The University of Birmingham and a consortium of Welsh universities have been awarded a GBP 15 million (EUR 17.5 million) funding by the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) to establish a railway research and innovation centre in South Wales.
The UKRPIF investment will enable the University of Birmingham, working with Cardiff and Swansea Universities, to establish a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) site, currently under construction.
“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. Our focus on railway testing and validation is targeted at the whole innovation process with real-world impact at the forefront of our offering,” Professor Clive Roberts, BCRRE Director, said.
The funding is part of GBP 30 million (EUR 35 million) announced through the UKRPIF fund to establish two new world-leading railway research and innovation facilities, with the other being a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Through-Life Engineering in Goole.
The successful funding bids include a wider commitment from the rail industry to co-invest GBP 60 million (EUR 70 million), with a further GBP 16 million (EUR 18.6 million) being invested by the University of Birmingham. In total the package represents a GBP 106 million (EUR 123.7 million) boost for UK research and development.
The new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience at GCRE will provide purpose-built facilities alongside major UK railway industrial expertise to support railway innovation, research and development, in collaboration with leading industry partners.
The Global Centre of Rail Excellence in which the new centre will be housed will be a facility for world class research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure and innovative new rail technologies. It will support the UK and European rail industry in speeding up innovation, supporting decarbonisation and the development of more cost-effective rail infrastructure.
The Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) at the University of Birmingham is Europe’s largest railway research and innovation centre. BCRRE is the lead institution for the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) and leads the UKRRIN Centre of Excellence in Digital Systems that works on the development and application of digital technologies for the railway.
It will now also lead the Centre of Excellence in Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience, working with Cardiff and Swansea Universities.
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