Autonomous systems and energy storage research secure £132m

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts today announced £85 million of government grants for university research in the three areas of Robotics and Autonomous systems, Advanced Materials and Grid-scale energy storage (see box below).

Combined with additional private sector and academic investment, research projects at more than 20 universities stand to receive up to £132 million.

Willetts announced the successful institutions today while speaking at the Global Intelligent Systems conference in London. All bidders had responded to the “Great Technologies Capital Call”, a call for proposals issued by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

“The successful bids will build capability in areas that are vital for the country and where exciting research is already being carried out,” said EPSRC chief executive Professor David Delpy.

“Developing new ways [of] storing energy, creating new materials for manufacturing and other industries, and increasing our understanding of how autonomous systems communicate, learn and work with humans.”

The largest grant handed out from the government’s £85 million pot to a single institution was the £5.9 million to the University of Birmingham’s proposed Centre for Cryogenic Energy Storage.

This facility, being developed in collaboration with the University of Hull and industrial partners, aims to accelerate development of cryogenic energy storage (CES) technology and novel materials at lower cost. Cryogenic energy storage systems use off-peak electricity to liquefy air. The cryogenic liquid that is formed is stored in a vessel then vapourised into a gas during an expansion process, which drives a turbine.

Another successful bidder was a University of Southampton project to build three large pieces of research equipment used to develop technologies for unmanned vehicles and systems, awarded £3.5 million. The principal goal of this work is to develop highly reliable, lightweight, low cost integrated sensors and structures using rapid manufacturing processes.