£1.5m grant to power the future of electric transport research

The Wolfson Foundation has generously donated £1.5m to fund state-of-the-art equipment that will advance research into sustainable, electric transport at the University of Nottingham. The Aerospace and Electric Flight Test Cell Propulsion Unit will take pride of place in the new Power Electronics and Machines Centre, the flagship research facility, which is due to open in summer 2020. "The aerospace industry faces significant technological challenges as it strives towards all-electric flight propulsion in the coming decades. This significant new grant will support the University's position at the forefront of the revolution in automotive, aerospace and marine transportation, expanding our capacity to discover sustainable ways of transporting goods and people and reduce the global dependency on conventional fuel sources," explains Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Sam Kingman. Professor Pat Wheeler, Director of the Power Electronics and Machines Centre said, "The creation of a new test cell unit will enable our world-renowned Power Electronics, Machines and Control Research Group to progress its successful research into transport electrification concepts. "By accommodating a greater volume of interconnected equipment, the Group can emulate real environments at higher power levels and therefore model larger scale applications and systems to produce solutions to future power management challenges.