Britain's inventors have received a cash boost aimed at helping the brightest minds in the country remain in the UK.

The move from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport comes as a survey revealed that creative thinkers are seen as little more than eccentrics.

This stereotype means top scientists, engineers and artists struggle to get the respect and financial backing that they would abroad.

The so-called "brain drain" is taking many of our best inventors out of the country and with them their future profits.

To combat this the DCMS has extended it's grant to Nesta, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, by £95 million.

This is on top of a £200 million endowment it received in 1998 to fund the development of the most promising creations.

Nesta research reveals that creative people in the UK do not feel valued by society and are viewed "as eccentric loners or subversives".

They often have difficulty getting mortgages and overdrafts as well as funding for their work.

"We were set up to give UK innovators a fighting chance, investing at the highest point of risk and giving creative individuals the time, space and money to push at the frontiers of their fields," said Nesta chairman, Lord Puttnam.

"Already in our short lifetime we have enabled some 270 people to do just that. But we want to do much more with the new money and help hundreds of other people in achieving their dreams".