R&D Advanced Research Centre “to accelerate UK’s electrified future”
Andy Pye 6 December 2021 
Drive systems specialist GKN Automotive has launched the Advanced Research Centre to develop next-generation eDrive technologies for future electric vehicles and accelerate modular innovation.
Working in partnership with the University of Nottingham and Newcastle University, the collaboration is designed to increase automotive electrification engineering capability in the UK. Both partner universities are part of the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s ‘spoke’ community. The initiative brings together specialist academic, technological, and commercial expertise from across the UK to share best practice for the development of low emission propulsion technologies.
GKN Automotive’s £3.5 million investment in the Advanced Research Centre, which is co-located across three leading engineering facilities, is being partly supported through the Melrose Skills Fund, to increase the automotive electrification knowledge capability and strengthen research and development in the UK.
The Centres are backed by £33m UK Government funding (UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), providing open access facilities with state-of-the-art equipment.
The project will be virtually shared between the engineering departments at the University of Nottingham and Newcastle University, with research teams at each university operating collaboratively with engineers at the GKN Automotive Innovation Centre.
Gordon Day, Managing Director, GKN Automotive Innovation Centre, said: “GKN Automotive is a pioneer of advanced eDrive development and this new research partnership will play a key role in strengthening the innovation of electrification technologies for future advanced propulsion systems.”
The University of Nottingham is the APC’s spoke for power electronics, and home to the Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) Industrialisation Centre – Midlands; while Newcastle University is the spoke for electric motors, and leads the national network of four DER Industrialisation Centres, including the Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre – North East.
