Three Production Research Hubs In UK To Link Businesses Including Tata Steel

THREE new £10 million manufacturing research hubs in the UK will link major industry players - including India’s Tata Steel, Siemens, and Rolls-Royce - to world-class research teams.

The hubs are part of a £30m research and innovation investment in British manufacturing aimed at helping the UK "seize new opportunities" in steel production, pharmaceuticals, and transport infrastructure. They will be set up to pioneer new practices that can meet evolving industry needs as well as tackle sustainability and productivity.

The three new hubs will focus on steel production, bio-manufacturing, and electrical machines and will be funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The future biomanufacturing research hub will receive £2m co-funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Their addition takes the total number of manufacturing hubs to 13 across the UK, building comprehensive research support for the government’s industrial strategy.

Industry minister Richard Harrington said: “This investment brings together world-class researchers and leading manufacturing firms to help revolutionise how key industries like steel operate in the future.”

The sustain manufacturing hub will be led by professor David Worsley at Swansea University. It has been jointly set up by the five major UK steel producers - Tata, Liberty, British Steel, Celsa, and Sheffield Forgemasters and Swansea, Warwick, and Sheffield universities.

The future biomanufacturing research hub (FBRH) will be led by professor Nigel Scrutton at the University of Manchester with spokes at Imperial, UCL, Nottingham, the UK Catalysis Hub, IBioIC, and Centre for Process Innovation (CPI).

The third hub, future electrical machines manufacturing hub will be led by professor Geraint Jewell at the University of Sheffield, with spokes at Newcastle University and the University of Strathclyde. It will focus on the electrification revolution in UK manufacturing.