Manufacturing research Hubs aim to boost commercialisation of early stage research
Cars built almost entirely from recycled metals and new manufacturing processes for emerging optoelectronics technologies are just some of the targets of two £10m research centres being created in the UK.
The two new manufacturing research hubs, designed to tackle some of the long-term challenges facing industry, are being established with £20m funding from the EPSRC.
The hubs, which will be based at Southampton and Brunel Universities, will also be backed by an additional £58m from industry.
The new EPSRC Manufacturing Hub in Future Liquid Metal Engineering at Brunel University, for example, which will be led by Prof Zhongyun Fan, will focus on challenges in the metallic materials industry. These include increasing energy and materials costs, tightening environmental regulations and skills shortages.
The hub, which will be supported by researchers at Oxford, Leeds, Manchester and Imperial College, will initially focus on the automotive industry, and later the wider transportation sector.
It will act as a technology proving ground and help to shorten lead times from concept to industrial production, according to Dr Robert Felstead, senior manager for manufacturing in the Manufacturing the Future theme at the EPSRC.
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Comment: The UK is closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation
"..have been years in the making" and are embedded in the actors - thus making it difficult for UK industry to move on and develop and apply...