Autumn Statement: Britain to take 'lead role' in next mission to Mars
BRITAIN will take "the lead role" in the next mission to seek signs of life on Mars.
In 2018 a rover will be launched to further explore Mars
A £95 million cash injection will help the European Space Agency – which sent the Rosetta probe to land on a comet – launch a rover in 2018 to explore the Red Planet.
Another £9 million will help develop driverless cars, with Bristol, Coventry, Milton Keynes and Greenwich in London yesterday named as the places to test them.
Other allocations include £20 million for Newcastle University's research into ageing, and £325 million for a new Sir Henry Royce Institute - named for the luxury car co-founder - for "advanced materials science".
Based at Manchester University with branches in Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Oxford, Cambridge and London, it aims to turn groundbreaking UK discoveries into world-beating products.
Also to boost research, post-graduate students taking masters degrees will for the first time qualify for Government-backed student loans of up to £10,000, from 2016.
Repayable at nine per cent interest once the person earns more than £21,000 a year, they are expected to boost postgraduate numbers by 10,000 to 40,000 by helping those who could otherwise not afford to do the extra study.