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UK Business Secretary visits Innovation Centre

UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dr Vince Cable MP visited the Cummins Innovation Centre at the University of Nottingham in early June. The senior cabinet member's policy brief straddles industrial policy and universities so he understands the importance of effective partnerships between business and academia.

The University of Nottingham's Cummins Innovation Centre in Electrical Machines (CIC) is a multi-disciplinary group that pulls together academic staff and researchers from within the Faculty of Engineering, forming a centre of excellence in Electrical Machine Technology. The University has a long history of working with Cummins Generator Technologies on a wide range of electrical machines-related projects, including projects on electromagnetic and thermal modeling of synchronous generators, high speed machines for turbochargers and novel machine and control topologies for traction applications. As a result of this successful collaborative research, Cummins has decided to establish an Innovation Centre in Electrical machine technology.

Dr Cable was given a tour of the centre by Dr Neil Brown of Cummins Generator Technologies† and Professor Chris Gerada of the University of Nottingham. The central role that electrical machine technology will play in the development of the UK wind industry and automotive electrification were a specific focus for the visit. The business secretary left reassured that the two partners have a solid foundation for helping the meet the challenges of increasing efficiencies and cutting emissions in a range of domestic and industrial applications.