The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) in Coventry will be a new, world-class facility allowing the UK to prepare its home-grown battery technologies for global competitiveness, as Simon Edmonds reports.
It’s very encouraging to see the progress in establishing the new UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) in Coventry.
The Minister for Business and Industry, Andrew Stephenson, recently announced a new £28m investment in the centre, providing a stepping stone towards a UK ‘gigafactory’ – a large-scale battery technology factory for electric vehicles, built along the lines of Tesla’s lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle facility near Reno, Nevada.
The investment, through the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, comes on top of an £80m initial investment in the centre, which will provide world-leading testing facilities for new battery technologies. It will also provide practical training to upskill people in battery manufacturing.
The minister made the announcement on a recent tour of the UKBIC site to mark new regional funding alongside Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street, as they also revealed a new Local Industrial Strategy for the West Midlands – the first of its kind.
UKBIC is one of three strands of the Faraday Battery Challenge, part of the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund programme to develop cost-effective, high-performance, durable, safe, low-weight and recyclable batteries.
The other strands are Innovate UK’s collaborative R&D programme and the Faraday Institution.
This article first appeared in the July issue of The Manufacturer magazine. Click here to subscribe
This article first appeared in the July issue of The Manufacturer magazine. Click here to subscribe
UKBIC was established after a national competition run by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and supported by Innovate UK, which was won through a joint bid by Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), at the University of Warwick, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Coventry City Council.
UK-US disruptive composites projects: apply for funding
An important international funding collaboration opportunity for the composites sector is now open. Organisations can apply for a share of £1.7m to work with US partners to develop disruptive, game-changing international projects in the global composites (a combination of components) market.
Innovate UK and the US-based Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) – under UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Funding for International Collaboration programme – have identified several priority areas of growth.
Projects must be disruptive, involve a technological risk, and reach large international markets.
They must also involve a UK business and/or UK research and technology organisation, and include a partnership with a US project team. Applicants should contact the Knowledge Transfer Network to be put in touch with a US project team.
The competition closes at midday on 21 August 2019. Click here for more information
Apprentice to compete on world stage
An apprentice trained at the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre in Coventry is to represent the UK at an international skills ‘Olympics’ in Russia.
Jack McCarthy – who was one of the first cohort of apprentices to be trained at the AMTC (part of the Manufacturing Technology Centre) – will compete at the WorldSkills Competition in Kazan in August, having successfully competed in WorldSkills UK to win his place.
Jack, who is 20 and comes from Coventry, began his apprenticeship at the AMTC in 2014, completing it last year. He now works for DMG Mori in Coventry.
He will compete in Russia in the CNC turning category, and apprentices from all over the world will battle it out to win gold, silver or bronze in their chosen skill. The UK is currently tenth in the WorldSkills rankings.
UKRI delivery plans
The latest ambitious delivery plans for Innovate UK and the eight other constituent councils that make up UK Research and Innovation have been published.
The 2019-20 plans highlight the areas of focus and key activities of UKRI’s councils and its cross-cutting themes.
The plans also detail UKRI’s approach to delivering the government’s target of 2.4% GDP spend on research and innovation by 2027. Click here to read them
Innovate UK
For more information on any of Innovate UK’s funding opportunities, please contact the customer support service:
- 0300 321 4357
- [email protected]
- www.innovateuk.gov.uk
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