Engineering news
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has announced a £20 million investment in two manufacturing research hubs that will address major, long-term challenges facing the UK’s manufacturing industries, such as the challenges in commercialising early stage research.
The hubs will be based at the University of Southampton and Brunel University in London and will work in collaboration with academics at universities across the country. They will be funded for the next seven years by the ESPRC.
EPSRC’s £20 million investment will be enhanced by £14 million from the universities and a further £58 million from industry.
Jo Johnson, minister for science, said: “From cars to smartphones our world-leading research drives innovation and growth in the UK’s manufacturing industries. With this £92 million investment, these new manufacturing hubs will develop the next generation of high tech products in communications and healthcare, as well as tackle industry challenges such as rising materials costs.”
One of the two hubs, The EPSRC Manufacturing Hub in Future Liquid Metal Engineering, will be led by Professor Zhongyun Fan at Brunel University.
The UK metal casting industry adds £2.6 billion per year to the UK economy and employs 30,000 people however, the hub hopes to address challenges facing the industry, including increasing energy and materials costs, tightening environmental regulations and a short supply of skilled people.
The core hub activities will be based at Brunel strongly supported by the academic spokes at Oxford, Leeds, Manchester and Imperial College London with over £45 million investment from industrial partners in addition to the £10 million invested by EPSRC.
The hub will be a 'technology proving ground' initially focusing on the automotive industry and its supply chain, and then the wider transportation industry. It aims to shorten lead times from technology concept to industrial production, create recycling-friendly advanced metallic materials at reduced costs and improved sustainability due to reduced CO2 emissions.
The EPSRC National Hub in High Value Photonic Manufacturing will be led by Professor Sir David Payne at the University of Southampton.
It will work to underpin growth of the UK’s £10 billion photonics industry and support the £600 billion of UK manufacturing output that depends on photonics. It will improve existing manufacturing processes for production of photonics components, supply prototype components and sub-systems to their designs and be a 'one-stop-shop' for trialling user ideas and developing new manufacturing processes that will enable rapid commercialisation of emerging photonics technologies.
So far, 37 companies have promised a total of £12.5 million support across the UK throughout the value chain in markets that include security, communications, space, semiconductor manufacturing and healthcare.
EPSRC said that the hub will also have a “critical role in defence and security where sovereign capability in photonics manufacturing is of vital importance to the nation”.
Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s chief executive, said: “These two new manufacturing hubs will help manufacturing industries respond to the opportunities and drivers in the sector.”
Nelson said that he expects similar projects will follow after a recent call by the ESPRC for proposals for further hubs. He added: “We are confident universities and industry collaborators will embrace this new opportunity to invest in the future of UK manufacturing through research.”