Science starts to share in £600m pot David Willetts will on Thursday start dishing out some of the £600m of capital investment earmarked for the science sector last year, as the universities and science minister announces an £85m pot to advance research in new technologies. The additional capital funding will be divided up between advanced materials, energy storage and robotics as the government looks to support research into breakthrough technologies to boost the aerospace, automotive and renewable energy sectors. The science sector is in a sweet spot with George Osborne, having won £600m of the extra £5bn of capital investment in infrastructure awarded by the chancellor in the December Autumn Statement. It was the biggest single announcement of new research spending since the coalition government came to power Mr Willetts is now pushing for the science budget to remain ringfenced in the current public spending round, as ministers try to find an extra £10bn of departmental cuts for the election year, 2015-16. The business department needs to shave a further £1.2bn-£1.5bn from its £21bn budget, having already found £4bn of savings as part of the coalition's initial spending review. Vince Cable, the business secretary, and Mr Willetts managed to get the £4.6bn science budget protected in the 2010 spending review and are hopeful they can achieve this once more when Mr Osborne concludes the one-year spending review in June. One senior government insider said on Wednesday that a cut to science funding just ahead of the election would send a negative signal to businesses investing in research and development in the UK. Of the £85m of funding announced on Thursday, £30m will be spent on advanced materials research to aid manufacturing and other industries, while another £30m going to energy storage. Facilities will be created to develop and test "grid scale" storage technologies, the equivalent of gigantic batteries that can store energy generated by intermittent renewable sources such as wind. The remaining £25m will be spent on robotics and autonomous systems. Mr Willetts said the funding would help keep the UK "at the forefront of science and innovation" and help "secure the UK's high-tech future."