JLR to fund new chair at Warwick Manufacturing Group

Posted on 2 May 2012

Jaguar Land Rover will fund a new professor at the University of Warwick as a key element in its strategic relationship with WMG.

The new chair, who is not expected to be a lone appointment, will lead a new team with the aim to achieve international research leadership in simulation support of the hybrid and battery electric component and systems innovation.

This is considered essential to JLR if it is to embrace and deploy these new vehicle technologies and continue to be competitive in the automotive sector in the future.

The new professor is part of a long term vision to ensure that the research base has capacity in key research areas necessary to deliver JLR’s vision for the future of its digital research agenda, building on WMG’s research record in the application of digital technologies to manufacturing.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, chairman and founder of WMG, said: “This new JLR chair will help drive forward the research challenge in the area of digital product innovation a key enabler of the creation process for future advanced vehicle technologies and essential to their robust introduction.”

The JLR chair is the second industry-sponsored chair to be secured by WMG in recent months, with the Royal Academy of Engineering and Tata Steel funding a new research chair in Low Carbon Materials.

Tony Harper, head of research and advanced system engineering at JLR, said: “The appointment reflects our sense of urgency and the extent of academic challenge essential to drive forward Simulation Capability in this product domain.”