The University of Strathclyde is to partner in two of five new digital manufacturing research centres receiving nearly 25 million pounds of UK government funding. The centres are being established to help supply chains become more productive and to drive the development of the latest digital manufacturing technologies.
The funding has been awarded through the national Made Smarter programme, a collaboration between the UK government and industry designed to support the development and increase the use of these emerging technologies.
Adoption of the latest data-driven innovations, such as the use of AI and blockchain in supply chains, or advanced robotics and smart machines in manufacturing, will help manufacturers to increase productivity, become more sustainable and build back better from the pandemic.
The centres will help to make supply chains faster, more efficient, and more resilient and each will focus on a different area of manufacturing. The research centre for smart, collaborative industrial robotics will be based at Strathclyde, the digital medicines manufacturing research centre will also be led by Strathclyde with the Universities of Cambridge and Loughborough, it aims to create digital supply chains that enable medicines to be developed, manufactured and supplied on demand and enable clinical trials to operate more flexibly and efficiently.
“Manufacturing is a key element in the UK’s economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic,” Professor Tim Bedford, associate principal research and innovation at Strathclyde, said. “With Government support, industry and academia alike have vast knowledge, experience and capability to contribute to the sector’s performance.”
