A film-maker hopes to show people the Northern Lights in three dimensions for the first time in human history.

Brian McClave, from Hove, was yesterday named one of the lucky few to be awarded Government cash in a scheme to prevent British innovation from disappearing overseas.

The father-of-two, from Denmark Villas, will travel to the Arctic Circle in a bid to film the aurora borealis in a way it has never been seen before.

His ideas became reality as the Government announced a £95 million cash injection to stem the brain drain in science, technology and the arts as a survey revealed creative people in the UK are seen as little more than eccentrics.

The money went to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta), which announced grants for 20 projects ranging from the development of intelligent robots to an online psychological counselling service.

Nesta awarded Mr McClave, 36, and project partner George Millward £79,600.

Mr McClave said: "We are probably going to go to a particular part of Finland which is very flat and suited to our purposes.

"We realised no human being has ever seen the aurora borealis in 3D. It starts 100 miles up in the sky, which is far too far away for the human eye so we perceive it as being flat."

The Northern Lights are a natural electrical phenomenon characterised by the appearance of streamers of reddish or greenish light in the sky near the North Pole.