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WMG expands its research capacity and expertise

WMG expands capacity and expertiseWMG has continued to progress its ambitious expansion plans announcing the appointment of a number of new major academic posts in several key areas.

WMG continues to attract world class Professors with recent appointments in the areas of steels processing, cyber security, advanced propulsion and structural composites. This builds on the nine appointments made last year in the areas of E-Health Innovation, Nanocomposites, Supply Chain and Operations, Automation Systems, Vehicle Electrification and Energy Storage, Low Carbon Materials, Energy for Low Carbon Vehicles and Digital Manufacturing.

Professor David Greenwood has been appointed as the Jaguar Land Rover Professorial Chair in Advanced Propulsion Systems. He will lead a world-class team of international researchers to advance innovative and novel propulsion systems at the new £100 million National Automotive Innovation Centre, which will be based at WMG.

Strengthening the rapidly developing relationship between WMG and Tata Steel, Professor Claire Davis and Professor Barbara Shollock have been appointed as Tata Steel sponsored Chairs for research into Thermo-mechanical Processing and Advanced Characterisation and Coating respectively, joining Professor Sridhar Seetharaman who was appointed Tata Steel Chair for Low Carbon Materials Technologies last year.

Professor Tim Watson specialises in the areas of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics. He has over 20 years’ experience working with government and private sector organisations. In the field of Structural Composites, Professor Ken Kendall joins from Ford. He specialises in Structural Composites and will be responsible for leading and developing activities in the high volume manufacturing of structural composites as part of WMG’s extensive research in the area of engineering materials and manufacturing.

Professor Lord BhattacharyyaSpeaking to the Times Higher Education about the appointments, Lord Bhattacharyya said:

We have many people who can do peer research, but to do research that you can apply requires a different mindset. They not only have to be brilliant academics – and you can see that all the chairs we have got are brilliant academics – but you want that brilliant academic mind to be skewed to application.”

The new appointments come alongside a period of significant infrastructure expansion for WMG. With four new R&D centres, this provides WMG’s academics and researchers the scope to work closely with collaborative partners from industry.

Lord Bhattacharyya continues:

Without critical mass, you can’t make a big impact. You can make minor impacts, but to make a big impact, you need critical mass, laboratories and equipment. This will allow us to do research and train people – create top-class engineers who will go into companies. I want to emulate Germany, France and the United States.”

The four R&D centres are:

  • Automotive Composites Research Centre - A £2.3 million extension which will enable the West Midlands' automotive supply chain to exploit the opportunities offered by lightweight vehicle technologies.
  • International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing (IINM) – A first of its kind in the world, the £4.1 million IINM will exploit polymer processing techniques which will enable industry to innovate their manufacturing technologies to produce polymer nanocomposites.
  • Energy Innovation Centre – a unique UK facility which will provide a one-stop shop for the development of new battery chemistries from concept to fully proven application.
  • National Automotive Innovation Centre - £100m will be invested over a 15 year commitment between Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors European Technical Centre and WMG/University of Warwick. It will provide a national focus and a critical mass of research capability, combining expertise from industry, universities, supply chain companies and SMEs.

On the subject of the investment from WMG’s close collaborative partners, Lord Bhattacharyya commented:

Private companies don’t give [money] as charity. In return for [investment] they will expect output, and we have a track record of good output over the past 20-25 years.”