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EDC - A Centre of Excellence

November 2001

The Engineering Design Centre (EDC) has been named as a centre of excellence by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), having been identified as an Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMRC).

The EDC's new status brings with it £4.5 million of EPSRC funding over five years, much of which is matched by further industry support.The EDC has also been awarded a grant of £440k by the EPSRC to define effective research methodologies for Advanced Design Methods.

The Director of the EDC, Dr John Clarkson, explains the aims of the centre and the ways in which it hopes to promote good design:

"Over its ten year history the EDC has earned an international reputation for its research through its publications, software tools, and presentations (many invited) at international conferences; through collaborations with industry; and through networking with other design research groups. Its newly acquired IMRC status now leads to the possibility of immediate but carefully controlled growth, building on a number of strategic objectives, namely:

Research, focusing on high-quality fundamental research to provide the theories and methods that will underpin engineering design in the future;

Technology Transfer and Exploitation, transferring the research results into industry through technology transfer and exploitation to help enhance the UK's industrial competitiveness; and

Education, contributing to design education at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to help create a pool of well-educated designers.

With a team of over 40 people with expertise in a number of different industry sectors: aerospace, health-care, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) as well as general product design, we are driven by a desire to develop tools and techniques that will have a real impact on design in the UK."

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