Europe’s largest automotive research centre enters construction at Warwick

£150m has been invested into the development of a National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) on Warwick University’s central campus.

The Centre, expected to be the largest of its kind in Europe, will bring together over 1,000 researchers, designers, students and engineers in order to develop and utilise new breakthrough vehicle technologies, according to Business Quarter magazine.

Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, the Government’s UK Research Partnership Investment Fund and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) are to jointly fund the project.

The Centre is to be constructed by  international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty, whose previous projects include the Channel Tunnel, London’s Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and University College Hospital.

The plan for the building includes separate areas for different fields of research including Hybrid and Chassis (automotive skeleton) research, and Advanced Powertrain and Design research, alongside spaces for collaborative projects and undergraduate teaching.

The building will stand next to WMG’s existing facilities on the University of Warwick campus.

Chairman of WMG Lord Bhattacharya commented: “NAIC will be an ‘engine’ for economic growth, with wide economic benefit, and sustained growth from the creation of world-leading technologies.”

It is hoped that the Centre’s research will help deliver “automotive technology and products that will be smarter, lighter, and greener”, according to Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Dr Ralf Speth, added that the NAIC would hold a wider benefit for the UK automotive industry, saying that it would “help develop the skills we need the UK to nurture and develop to ensure we remain globally competitive.”

The University was also named “Electrical Energy Storage Spoke” of the government- and industry-funded £1bn Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) in March. The title was awarded a result of the University’s research and investment into the area.

Acting as Spoke involves co-ordinating the UK’s community of industrial and academic organisations with a focus on automotive electrical energy storage in order to support the APC in developing these technologies and bringing them to the market, reported the Business Information Portal.