Member Article

New EU-funded initiative seeks to work with North East technology businesses

North East technology businesses are in line to be boosted by a new EU-funded initiative at Newcastle University, designed to fund innovation activities.

The Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering Labs (CPSE labs) programme helps engineering and technology businesses access expert support and facilities at six leading laboratories across Europe, including the Cyber-Physical Systems lab (CPS lab) in Newcastle University’s School of Computing Science.

The Newcastle lab is open now, but will ultimately be based at Science Central, Newcastle’s £250m flagship project bringing together academia, the public sector, communities, business and industry to create a global centre for urban innovation.

The University’s researchers are encouraging companies in North East England to apply now to the CPSE Labs programme for support.

Professor John Fitzgerald, who is leading the CPS lab at Newcastle University, said: “At our Newcastle CPS lab we’ve come up with design techniques that integrate the digital and physical worlds which are so often separated in traditional engineering.

“This allows companies to model possible future products in the round – not just the software alone, not just the physical design, but both together. The CPS lab gives them the advantage of exploring different designs and to model the optimum solution prior to building a physical demonstrator.”

Professor Fitzgerald continued: “We have found that people working on the computing and physical aspects of a product tend to speak different languages in design. We are allowing them to talk and work together to better manage the risks of product innovation, and to build something that’s fit for purpose the first time around.

“We’re using these techniques with companies that design products like electric vehicles, building management systems, and even agricultural machinery, to help them solve critical design problems sooner rather than later in product development.

While the EU funds specific calls through CPSE labs worth up to £150k per company, local businesses can also work with the Cyber-Physical lab with support from the University’s Innovation Fund to undertake consultancy and tailored guidance for product development.

“We want to work with companies in the North East and throughout Europe to help them develop and improve their products”, added Professor Fitzgerald.