Building Grace

Captions by www.SubPLY.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . Welcome to the University of Nottingham podcast. This week we're at Jubilee campus, where work has begun on a multi-million Pound facility in global navigation satellite systems. Acting as a business incubator, GRACE will encourage the creation of new companies in the East Midlands, and attract investments from companies and agencies from outside the region. GNSS Research and Applications Center of Excellence Basically, what it stands for is a new center of excellence. So we'll build on all the teaching and research excellence, which already exists at the University of Nottingham, and expand on that. They will provide business incubation units, project offices, research sweets, new state of the art training equipment and training facilities, including a test track which is on top of the building, which is a rail track where we can test the dynamic applications of GNSS applications. So you're going to have a railroad track on top of your building? -That's right. Quite unusual. -Yeah, it's quite a compact, obviously the building in total is about 2,000 square meters, so we can't get a massive track in there. But it's there to actually demonstrate and test the applications in a dynamic environment. One of the main reasons for creating this center is that it forms a bridgehead between academic research and applied research, and actual applications in industry. So as I said, one of the main features of this new building is going to be that it will have business incubation offices and project offices, which means that we will be looking to spin businesses out based upon the technical readiness level of projects that are running through the center, and attract companies in, as well. It's a fantastic flagship development on a site that's being regenerated and is steeped in history, because the connection is, obviously, being the old manufacturing site for Rally. It's got some fantastic buildings on that site, as well with the gateway center, which I think is due to open very shortly. And although the GRACE building doesn't actually become operational until October of 2009, we're open for business now, which is why I am here. And obviously businesses and projects that come into the region can go and locate themselves at the Jubilee campus. Just to demonstrate the reason why we're doing GRACE, is that the building that I'm in now, the ISSG, is a research driven facility. And although the academics here support undergraduate courses and teach undergraduate courses, the main thrust of the activity here is around post-graduate research. And one of the spin out companies that's already been formed out of ISSG is a company called Nottingham Scientific LTD, which is headed up by the former head of the ISSG, Professor Vidal Ashkenazi. And they've grown in size because of the continued uptake of GPS and the advents of Galileo, and things like that. And they are twenty people now. So there is a big future for businesses in this industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . Captions by www.SubPLY.com