Prime Highlights
- UK’s NCC leads one-to-one business advice in £9.8 million Greater South West Robotics Adoption Hub to speed automation adoption.
- Hub offers site visits, demonstrations, and proof-of-concept activities to help businesses adopt robotics across sectors including maritime and aerospace manufacturing.
Key Facts
- Innovate UK provides £7.2 million, and project partners add £2.6 million to the Hub.
- Bristol Robotics Laboratory leads the Hub, one of eight Robotics Adoption Hubs funded across the UK.
Background
The UK’s National Composites Centre (NCC) will lead business advice for the Greater South West Robotics Adoption Hub, a new £9.8 million program that helps companies adopt robotics and automation.
NCC will run the one-to-one advisory service. Advisers will help companies spot automation opportunities, assess solutions, build investment cases, and connect with expertise and finance. The service draws on NCC’s advanced manufacturing experience and its work on the Made Smarter program.
Bristol Robotics Laboratory, through the University of Bristol, leads the Hub with UWE Bristol and NCC. It unites 23 partners from industry, academia, and local government, and secured £7.2 million from Innovate UK plus £2.6 million from partners. It is one of eight Robotics Adoption Hubs funded across the UK.
Katy Riddington, Managing Director of Supporting Growth at NCC, said robotics can lift productivity, improve consistency, and ease workforce pressures, and that firms benefit from guidance on where to start. She said NCC will work with businesses to find where robotics can help and build a clear case for adoption.
The Hub will let businesses see robotics in action through site visits, demonstration facilities, and proof-of-concept activities, and an ecosystem program will connect businesses, suppliers, and support groups through events and networking.
Professor Arthur Richards of the University of Bristol, the project lead, said the Hub will help businesses of all sizes adopt the right robots with confidence. The Hub will support sectors including maritime and aerospace manufacturing.
