A new £5.5 million national institute is to be launched to ensure that the UK has the technical capability and capacity across academia, research, education, and innovation to enable the UK to be a global superpower in science, engineering, and the creative industries.

The UK Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS) is funded by Research England, which is part of UK Research and Innovation. It is being hosted by the University of Nottingham in partnership with a network of organisations and institutions across UK higher education and research, including the University of Warwick.

Technical professionals enable research and innovation in our universities and institutes and build, maintain and enable the use of the UK’s research infrastructure. Despite their critical contributions to UK R&D and HE, technical roles have experienced a lack of visibility, recognition and career development. Career pathways and professional development (PD) can be poor, and an aging workforce means that large numbers of skilled technicians are retiring.

The new institute will focus on technical skills, roles and careers, and their contributions to the economy and how the technical talent and know-how required to fulfil the government’s ambitions for the UK to become an innovation nation can be delivered.

Tom Moore, Engineering Technician in Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) has won the Tata Steel UK Customer Experience Recognition Award, in partnership with Professor Claire Davis, Dr Geoff West and Dr Tara Schiller, all also WMG. Tom works in the Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Centre and specialises in electron microscopy techniques.

On winning the award and working with industry, Tom said ''Working with our industrial partners is a rewarding part of the job, it allows us to help solve real world engineering problems using advanced microscopy techniques. I really appreciate my skills being recognised''

Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor & President, announces a new work shadowing process for technicians.