Today, Tuesday 8^th February 2011, sees the opening in the Midlands of a unique £2.28m facility at WMG at the University of Warwick that will be vital importance to companies developing engines for hybrid vehicles.

The unique Vehicle Energy Facility (VEF) is the UK’s only purpose built hybrid powertrain testing facility for the automotive sector that is not owned and operated by an individual automotive company.

WMG at the University of Warwick has been awarded one of five new Industrial Doctorate Centres announced today by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). EPSRC are funding five new Industrial Doctorate Centres to address fundamental engineering challenges in advanced manufacturing engineering. The WMG centre will focus on High Value, Low Environmental Impact Manufacturing.

The new Centres will train Engineering Doctorate (EngD) students. These four-year postgraduate awards are intended for the UK’s leading researchers pursuing a career in industry. It provides postgraduate engineers with an intensive, broad-based research programme incorporating a taught component relevant to the needs of, and undertaken in partnership with, industry.

Work has begun on a unique £2.28m Vehicle Energy Facility for the Midlands which will be the UK’s only purpose built hybrid powertrain testing facility not owned and operated by an individual automotive company. The facility is being built in WMG at the University of Warwick and will be ready for a formal launch just before Christmas.

The new labs, which are being funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the University of Warwick as part of the Birmingham Science City initiative, will provide the region with a state of the art test and characterisation facility for hybrid vehicle powertrains.

A lab that gives engineers in Midlands manufacturing companies super powers has helped a Midlands company build a super bike that has finished 2^nd in the first ever Moto2 race in Qatar.

The bike’s builders have joined other engineers in Midlands manufacturing companies large and small who have effectively been granted the super powers of laser vision and x-ray eyes thanks to a £5 million lab launched today, Thursday 20^th May, at WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick.

Full details of the £29million West Midlands-based project that will ensure Britain’s place at the heart of the low carbon vehicle revolution were revealed at a launch event held at the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire yesterday.

Over 150 representatives from government, stakeholder organisations and small/medium-sized businesses heard how the Low Carbon Vehicle Technology Project (LCVTP) will shape the future of passenger transport.

Following an address from Geoff Dart, Director of Advanced Manufacturing Industries at BIS, guests heard presentations from the project’s partners: Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors, Zytek, Ricardo, MIRA, WMG (formerly Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick and Coventry University - who set out their vision for low carbon vehicles and invited like-minded potential suppliers to work with them in close collaboration.

Oli Blair and Shargil Ahmad from the Dyson Task Force recently visited WMG, to see for themselves the innovative approach taken by the Group to deliver real world solutions to industry.

Programmes at WMG have been supporting the development of Lightweight Vehicle Technologies, reviewing the introduction of new grades of aluminium and high strength steel materials within the vehicle structure. The Carbon rating of vehicles is now of critical importance and the assembly process cannot be excluded from this evaluation indefinitely. Evaluation of any new process needs to assess power consumption and environmental impact, as it may not be long before the legislation on CO2 emissions will take into account the manufacturing process. One of the emergent technologies we have been developing with industrial partners is Remote Fibre Laser Welding (RFLW) and the benefits that can bring.

Sir Roy McNulty, Chair of Advantage West Midlands was welcomed to WMG by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Director of WMG on Wednesday 16^th December.

Tours of the International Digital Lab and International Manufacturing Centre focused on the quality research that is undertaken by WMG and how this benefits regional companies.

Within the International Digital Lab, Sir Roy met with Dr Mark Swift from the Knowledge Exhange Team who works with SMEs within the region, Prof Darek Ceglarek highlighting research in healthcare and was shown how a car can heal itself by Ross McMurran.

During the visit to the International Manufacturing Centre, Sir Roy had the opportunity to test the vehicle simulator under the watchful eye of Prof Paul Jennings, tour the new Premium Vehicle Customer Interface Technologies Centre of Excellence with Dr Mark Williams and view new technologies in laser welding being led by Prof Ken Young.

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The Chinese Ambassador has seen for herself how leading-edge manufacturing in Coventry and Warwickshire is beating the economic downturn.

Madam Fu Ying visited Oleo International and WMG (formerly Warwick Manufacturing Group) on Friday (27 November) as part of a nationwide tour organised by UK Trade & Investment to see examples of British manufacturing excellence.

Siôn Simon MP visited WMG's International Digital Laboratory in September. The Minister for Creative Industries at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport was welcomed by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Director of WMG, and toured the Digital Lab meeting Professor Sadie Creese, Director of e-Security, and Professor Lucy Hooberman, Director Digital Media and Innovation.