University scheme to help firms 'adopt robotics'
The £3.67m Yorkshire Robotics Hub at the University of Bradford is hoping to bridge the "automation gap".
**University scheme to help firms 'adopt robotics'**
Professor Sherif El-Khamisy said the hub is an exciting development for the university
A university in West Yorkshire has secured funding for a multimillion-pound robotics initiative designed to help companies use the technology to grow their businesses.
The £3.67m Yorkshire Robotics Hub in Bradford is aiming to close the "automation gap", according to the city's university, and has received partial backing from government body Innovate UK.
The University of Bradford said the scheme would support businesses to "adopt robotics and automation technologies", and would work with more than 300 manufacturers.
Professor Sherif El-Khamisy, the university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Global Engagement, said the project was not intended to cut human jobs.
"It will generate and create new jobs in fact, because the more we start adopting those robotics and automations in the production the more demand would be for the engineers and the experts," he said.
"Robotics doesn't mean that a robot that can bring you something in a restaurant or something like that.
"It is about enabling businesses to have automations embedded in their manufacturing pipeline to increase the efficiency of the production."
The project involves the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire Manufacturing Services, the University of Huddersfield and Olympus Technologies.
The University of Bradford says the hub will work with more than 300 manufacturers
The university says the UK currently has about 104 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees - far below the global average of 177.
It added that the hub will operate across Yorkshire, with a focus on the M62 and M1/A1 industrial corridors.
Professor El-Khamisy said the project would also help the university by enabling it to build links with local companies and strengthen knowledge and research.
"We have a civic responsibility to the community, society and the region," he said.
"It will allow the university to fulfil that civic mission more efficiently and more robustly by having direct access to local companies and upskilling the workforce."