Event marks official launch of Uni’s new £13m Future Advanced Metrology Hub

Pictured is Professor Dame Jane Jiang at the event

The University of Huddersfield has marked the official launch of its Future Advanced Metrology Hub for Sustainable Manufacturing with a day-long event.

The new Hub began in September and sees Huddersfield leading a £13.3 million project to help advance sustainable manufacturing, with a focus on metrology – the science of measurement.

UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announced funding last year of £11m towards the new advanced manufacturing hub in a bid to enable net zero manufacturing.

The Hub’s focus is on developing groundbreaking new technologies to enable a step change in capability for process monitoring and control.

World-renowned expert in the field of advanced metrology Professor Dame Xiangqian (Jane) Jiang leads the seven-year project which is based at the University’s Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT).

The launch event itself took place on campus in the University’s Oastler Building and was opened by Professor Bob Cryan, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield. Attendees were also given a tour of the Hub’s facilities across campus, including labs in the Laura Annie Willson, Spärck Jones and Haslett buildings.

It also brought together high-profile speakers from across the discipline, including:

• Professor John Loughhead, the former Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who has accepted the role of Chair of the Hub’s Strategic Advisory Board.
• Dr Anke Davis, the Head of Manufacturing and Circular Economy at the EPSRC.
• Adam Thompson MP, a former scientist with a background in metrology research, now a Member of Parliament and member of the Government’s Science Innovation and Technology Committee.
• Dr Blake Kendrick, Global Industrial Automation Sales and Marketing Director at industrial partner Renishaw.
• Dr Stuart Christie, Project Manager at Wayland Additive Limited, a local company developing ground-breaking eBeam additive manufacturing machines.

Professor Jiang, who is a Professor of Precision Metrology at the University, the chief scientist at the CPT and director of the Future Advanced Metrology Hub for Sustainable Manufacturing, commented: "We're delighted to have been joined by so many friends and colleagues from across the metrology community. The launch of our new Hub marks an exciting period for my team and I, with many opportunities to work with new partners from a wide array of fields."

Professor Cryan commented: “It was a pleasure to welcome our academic and industrial partners to campus to celebrate the launch of the University’s Future Advanced Metrology Hub for Sustainable Manufacturing.

“It is a testament to the research excellence of our team of scientists at the Centre for Precision Technologies that the University of Huddersfield was selected to be at the centre of advancements in sustainable manufacturing by leading this new Metrology Hub.

“This has been made possible by significant funding from the ESPRC, which amounts to one of the largest research grants the University of Huddersfield has ever received.”

The new Hub includes research spokes at The University of Southampton, The University of Oxford, Heriot-Watt University and Queen's University Belfast. The project also involves innovation spokes at catapult centres the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham, as well as the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, which also has a North of England base on campus in Huddersfield.

More than 25 industrial partners, including Renishaw, Machine Tool Technologies (MTT), Taylor Hobson, Cummins and Siemens, are a key part of the project, which is expected to reach a total value of £24.3m when funding from the consortium is factored in.

The new Hub builds directly upon the success of the University’s first Future Metrology Hub, which launched in 2017 with ESPRC funding.