The Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) has announced funding for four new Centres for Innovative Manufacturing that will develop new ways of manufacturing in the fields of electronics, laser use in production processes, medical devices and food production.   

Swansea University’s Printing and Coating and Complex Fluids Centre will form part of the new Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Large-Area Electronics (LAE). This new Centre, which will begin work later in the year, brings together leading academics from Swansea University, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Manchester.

Swansea University is delighted that it has been given the opportunity to  work in partnership with three of the UK’s leading University’s to create a national centre with world-class expertise in design, development, fabrication and characterisation of a wide range of devices, materials and processes.

Large- Area Electronics is a branch of electronics which takes a different and much bigger approach to the manufacture of typical circuit boards. The new approach means that electronic devices and circuits can be manufactured using low-temperature processes which enable the use of plastic and paper producing electronic systems which are flexible, thin and light weight.

Swansea University is already held by the EU as an exemplar of how structural funds can be used in combination with research council funding. It will receive its share (around £1.4m) of the £5.6m awarded by the EPSRC to the Large-Area Electronics Centre.      

Edwina Hart, Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science said:

" Increasing our universities' share of research funding is at the heart of our Science for Wales strategy. I am delighted with this announcement in recognition of Swansea University's contribution as a leading centre of excellence. The Welsh Government recognises the vital links between the research and science skills base in Wales, and the processes of innovation, development and commercialisation that transform outputs of research into economic advantage for Wales.”

Professor Rhodri Williams, Professor Tim Claypole and Professor David Gethin, research leads at Swansea’s Printing and Coating and Complex Fluids Centre said:

“ Swansea University’s internationally leading expertise in complex fluids and printing and coating is a vital part of this new Centre. The establishment of this Centre will not only stimulate the growth of Wales as a region of excellence for printable electronics and functional materials it will also have a world-wide impact.”

Picture: (Left to right) Professor Rhodri Williams, Professor Tim Claypole, Professor David Gethin.

For more information on the Swansea University Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating go to http://www.swan.ac.uk/printing/pdf/080813%20Information%20on%20WCPC.pdf