University of Nottingham digital manufacturing project lands £1.9m funding

A pioneering manufacturing application being developed at the University of Nottingham has landed a £1.9m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

DigiTOP, a project led by professor Sarah Sharples at the university, will look to deliver an open-access suite of digital tools to enable the real-time capture and prediction of impact, allowing digital technologies to be optimised for manufacturing system performance.

The project is being partnered by Loughborough University, Cranfield University, University of the West of England, BAE Systems, Babcock International, Synertial Labs, Artinis Medical Systems, High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult and Jaguar Land Rover.

It is one of seven projects to be awarded £11.4m by the EPSRC.

EPSRC’s executive chair, professor Philip Nelson, said: “The adoption of advanced ICT techniques in manufacturing provides an enormous opportunity to improve growth and productivity within the UK.

“The effective implementation of these new technologies requires a multidisciplinary approach and these projects will see academic researchers working with a large number of industrial partners to fully harness their potential, which could generate impact across many sectors.”