Conservatives pledge to support 'eight great technologies' if they win on 7th May
Resources pledged for robotics and nanotechnology if Conservatives win the election
The Conservative Party has pledged to "direct resources" to "eight great technologies - among them robotics and nanotechnology" if it wins the election on 7th May.
It also pledged support for "the financial technology revolution" and will "continue to invest in science... and make Britain the technology centre of Europe" according to its 83-page manifesto, which was launched today, one day after the opposition Labour Party released its manifesto.
Like the Labour Party, the Conservatives also made pledges for "universal broadband", improving high-speed internet access in rural areas in particular, at a cost of £790m, as well as "better mobile phone connections".
It continues: "We will secure the delivery of superfast broadband in urban and rural areas to provide coverage to 95 per cent of the UK by the end of 2017, and we will ensure no one is left behind by subsidising the cost of installing superfast capable satellite services in the very hardest to reach areas."
The funds for improved broadband in the UK will come from investment in infrastructure of more than £100bn over the course of the next Parliament - £20bn per year - according to the manifesto. This "will give us the most comprehensive and cheapest superfast broadband coverage of any major European country," it claims.
However, later in the manifesto, it suggests that funding for UK-wide "superfast broadband" will come from a continuation of the "top slicing" of the BBC television licence fee.
Doing business
Cameron also pledged the Conservatives to make the UK the "best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas and set up and expand a business". He added: "We aim to be number one in Europe and in the top five worldwide in the World Bank's Doing Business rankings by 2020 and to lead Europe in attracting foreign investment."
However, the manifesto was thin on ideas about how they would achieve all these aspirations.
It did, though, pledge to continue some of the initiatives started in the Conservative-led coalition's first term in office, including research and development tax credits and support for the network of "University Enterprise Zones" so that UK universities would be able to make money from technology they develop.
The manifesto also claimed credit for the introduction of "catapault centres - research and development hubs in the technologies of the future", promising that the Conservatives would "create more to ensure that we have a bold and comprehensive offer in place for Britain's researchers and innovators".
The Conservative Party manifesto also promise reform of the civil services to "make it more dynamic and streamlined", while cutting bureaucracy and ending "taxpayer-funded six-figure payoffs for the best paid public sector workers".
Efficiencies will include co-locating services, where possible; more digital services, particularly for tax self-assessment; and the roll-out of "cross-government technology platforms to cut costs and improve productivity - such as GOV.UK".
Yet despite the support for technology from an economic perspective, the Conservative manifesto also blamed technology for "making it more difficult for the security services to identify terrorist plots" - echoing a theme from the Labour Party manifesto.
One the one hand, the manifesto promised that the Conservatives would "continue to reject any suggestions of sweeping, authoritarian measures that would threaten our hard-won freedoms". However, on the other hand, it pledged the Conservatives to providing the intelligence and security agencies with the powers they need "to keep up safe".
Read the IT highlights of all the major parties' manifestos: