The UK Government has announced the first wave of funding through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund in which a major £43.74M project with South Wales’ compound semiconductor cluster has been approved and will be supported by £25.44M funding from Strength in Places.

The project “CSConnected” is based around integrating research excellence with the unique regional supply chains in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

Compound semiconductors are critical components across a wide range of new technologies and the primary aim of the CSconnected project is to develop a competitive advantage in key enabling technologies which will allow the UK to increase trade globally in critical sectors such as communications, 5G, autonomous and electric vehicles, medical devices—all opportunities the UK must act on to secure our long-term future prosperity. 

The twelve project partners include:

Cardiff University (lead partner) 
Cardiff Capital Region City Deal
Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult 
Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC)
IQE Plc
MicroLink Devices UK Ltd
Newport Wafer Fab (NWF)
Rockley Photonics
Swansea University 
SPTS Technologies
Welsh Government 

Activities to be coordinated by CSconnected Limited.

Dr. Wyn Meredith, CSC and lead author of the SIPF application commented, “Today’s announcement is excellent news for Wales and the UK, providing a unique opportunity to harness the excellent research and innovation capabilities in a way that translates into world-class UK based manufacturing for new and emerging global technology markets."