University-based advanced research centre to become development hub for next-generation vehicle technologies
Jaguar Land Rover will unveil a new £100 million research and development centre in 2016.
Based at Warwick University, the National Automotive Innovation Campus will be used to develop new technologies for electric cars, inter-vehicle connectivity and Human Machine Interface designs.
Around 1000 academics and engineers will work in the building, with almost half of those being part of JLR’s advanced research team. Almost 200 JLR researchers and engineers are already based at Warwick University.
JLR is the lead partner in the project and is bearing half of the £100 million cost, with Tata Motors European Technical Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group and the government’s Higher Education Funding Council also having vested interests.
The aim of the centre, says JLR, is to bring together academics, researchers and engineers from across the country to create the next generation of vehicle technologies. Head of research for the company Antony Harper said: “These collaborative research programmes will harness the best of UK engineering innovation, and with the extra capability the NAIC gives us, you can expect the number and range of new, fresh innovative ideas that we patent, and then take to production in the future, to increase significantly”.
The site will also be used to encourage school children and students to consider careers in engineering and the automotive sector, already named as a key goal of the recently announced See Inside Manufacturing initiative, of which JLR is a partner.
Construction on the new site is due to start in September next year.