The Henry Royce Institute was delighted to be represented at the official opening of the University of Cambridge’s New Whittle Laboratory where His Majesty The King joined leading figures from industry, academia and government to celebrate a major milestone for UK innovation in aerospace, energy and advanced manufacturing.
Royce CEO Professor David Knowles and Governing Board member Alan Newby, Group Director of Research and Technology at Rolls-Royce both attended the flagship opening.
The visit marked the official opening of the £58 million New Whittle Laboratory, a world-leading facility designed to accelerate the development of next-generation propulsion and power technologies.
Alongside Monday’s official opening the Frank Whittle Summit brought together major industrial businesses and tech giants to reignite Britain’s industrial engine in aerospace, energy and defence.
As the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation Royce welcomed the opportunity to contribute to discussions focused on strengthening the UK’s innovation ecosystem and translating world-leading research into industrial impact.
The event highlighted the importance of collaboration between universities, national research institutes and industry using AI to accelerate the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies.
The Summit brought together executives from companies including Rolls-Royce, Boeing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Siemens Energy, along with leading AI firms, senior government officials, entrepreneurs, investors and top researchers, to kickstart a series of missions to pioneer new technologies and industries in the UK.
Representatives from the UK’s world-leading innovation clusters and labs including Royce, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the Harwell Campus, the Silverstone Technology Cluster, and the Manufacturing Technology Centre, were also present at the Summit.
Royce’s presence reflects its commitment to enabling the materials innovation that underpins advances in sustainable aviation, clean energy, health, defence and high-value manufacturing. Through its national network of facilities and materials science expertise Royce works with partners across academia, industry and government to accelerate the discovery, scale-up and commercialisation of advanced materials.
The participation of Royce CEO and Governing Board member Alan Newby also reinforces the Institute’s longstanding relationship with Rolls-Royce and its wider mission to bring together the UK’s materials research community in support of national prosperity, sustainability and technological leadership.
Professor David Knowles said:
“It was a privilege to join leaders from across academia, industry and government at the Whittle Laboratory Summit to discuss how we can turn the UK’s world-class research into real-world impact. The fantastic conversations reinforced that the UK’s strength isn’t just in discovering new materials, but in connecting data, design, manufacturing and scale-up so that breakthrough ideas become competitive products.
“We already have exceptional capability across the UK’s materials innovation ecosystem our challenge now is to strengthen collaboration, leverage our existing infrastructure, improve the way we share and use data and accelerate the journey from proof of concept to industrial deployment.
“It was also an honour to meet His Majesty The King during the event, alongside Alan Newby, who will shortly stand down from our Governing Board, and who has made an outstanding contribution to Royce over the past six years. We thank Alan for his leadership and continued support of Royce and wish him every success for the future.”
Read more: https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/the-king-officially-opens-cambridges-new-whittle-laboratory
