The New Whittle Laboratory is an excellent example of how we can turn world-class research into innovation and growth, and I look forward to seeing the pioneering technologies that will be developed here.

Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear

He met with researchers, government representatives, and industry leaders from the aviation and energy sectors to find out more about the Laboratory’s mission to shrink the time it takes to develop key technologies in aerospace, energy and defence from years to weeks, in order to accelerate UK growth.

The King last visited the Whittle Laboratory in 2023 – in his first engagement following the Coronation – to break ground on the New Whittle Laboratory. As The Prince of Wales, His Majesty previously visited the Whittle Laboratory in January 2020 and March 2022, as well as hosting an industry roundtable in February 2020 in London with the Sustainable Markets Initiative and World Economic Forum.

The New Whittle Laboratory encompasses two elements: the Bennett Innovation Lab – designed to launch 20-30 missions over a decade, each building a new industry in the UK; and the National Centre for Propulsion and Power: a rapid test facility designed to cut the time between ideas and testing from years to weeks.

Missions will involve small teams of elite engineering talent, operating in a culture which promotes risk and provides access to Formula 1-style rapid fabrication and testing.

Alongside Monday’s official opening, the Frank Whittle Summit brought together major industrial businesses and tech giants to reignite Britain’s industrial engine in aerospace, energy and defence. 

The Summit was hosted in partnership with the Sustainable Markets Initiative, founded in 2020 by the King – then the Prince of Wales – to help convene global business leaders, investors and innovators to accelerate the deployment of breakthrough technologies and strengthen collaboration between industry, academia and government. 

The Summit brought together executives from companies including Rolls-Royce, Boeing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Siemens Energy, along with leading AI firms, senior government officials, and top researchers, to kickstart a series of missions to pioneer new technologies and industries in the UK.

These missions will transform and accelerate the UK’s approach to innovation in hardware development and manufacturing across aerospace, energy and defence, harnessing AI and autonomous laboratories to shrink today’s multi-year technology development cycles from years to months. 

Representatives from the UK’s world-leading innovation clusters and labs, including the Henry Royce Institute, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the Harwell Campus, the Silverstone Technology Cluster, and the Manufacturing Technology Centre, were also present at the Summit.  

Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear, said: “The UK’s universities are among the best in the world, driving breakthroughs that will shape the future and transform lives. The New Whittle Laboratory is an excellent example of how we can turn world-class research into innovation and growth, and I look forward to seeing the pioneering technologies that will be developed here.” 

Professor Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Business and Trade, said: “To remain internationally competitive and at the forefront of critical industries for the UK economy – including aerospace, energy and defence – we must find new models to move much faster. We need to ensure that our great ideas support the growth of businesses in this country, and we believe the mission-led approach being pioneered through the New Whittle Laboratory and our other leading research clusters will be transformative in delivering this.” 

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “We need to speed up innovation in the UK’s engineering sector. The Bennett Innovation Lab offers the incredible opportunity for the UK to build a mission capability which can deliver the UK's leading science into new industries at an unparalleled pace. This will be a partnership between Cambridge and the other leading technology clusters and institutes across the UK. It’s only by building a partnership of the UK's leading clusters that we deliver the speed of technology development and deployment that the UK needs.” 

Professor Rob Miller, Chair in Aerothermal Technology and Director of the Whittle Laboratory at Cambridge, said the Summit also aimed to mobilise capital to support UK projects and engineering talent, turning scientific advantage into industrial strength. 

He said: “AI is dramatically accelerating hardware innovation across the aerospace, energy and defence sectors. Britain has the capacity and the audacity to compete and win in a global race.  

“What’s missing is a bold new approach that champions rapid iteration over incremental improvement. That’s why we’ve established the Bennett Innovation Lab – a sovereign capability designed to launch transformative new missions, each of which is designed to build or transform a UK industry.” 

• World-leading innovation must be in harmony with our planet, and the new Hatton Professorship of Sustainability at Cambridge was also celebrated at the Summit. Established to mark the coronation of the King – an alumnus of Trinity College – and his championing of sustainability, the Professorship is funded through a £7 million endowment, made up of £5 million from Trinity College and the Hatton Trust, and matched by £2 million from the University. The University of Cambridge will advertise the Professorship this summer, with the aim of the successful candidate starting before the end of the academic year 2026/27. The role at the University includes a Fellowship at Trinity College for the new appointee. 

Adapted from news articles on the official opening and landmark summit, first published on the University of Cambridge website.