Professor Lord Bhattacharyya welcomed Mr Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons to WMG, at the University of Warwick, on Saturday 16th September.

Mr Chandrasekaran was very interested to see for himself some of the projects that WMG and Tata companies are collaborating on, and to understand the breadth and depth of WMG’s research, education and technology transfer activities.

To bring these to life, he was given a tour of WMG’s Energy Innovation Centre, which is going through significant expansion, and will see WMG to continue to provide a unique facility for industry and academia to develop innovative energy storage technology. Mr Chandrasekaran also visited the Advanced Steels Research Centre and the International Manufacturing Centre where the focus was on light weighting, metrology and intelligent vehicles. As well as hearing from the Institute of Digital Healthcare.

WMG, at the University of Warwick hosted a visit from the leader, and deputy leader, of Coventry City Council who were keen to see for themselves the significant investment in automotive research within the City.

Cllr Duggins and Cllr Khan were given tours of the National Automotive Innovation Centre and Energy Innovation Centre, both lead by WMG, where research and development focuses on energy, batteries and autonomous vehicles.

The Energy Innovation Centre is going through significant expansion, which will see WMG to continue to provide a unique facility for industry and academia to develop innovative energy storage technology. The focus is on novel cell materials and chemistries through to ‘2nd life’ and battery recycling, which will keep the UK at the forefront of energy research.

The National Automotive Innovation Centre is a long-term partnership with Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors European Technical Centre providing a critical mass of research capability for the automotive sector. Together teams will collaborate to develop breakthrough designs, technologies and processes making vehicles smarter, lighter and greener.

Cllr Duggins, Leader of Coventry City Council said “To say the National Automotive Innovation Centre is incredible is an understatement. I’m sure there are a lot of people in the City who are not aware of the impact such a centre will have on the City. It will provide major employment and there is no question it is a leading centre, not just for Coventry, but for the UK. The building itself is iconic and a major landmark. This proves what can be done when partners deliver and shows the benefits to the community generally.”

The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, visited WMG, at the University of Warwick, on Friday 20^th January 2017, taking up an invitation to see for himself the work underway to complete the new £150 million National Automotive Innovation Centre on the University Campus. He also saw the work expanding WMG’s Energy Innovation Centre which provides a one-stop-shop for the development of new battery chemistries to create advanced batteries for the automotive sector.

The National Automotive Innovation Centre is a unique automotive research centre, and the largest facility of its kind in Europe. It will provide high technology automotive manufacturing research that will be of significant benefit in the delivery of the key manufacturing component of the UK’s Industrial Strategy.