The UKRPIF investment will enable the University of Birmingham, working with Cardiff and Swansea Universities, to establish a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) site, currently under construction.
The funding is part of the £30m announced through the UKRPIF fund to establish two new world-leading railway research and innovation facilities, with the other being a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Through-Life Engineering in Goole.
The successful funding bids include a wider commitment from the rail industry to co-invest £60m, with a further £16m being invested by the University of Birmingham. In total the package represents a £106m boost for UK research and development.
The new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience at GCRE will provide purpose-built facilities alongside major UK railway industrial expertise to support railway innovation, research, and development, in collaboration with leading industry partners.
The Global Centre of Rail Excellence in which the new center will be housed will be a facility for world class research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure, and innovative new rail technologies. It will support the UK and European rail industry in speeding up innovation, supporting decarbonization and the development of more cost-effective rail infrastructure.
The Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) at the University of Birmingham is Europe’s largest specialist railway research, education, and innovation center. BCRRE is the lead institution for the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) and leads the UKRRIN Centre of Excellence in Digital Systems that works on the development and application of digital technologies for the railway.
It will now also lead the Centre of Excellence in Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience, working with Cardiff and Swansea Universities.
Professor Clive Roberts, BCRRE director, said, “As a global leader in railway research and education, we work with partners across the world to develop their workforce and their technical and operational capabilities. We are also a leader in railway enterprise and innovation, the team here continues to work with SMEs through to OEMs to keep the railway in operation.
“With this new funding our aim is to have the capabilities and tools to enable innovations to progress from a great idea more effectively to a commercial solution by reducing the cost and risk of projects through the development process. Our focus on railway testing and validation is targeted at the whole innovation process with real-world impact at the forefront of our offering,” Roberts added.
Simon Jones, chief executive of GCRE Limited, continued, “World class research and innovation is at the heart of the Global Centre of Rail Excellence mission. Working with the University of Birmingham and its partners, which now include the universities of Cardiff and Swansea, will allow us to make this ambition a reality.
“Developing unique R&D facilities that will benefit academia, industry and most importantly passengers and taxpayers is why we have been established. Today’s announcement is the fruit of a lot of hard work and we look forward to taking the next steps together with our internationally renowned partners.”