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WMG, at the University of Warwick and Kulim Technology Park have signed a memorandum of understanding for research and education.

The initial focus will be on developing and delivering an educational programme, with a workshop in May to identify skills required for designing and development for manufacuturing processes. There will also be a scoping exercise around potential research projects with the companies who are situated within the technology hub.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya and Dato Annuar Mohd Saffar, Chairman and Preseident of KTPC signed the MOU, which was witnessed by Dato Sabrina Noor, Kedah State Executive Councillor for Science and technology, IT, telecommunication and high-technology.

We are very pleased to announce that Professor David Greenwood and Dr Kerry Kirwan have been appointed to EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Strategic Advisory Teams.

Professor David Greenwood will be serving on the Energy Scientific Advisory Committee and Dr Kerry Kirwan will be serving on the Manufacturing the Future Strategic Advisory Team, representing the EPSRC both nationally and internationally.

Their roles will be to provide Theme Leaders at EPSRC with strategic advice to develop their themes and will cover areas such as policy, training, funding priorities, etc.

Both Professor Greenwood and Dr Kirwan will take up three-year appointments commencing 1st April 2015.

The Institute of Digital Healthcare (IDH) at the University of Warwick welcomes the appointment of the Chief Medical Officer for University Hospital Coventry as a new Professor of Practice. Meghana Pandit, who is also Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the UHCW NHS Trust, has taken up a new professorial teaching fellow role at WMG.

The IDH is a partnership between the NHS, WMG and Warwick Medical School which aims to improve people's health and wellbeing through the development, evaluation and use of innovative digital technologies and services.

Meghana’s role is to provide leadership and undertake teaching, training and clinical innovation.

She will also be involved in the design, development and delivery of a range of programmes of study, particularly in Healthcare Management, and assist with clinical engagement for IDH projects.

Meghana said: “I am honoured to take up this part-time role as Professor of Practice and delighted to be working with WMG. Hopefully these roles can help bring further innovation into UHCW and strengthen our partnership with the University of Warwick.

WMG at the University of Warwick have been awarded £3.2 million by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to create one of the world’s most adaptable and advanced driving simulators. Support from industry including a further £1 million of funding has been gained to begin research projects with the new technology led by research students embedded in JLR, bringing the total cost of the simulator and its research programme to £4.2 million.

In its first phase the simulator will be tested and piloted in WMG’s International Manufacturing Centre before moving to its final home in the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC).

The simulator, which will be available to a range of research groups, will use a LIDAR scan (a high resolution laser scan of a real driving environment) of 30 miles of real roads around the City of Coventry to test vehicles in the simulator. While the simulator will use a fixed test car for many tests it will also be configured so that any make of car can be driven into the simulator for testing which is believed to be a unique capability for such an advanced simulator.

The University of Warwick has been awarded £14.5m for WMG to bring together researchers to work with industry in an Advanced Steel Research Centre. WMG at the University of Warwick will work with Tata Steel to take forward this crucial national collaboration which will help transform UK steel production, and includes research into emerging and breakthrough technologies.

The Centre has been constructed and equipped as part of a £14.5m award from EPSRC.

WMG, at the University of Warwick and M-Aerotech have signed a memorandum of understanding in the area of supply chain industrialisation.

The collaboration will cover both research and education. The focus will be specifically on developing research opportunities, academic support programmes and training work placements. It will allow for both to work on new technologies to benefit the aerospace industry.

The MoU was signed at the Langkawi International Maritime and Air Defence Show.

The University of Warwick has today been named as the "Electrical Energy Storage Spoke" of the government and industry funded £1 billion Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), to co-ordinate a technical community with a shared interest in battery systems.

The Automotive Council has identified electrical energy storage as a key technology for the future of the automotive industry in the UK. WMG, at the University of Warwick, has made significant investments over the last 10 years to build expertise and facilities in the scale-up and evaluation of battery systems. As a result of these investments, and a strong network of academic and industrial partners, The University of Warwick has been identified as the logical location to host the Electrical Energy Storage Spoke for the APC.

On Tuesday 17th March, Mr Ratan N. Tata (Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons), Cyrus P. Mistry (Chairman of Tata Group) met with Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya the Chairman and Founder of WMG at the University of Warwick and unveiled the foundation stone of the new £150 million National Automotive Innovation Centre on the campus of the University of Warwick.

The National Automotive Innovation Centre will be the largest automotive research centre of its kind in Europe. Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors, and WMG have made an investment of £150m in the capital building and research activities, with £30m capital costs funded by the Government's Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The 33,000m² complex will provide space for 1,000 engineers, designers and academics to work together, from apprentices to senior managers. Teaching facilities will support the education of tomorrow’s engineers with the Centre being open to students from the WMG Academies for Young Engineers to work on real world applications.

The high tech research facilities will include: a design and simulation space creating innovative automotive solutions: an Advanced Propulsion Research Laboratory which will address the national requirement to position the UK as the leading innovator in advanced propulsion systems; the world’s most adaptable and advanced fully immersive drive-in car simulator. There will be close working on collaborative research projects with the research councils and the department of Business Innovation and Skills. Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors will also use the NAIC to take forward autonomous vehicles research through a £19m Autodrive UK project.

Birmingham based Thermotec Plastics Ltd and WMG at the University of Warwick have worked on a project together to develop a new product offering for the automotive and aerospace markets that is worth £1.5 million in new turnover for the business.

Thermotec Plastics, an innovative and bespoke supplier of engineered solutions in vacuum forming and polyurethane mouldings created a new composite material with impressive lightweight properties and WMG undertook a testing programme that validated the product for market.

The collaboration developed when David Rose, managing director of Thermotec was asked for performance related data for the new composite material by a key automotive client. Thermotec was unable to produce the data in-house as the testing equipment required was investment prohibitive. He therefore approached WMG’s SME Team at the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation who were able to undertake the testing through their funded Innovation Programme for West Midlands SMEs.

WMG was pleased to welcome Liz Kendall MP, the Labour Party Shadow Minister for Care and Older People as she visited WMG's Institute of Digital Healthcare (IDH) on Monday 9th March, 2015.

Meeting with Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Ms Kendall heard about the research undertaken by IDH to force healthcare innovation, including how researchers are working with partners in the West Midlands NHS to translate academic innovation into improved healthcare outcomes in fields as varied as cancer and obesity and how partnerships with the NHS and cross-disciplinary innovators can improve treatments and waiting times.

As well as visiting WMG's Digital Laboratory, Ms Kendall met with Professor Theo Arvanitis, Chair in e-Health Innovation and IDH's Head of Research, Professor Meghana Pandit, Chief Medical Officer, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire and Professor Caroline Meyer, Professor of Digital Healthcare. They discussed how IDH research projects were delivering change for local patients and the potential applications of new digital technologies in the prevention and treatment of illness.