Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.), the engine manufacturer, is set to team up with Qatar to develop a £4 billion university-style facility focused on green energy research and development, according to the Times.
Providing the Qatar Foundation, the country’s not-for-profit organisation, with technical expertise, Rolls-Royce will help bring to fruition what is being dubbed the “MIT for UK energy transition”.
Of the £4 billion being invested, £1.5 billion will be pumped into a fund focused on the development of new green energy ideas, with the hope of unearthing the next renewable unicorn company.
“The purpose is to scale up these projects to the level where they can be floated here in the UK, rather than losing our best ideas overseas at their early stage,” said one project leader.
Britain has struggled in recent years to keep start-ups in the UK, with a whole host of tech companies moving to the US for funding but the soon-to-be-announced fund follows a string of wins for Britain, with several car manufacturers over the last weeks choosing the country to produce new generations of their electric vehicles.
Committing to funding the project for the next 20 years, the Qatar Foundation will now decide on a site for the facility, with the ‘Golden Triangle’ – London, Cambridge, and Oxford – being considered.
“It will be a globally iconic building with considerable facilities around it — laboratories, conference centres and event spaces,” revealed one source.
White City in West London and the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire are both strong candidates after the initial plans to build the facility in the North or Southwest were scrapped.
Rolls-Royce, with shares up 1.5% on Monday, said it would not be committing any capital to the project.