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South Wales set for new £15m rail innovation centre

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Three UK universities have won £15m in funding to create a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience in South Wales.

GCRE

Set to be part of the wider Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) in Onllwyn, the new facility will support railway innovation, research and development, with UK academics working alongside railway industry experts. The project will be led by the University of Birmingham, supported by Cardiff and Swansea Universities. Birmingham is already home to BCRRE (Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education), claimed to be Europe’s largest specialist railway innovation centre. The university will now aim to share its expertise with its South Wales counterparts as it helps build out the capabilities at GCRE.

“With this new funding our aim is to have the capabilities and tools to enable innovations to progress from a great idea more effectively to a commercial solution by reducing the cost and risk of projects through the development process,” said Professor Clive Roberts, BCRRE director.

“Our focus on railway testing and validation is targeted at the whole innovation process with real-world impact at the forefront of our offering.”

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