Completed Materials & Manufacturing Economics & Business

An Innovative Electronics Manufacturing Research Centre

Funder EPSRC (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Loughborough University
Funding £9.1M
Period Mar 2010 — Feb 2015

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A UK-wide network of university labs is pooling their expertise to solve manufacturing problems for the electronics industry, with industry partners matching public funding pound for pound. The Electronics Manufacturing Research Centre (IeMRC) addresses a fundamental challenge: as electronics become embedded in everything from cars to medical devices, no single university can cover the full range of manufacturing expertise needed. Unlike a traditional research centre with one location, the IeMRC operates as a distributed hub at Loughborough University, allowing any UK university to bid for funding. This structure lets the most appropriate researchers tackle specific problems for an industry that now spans consumer gadgets, aerospace systems, and industrial sensors. If the renewal succeeds, the centre will continue to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial production. The strong industrial steering group ensures funding goes to problems companies actually face, not just academic curiosities. The result could be more efficient manufacturing processes, cheaper production of complex electronics, and stronger supply chains—improvements that quietly underpin everything from smartphones to hospital equipment. The required industry match also means every public pound effectively doubles the research capacity.

View original technical description
The IeMRC is one of 16 Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres (IMRCs) set up and supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), focussing on the electronics manufacturing sector.With more than 5 million funding over 5 years (2004-2009), the IeMRC is distributed among a number of universities and has a 'hub' at Loughborough, UK. Other UK universities involved in the operation of the Centre include Bath, Brunel, Greenwich, Lancaster, Heriot-Watt and Nottingham. This is a proposal to renew the IeMRC for a further 5 years, from March 2010.Compared with the other Innovative Manufacturing Centres established with EPSRC support, the IeMRC differs in being a distributed research operation rather than having a fixed location for its research activities. Universities across the UK are able to bid for funds from the Centre, so encouraging open collaboration between groups. The advantage of a distributed programme, compared with a single centre, is that it allows the most appropriate people to do the work for an industry that has now become very diverse.Key elements of the IeMRC are the high level of industrial involvement and strong industrial steering group that decides priorities for funding. As with other IMRCs, the contribution from industry in resources and cash will at least match the EPSRC funds.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Andrew Richardson (Co-Investigator)Chris Bailey (Co-Investigator)Christopher Johnson (Co-Investigator)David Harrison (Co-Investigator)Linda Newnes (Co-Investigator)Marc Desmulliez (Co-Investigator)Paul Conway (Principal Investigator)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Nottingham Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre
EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Photonics
Cranfield Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre
A Centre for Innovative Manufacturing and Construction
EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Liquid Metal Engineering

Original classification

Research Grant

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.