate the development and adoption of novel and emerging technologies, to improve the way we do things. We believe that game-changing technologies can solve a number of existing problems, either
by the development of completely new ideas or through technology transfer from other sectors.

"For example, could we adopt virtual-reality techniques from the computer-game industry to help us work remotely in hazardous environments? We would like to encourage people working elsewhere — in industries such as defence, aerospace, automotive and telecommunications — to grasp this opportunity to consider how their techniques can be applied to our important field of work.”

The competitive process opens on 28 March, and the deadline for registration is noon on 4 May. More information is available via e-mail () or by phone (0300 321 4357).