Enhancing local growth and sustainability
£220m boost to Midlands economy
In August 2023, WMG celebreated the completion of the Digital Innovation for Manufacturing (DI4M) programme which added £220m to the Midlands economy. Over the last five years, DI4M helped create 660 jobs and digitise 370 businesses – supporting hundreds of Midlands manufacturers. DI4M helped organisations take new products to market, including an electric charging point that attaches to lampposts, ultra-high speed 3D printers and a wall climbing robot to undertake building maintenance. It has been delivered across Coventry and Warwickshire, Birmingham, Solihull, the Black Country, Leicestershire and Worcestershire. Read more...
Midlands Future Mobility
Midlands Future Mobility is developing an environment that will play a crucial role in shaping the transport sector. Using real environments to trial new vehicles, technologies and services will introduce complex and unpredictable situations that can't be achieved through simulation alone. A network of over 50 miles of roads in Coventry, Warwickshire and Birmingham will be optimised to ensure researchers and partners can gather data, measure public interaction and monitor technology in action. Covering a range of roads, junctions and traffic measures, it also includes the University of Warwick campus. Read more...
£45m redevelopment of Warwick Arts Centre and new £57.5m Faculty of Arts building
2021 saw the redevelopment of Warwick Arts Centre and the completion of a new Faculty of Arts building. The result is modern and accessible new spaces, combining combines refurbished and upgraded pre-existing spaces with new areas. Warwick Arts Centre is the region’s leading cultural centre, a place for engaging the public with unforgettable arts and entertainment experiences, whilst the Faculty of Arts building providing an unrivalled hub for research, knowledge exchange, events and collaborative projects. Read more...
High Value Manufacturing Catapult
Based in WMG, the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult is actively changing the way we travel for the better. HVM specialises in innovation aimed at making transport cleaner, safer and more efficient. Our academics are working in partnership with UK manufacturing partners to develop automated, connected, electric and shared mobility for a sustainable future. Its overarching mission is to improve the competitiveness of UK manufacturing, achieved by collaborating on R&D projects, transferring knowledge into businesses and educating highly skilled people. Read more...
Improving the UK’s productivity
Warwick is a partner of the newly announced ESRC-funded Productivity Institute. The Institute’s goal is to make long-term policy recommendations to improve the UK’s productivity. One key task is to help solve the UK’s longstanding ‘productivity puzzle.' The Institute has engaged in sharing and producing new knowledge on productivity and living standards as the economy recovered from Covid-19 and ensuring that wages and living standards across the UK are levelled up. The Warwick project team includes Warwick Business School, WMG and the (pictured left). Read more...
Warwick Innovation District
Powered by the University of Warwick, and open to all, the Warwick Innovation District is a large, open innovation ecosystem that stretches from the University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire, through Leamington to Wellesbourne. Knowledge exchange lies at the heart of Warwick Innovation District, which brings together academics, businesses and investors, to start, scale and pivot businesses, while helping students gain the opportunity to experiment with creative and critical thinking, and ultimately deliver ongoing sustainable growth to our region. Read more...
Midlands ICURe (Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research)
Midlands ICURe (Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research) was developed by Warwick Innovation District and is designed for research teams from UK universities with commercially-promising ideas. ICURe is an Innovate UK-funded customer discovery programme that helps academics derive more impact from their research activities, validate the market demand for products or services, engage with prospective customers, competitors, regulators and stakeholders and receive commercialisation advice. Read more...
Energy Innovation Centre
Warwick's Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) is a national facility for battery research across the R&D process - from materials and electrochemistry through to application integration and recycling / re-use. The EIC's facilities support test, development and scale up of new battery chemistries from concept through to full proven traction batteries. Knowledge exchange with local business and industry helps inform and support our research activities - which cover the full cycle of development, characterisation and verification of battery and drive solutions. Read more...
Coventry's Affordable Very Light Rail Track
As part of Coventry's Very Light Rail (VLR) transport project, a novel track form has been designed and manufactured by researchers from WMG, together with design partners Ingerop/Rendel. The track sits just 30cm into the road surface, whereas traditional tram tracks often involve digging a metre down. Bringing together stakeholders from Coventry and the West Midlands, engineers from WMG, the track has been developed in parallel to a zero-emission, battery-powered lightweight shuttle vehicle, which in the future will become autonomous and allow passengers to hop on and off. Read more...