The hubs will draw together expertise from 17 universities and 200 industrial partners to focus on manufacturing areas including biological medicines, advanced measurement and continuous crystallisation. They are funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The Future Manufacturing Hub in Targeted Healthcare will explore the manufacturing infrastructure needed to enable UK manufacturers to exploit medical precision advances; the EPSRC Future Advanced Metrology Hub will look at improvements in the speed, accuracy and cost of measurement in manufacturing; finally, the Future Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation (CMAC) Research Hub, led by Strathclyde University in Glasgow, will support industry as it moves from ‘batch crystallisation’ (where products are made using large-volume tanks) to ‘continuous crystallisation’ (a process that allows manufacturing to take place in smaller, more cost-effective facilities).
Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC chief executive, said: “Some of these new Hubs will build on the solid foundations of earlier Centres for Innovative Manufacturing, while some are completely new ventures that have strong links with industry and organisations such as the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.”
Professor Steve Rothberg, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Loughborough University, added: “Loughborough has world-class and longstanding research strength in high value manufacturing, and these three Hubs present an exciting opportunity for us to continue to support innovation in this vital area for the UK.”
The government’s Autumn Statement committed an additional £2 billion per year for research and innovation by 2020, in order to unlock the full potential of the UK’s research into areas such as robotics and biotechnology.
