Ricardo wins £1.5m AMSCI funding from Finance Birmingham
ENGINEERING consultancy Ricardo, which has an innovation centre in Warwickshire, has received £1.5m of funding from the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, delivered by Finance Birmingham.
Ricardo will utilise the funding as part of a £2.4m consortium project focused on the development of safety-critical systems, an area of concern for today’s automotive industry.
The company will be partnering in the project with Jaguar Land Rover, Johnson Matthey Battery Systems, YorkMetrics, D-RisQ and the universities of Oxford, Coventry and Warwick.
The PICASSOS (Proving Integrity of Complex Automotive Systems) project helps the UK’s automotive supply chain to competitively develop safety-critical systems, as well as sustain and create new employment opportunities.
Rob Stone, Head of Project Management said: “The PICASSOS project will be evaluating new methods of software development, which will reduce the reliance on software testing, and therefore reduce the time and cost. The overall objective of the project is to enable a step-change improvement in the ability of the UK automotive supply-chain to produce demonstrably safe and secure embedded software systems, at a price the general market can afford.
“The contribution of the AMSCI funding will help us to create 38 jobs and safeguard a further 21. We believe this work has a significant role to play in revitalising the UK supply chain in this internationally significant area of future technology.”
Jeremy Taylor, Investment Executive at Finance Birmingham said: “Ricardo operates a robust and viable business initiative and this project positions the company as an important resource within the automotive industry. We are delighted that the funding has allowed for important business development as well as securing and recruiting a significant number of jobs.”
AMSCI has been created to improve the global competitiveness of advanced manufacturing supply chains as well as attract new manufacturers into the UK.
Applications for funding as part of Round 4 of the initiative are open until October 16. Finance Birmingham has said unsuccessful Round 3 applicants can re-apply with improved versions of their original proposals.
Further information can be found at http://www.financebirmingham.com/amsci/
