Facilities

At the University of Salford, work has begun on the £16 million North of England Robotics Innovation Centre (NERIC) that is due to open in 2022. The new facility is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, with additional support from Research England, and will serve as a hub for small to medium-sized industries (SMEs) looking to design, test and validate innovation in this rapidly growing area. 

About the centre

The University’s North of England Robotics Innovation Centre (NERIC) has been awarded £3.6 million Research England Development (RED) funding from Research England, part of UK (United Kingdom) Research and Innovation, in a bid to accelerate innovation and research in the fast-moving world of robotics. 

The construction of the new centre was announced last year and is part of the £2.5 billion Crescent Masterplan that has the ambition to regenerate Salford, the wider city region as part of a 20-year agreement. 

The new centre will provide SMEs with a hub where they can access world-leading academics, where they can work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions and where they can test and validate these technologies in preparation for real-world deployment. 

Laboratories

Our laboratories and presentation space will serve as a hub for small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) looking to design, test and de-risk innovations in the rapidly growing area of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence. NERIC will support SME’s to implement robotic and automation solutions in many sectors including healthcare delivery, technology development, manufacturing, product design, built environment and infrastructure development, maintenance, and many others. 

The laboratories (365, 324 and 350 m²) are currently being equipped with the latest technologies which will include industrial and collaborative robots, autonomous mobile robots, with a focus on SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise) (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise) relevant use cases.  More updates will follow.