Grids and anti-terror bio-sensors get funding boost

Grid computing in healthcare and anti-terrorist bio-sensors are some of the innovative projects taking part in a £90million government funding programme.

They are among the 160 successful entrants to the Department of Trade and Industry's Technology Programme competition, which aims to boost companies developing "exciting" technology with long-term applications.

Science and innovation minister Lord Sainsbury said in a statement: "The projects are at the cutting edge and are helping to make the UK the best place in the world for science and innovation."

The funding was divided into eight technology areas: design, micro and nanotechnology; pervasive computing; waste management and minimisation; smart materials; bio-based industrial products resources; energy technologies; imaging technologies; and opto-electronic and disruptive electronic technologies.

Technologies include optical bio-sensors developed by the University of London to help with the potential threat of bio-terrorism to water security. They are maintenance-free, highly sensitive, have a rapid response time and are portable and easy to use.

The DTI is contributing £10m of the funding to "inter-enterprise computing" projects. Projects range in size from £1.5m up to £4.4m with between four and 11 collaborators in each consortia.

DTI funding for each project ranges from £750,000 to £2.1m. Projects include the eHealthcare@Home project, which aims to integrate patient monitoring systems with analysis of this information via grid infrastructure, and an Oxford University Computing Laboratory project to build a secure grid for healthcare research.