New National Automotive Innovation Centre will give JLR a huge step into the future of automotive innovation.

• £150 million National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) will open in Spring 2017, providing a state-of-the-art technology hub for Jaguar Land Rover’s advanced research team and collaborative partners from  the supply chain and academia
• To keep the UK and Jaguar Land Rover at the forefront of global innovation, the team will develop the vehicles and personal mobility solutions of the future
• The NAIC will focus on inspiring the next generation of engineers – from schoolchildren to undergraduates. This will develop the skills required to keep the UK globally competitive
• The development of the new NAIC facility will complement Jaguar Land Rover’s product research and development  centres in Gaydon and Whitley
• NAIC is a partnership between the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG),  Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) and UK Government’s Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE)

Mr Ratan Tata (Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group), Mr Cyrus Mistry (Chairman of Tata Group) and Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer Dr Ralf Speth joined Professor Lord Bhattacharyya (Chairman and Founder of WMG) to unveil the foundation stone for the new National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) at the University of Warwick today.

The ceremony marked the formal launch of the construction phase for the £150 million project which will create a new, cutting-edge UK automotive technology, innovation and education centre.

The 33,000 sq m facility, which is due to open in Spring 2017, will become the hub for Jaguar Land Rover’s advanced research and will boast cutting-edge workshops, laboratories, virtual engineering suites and advanced powertrain facilities, equipped to enable a full range of design, visualisation and prototyping activities.

The development of the NAIC project is the next stage in Jaguar Land Rover's strategy to develop its global R&D and engineering capability. Jaguar Land Rover today employs more than 8000 engineers and designers in the UK and is investing more than ever before in new technologies, skills and facilities. In the financial year 2015/16 the business will invest up to £3.8bn in product creation.

Dr Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The National Automotive Innovation Centre will serve as a generator of new skills and new thinking, providing a perfect, collaborative environment in which to learn, research and develop the designs and technologies that will shape the vehicles and personal mobility solutions of the future.

“As well as helping Jaguar Land Rover create key technologies that will deliver new experiences for our customers; smarter, safer and more connected cars and a low-carbon future, the centre will deliver wider benefits to the UK automotive industry. The NAIC will have a significant role inspiring the engineers of tomorrow and will help develop the skills we need the UK to nurture and develop to ensure we remain globally competitive.”

Along with hosting visits from schoolchildren to inspire them to begin a STEM-based career, the NAIC will also start to address the shortage of skilled R&D staff in the automotive supply chain. The aim is to help create a pipeline of people into companies nationwide, including the creation of many apprentices in specific areas of vehicle technology.

“The NAIC builds on the success we have enjoyed as part of our long-standing relationship with WMG at the University of Warwick. This collaboration is our blueprint for how we expand our capabilities when the NAIC opens its doors,” added Dr Speth. “I am delighted that we are now less than two years from realising the long-term strategic vision shared by Mr Ratan Tata and Professor Lord Bhattacharyya for a national hub for automotive innovation and skills.

“Their support and investment in the development of an innovation infrastructure here in the UK will help this country – and Jaguar Land Rover – remain at the forefront of global innovation in manufacturing and engineering for decades to come.”

When the centre opens in 2017, 1,000 highly-skilled people will work at the NAIC. The NAIC will enable Jaguar Land Rover to co-locate 600 of its engineers, researchers and technologists to work collaboratively with academics and R&D specialists from across the automotive supply chain.  Details of the specific research projects that will take place in the NAIC will be announced in due course, but these will be long-term, multi-disciplinary challenges – such as electrification, smart and connected cars and the Human Machine Interface.

The development of the new NAIC facility will complement Jaguar Land Rover’s product research and development centres in Gaydon and Whitley. While the NAIC will become the hub for our advanced research teams, Gaydon and Whitley will continue to be Jaguar Land Rover’s centres of excellence for engineering and product development.

JLR invests £100M in new research centre

• Jaguar Land Rover confirms its commitment to research and development in the UK, with a multi-million pound investment in a new technology, innovation and education centre at the University of Warwick
• National Automotive Innovation Campus (NAIC) construction begins September 2014

The facility will open in 2016 and Jaguar Land Rover will double the size of its advanced research team
Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled details of its future plans for advanced research and development in the UK which will now be focused on a new cutting-edge technology, innovation and education centre in Warwick.

The National Automotive Innovation Campus (NAIC) is designed to create a large-scale collaborative research environment. It will bring academics from the UK’s leading universities together with researchers and engineers from Jaguar Land Rover and our supply chain, in a single, multi-purpose, state-of-the-art research facility.

Jaguar Land Rover is the lead partner in the project investing £50m, along with Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC), WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group ) and the UK Government’s Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE).

Construction of the nearly £100m NAIC is scheduled to begin in September 2014 at the University of Warwick.  Around 1000 academics, researchers, technologists and engineers will work in the building, which will feature engineering workshops and laboratories, advanced powertrain facilities and the latest advanced design, visualisation and rapid prototyping technologies.

The development of the new facility, which will complement Jaguar Land Rover’s product creation centres in Gaydon and Whitley, will be co-ordinated by Dr Wolfgang Epple, Jaguar Land Rover’s  Director of Research and Technology. In this new board-level role, Dr Epple is leading Jaguar Land Rover's innovation and advanced research initiatives and has been appointed a Honorary Fellow at WMG.

Dr. Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Investing in collaboration, innovation, research and education is vital if we want to be on a par with our international competitors.  Our future sales success, the success of our global business – and the UK economy – lies in the engineering and innovation that will take place in NAIC.

“Creating a new national focus for automotive research and consolidating Jaguar Land Rover’s growing research and advanced engineering operations in one centre offers us huge potential. With a critical mass of research capability we will put the UK at the very centre of the global automotive industry – with the NAIC at its hub.”

The development of the NAIC project is the next stage in Jaguar Land Rover’s long-term research strategy and builds on the success Jaguar Land Rover has enjoyed as part of its long-standing relationship with WMG at the University of Warwick. Nearly 200 Jaguar Land Rover researchers and engineers are currently based at WMG, collaborating with university experts on a number of projects.

Jaguar Land Rover expects that it will more than double the size of its advanced research team to 500 people by the time the NAIC opens in 2016.

Antony Harper, Jaguar Land Rover’s Head of Research, said: “We will announce the details of the specific research projects on which our NAIC research team will collaborate in due course, but these will be long-term, multi-disciplinary challenges – such as electrification, smart & connected cars and Human Machine Interface – which will help us create some key new technologies that will deliver a low-carbon future.

“These collaborative research programmes will harness the best of UK engineering innovation, and with the extra capability the NAIC gives us, you can expect the number and range of new, fresh innovative ideas that we patent, and then take to production in the future, will increase significantly.”

As well as the skills and knowledge that will be developed within these research projects, NAIC will have a key role in developing the skills of school children and engineering students, who will be able to use NAIC’s laboratories and a dedicated engineering education facility.

Dr. Wolfgang Epple added:  “Economic growth can only be sustained if we and our suppliers can find the right quality and quantity of skilled people.  We need to ensure that we are inspiring people to consider engineering and encourage a passion for science, technology and maths from a young age.

“The NAIC will become a centre of training and skills to help ensure we have enough young people wanting to develop a career in engineering and manufacturing. NAIC will also play a key role in nurturing the next generation of engineers and technologists.”