The Bridge comes a step closer

The University of Lincoln is delighted to announce that we have successful attracted funding totalling over £6M to support the creation of The Bridge, Lincolnshire’s Advanced R&D Centre. Funding has been awarded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership. The University is also making a significant contribution to the project.

The funding finally allows the concept of The Bridge to get off the ground. The Bridge project aims to provide a cutting edge environment for local engineering businesses to undertake advanced research on some of the worlds most pressing problems, from harnessing renewable energy to the generation of new materials to reduce our reliance on petrochemicals.

The funding that has been committed includes capitals funds for a building to house The Bridge, equipment money to bring sophisticated imaging technologies to Lincoln for the first time, as well as ring-fenced business-support funds to help engineering SMEs to access the infrastructure at reduced costs.

The University has committed to staffing the new facilities with dedicated personnel, so that businesses can access engineering and molecular science expertise. We will now be fast-tracking our preparations for The Bridge so that we can start to develop a community of materials engineers in Lincolnshire.

Dr Andrew Gill, newly appointed Commercial Manager of The Bridge said “this is an exciting time for engineers and basic scientists to live and work in Lincoln. The significant investment in the region in recent years will undoubtedly transform the region and allow us to build on our existing hi-tech sectors. I fully expect to see an increasing number of new developments from our region, centred upon agri-tech, renewable energy and chemicals, but with the award of this funding we can also add advanced material engineering to that list.”