Funding boost for rural IT jobs

13:10 30th April 2009

New IT jobs could be created in rural parts of the country following a £12 million investment in a research programme.

The University of Aberdeen has been awarded the money as part of an effort to boost rural access to IT facilities and to look into how digital technology can be used to help remote communities throughout the UK.

"Untapped economic potential in rural areas is of crucial significance," explained John Farrington, of the University of Aberdeen's school of geosciences.

He added: "Digital technology has a key role to play in realising this potential."

It is hoped the new research programme will help create new IT jobs in rural areas by focussing on the ways in which remote communities can best benefit from increased access to high-speed broadband and other internet services.

Communications minister Lord Carter has recently suggested it could be too expensive for superfast broadband technology to be rolled out to some rural parts of Britain, which could restrict their ability to create new IT jobs in the future.

While the government has committed itself to ensuring every home and business is hooked up to 2Mbps broadband speeds by 2012, Lord Carter has suggested many rural communities will not get access to the faster speeds already enjoyed by some parts of the country.