Innovation UK > News > Innovation News > Government's £30m boost for Web Science

 A new £30m government-funded Institute for Web Science aims to boost research into internet technologies and identify new ways to engage the public with the web.

Launching the Institute, prime minister Gordon Brown said: "This Institute will help place the UK at the cutting edge of research on the Semantic Web and other emerging web and internet technologies, and ensure the government is taking the right funding decisions to position the UK as a world leader.?

The Institute will conduct research, collaborate with businesses, identify opportunities for social and economic benefit, assist in commercialising research and help the government stimulate demand through procurement.

"We will invite universities and private sector web developers and companies to join this collaborative project," said the Prime Minister.

Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, will head up the new Institute, together with leading Web Science expert Professor Nigel Shadbolt.

The Institute will also analyse the future of the internet and the role of web 3.0 in business operations in the coming years.

Web 2.0 has enabled users to contribute and create web content more easily. Web 3.0 will take the web to a whole new level by publishing data in a linkable format so that users and developers can see and exploit the relationships between different sets of information.

The development of these technologies will create significant new opportunities for business and the public sector. Their impact is likely to be as important as the creation of the original web, and could generate large-scale economic benefits for the UK in the global market for web and internet technologies.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: ?British innovation brought the web to the world. This Institute will ensure the UK remains at the forefront and that we anticipate and fully exploit the economic and social benefits of future developments.?