The University of Warwick, Advanced Propulsion Centre, and Zenzic have joined the Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme, which launches today with a kick-off event at Jaguar Land Rover’s research collaboration hub at the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC). The University of Warwick becomes the programme’s founding academic partner.
Recently created by global innovation platform and prolific early-stage investor Plug and Play, alongside founding partner Jaguar Land Rover, Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme will create an innovation hub that is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme will build an ecosystem of startups and scaleups, corporates, investors, and academia to explore the challenges and solutions that will define a sustainable future for the mobility sector, create jobs, and help shape the digital economy.
As one of the UK’s leading research-led universities, the University of Warwick will play a pivotal role within the programme, including:
- Showcasing new research that is ready to be commercialised through licencing, startups, and spinouts
- Showcasing its own innovation ecosystem, the Warwick Innovation District; and
- Engaging with students as the next generation of innovators, startup founders, and business leaders.
Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick, said: “Becoming the founding academic partner to Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme, demonstrates our commitment to cutting-edge research and long-term commercial partnerships. We will bring our rigorous approach and globally leading thinking to support exciting new startups both in the West Midlands and further afield.”
The Advanced Propulsion Centre provides funding and support to organisations building cutting-edge technologies, with the mission to achieve green transport. It also manages the £1 billion Automotive Transformation Fund, which invests in ventures contributing to the development of a high-value end-to-end electrified automotive supply chain in the UK.
Ian Constance, CEO at The Advanced Propulsion Centre, said: “This initiative will encourage collaboration and innovation to grow, bringing together UK-based automotive and mobility-related organisations, investors, and the wider ecosystem. We hope it offers opportunities for development in products and processes to the corporate partners signed up, as well as providing a much-needed boost for tech startups to accelerate their progress.”
Zenzic brings together industry, Government and academia to accelerate the development of the UK’s connected and self-driving vehicle ecosystem. It already collaborates with Plug and Play to run the CAM Scale-Up programme, which offers selected startups and SMEs opportunities to develop innovative connected and autonomous mobility solutions at pace.
The Plug and Play UK Mobility programme will interact with other mobility-focused Plug and Play programmes in locations around the world, including Silicon Valley, Detroit, Stuttgart, Modena, Beijing, and Shanghai, which support more than 70 mobility partners.
Kieran Borrett, Director of Plug and Play UK, said: “The innovation required to deliver an economically and environmentally sustainable future for mobility – and one that also delivers high-quality customer experiences – will depend on collaboration between a broad spectrum of stakeholders from across the private and public sectors, from OEMs to local and central government, academia to investors, and of course innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups. With the University of Warwick, the Advanced Propulsion Centre, and Zenzic joining founding partner Jaguar Land Rover as part of our Mobility programme, we’ll be launching later this month with an impressive group of collaborators – and there will be more to come!”
Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme will leverage the National Automotive Innovation Centre – located at the University of Warwick – for key programme elements, alongside other sites according to partners’ needs. Speaking ahead of the kick-off event today at the NAIC.
François Dossa, Executive Director, Strategy & Sustainability at Jaguar Land Rover, said: “The University of Warwick offered unrivalled academic expertise in this sector, and by collaborating with them through Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme we will be able to develop the technologies of the future. The hub’s home at the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) is strategically close to our key research, engineering, and manufacturing sites, which will enable us to foster a true Open Innovation culture across the entire business. Alongside the new partners announced today we will help shape the future of mobility for our customers and beyond.”
Further partners to the programme will be announced soon.