The University of Bath (www.bath.ac.uk) is to receive £10 million from the West of England Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) towards the cost of building the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS) — a research centre to develop ultra-low-emission vehicles.

This is in addition to a capital investment of £28.9 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s UK Research Partnership Investment Fund; it will enable construction of the facility to start next summer.

Due to open in 2020, IAAPS will be a global centre of excellence, delivering transformational research and innovation.

Located at the Bristol and Bath Science Park, it will lead the development of future generations of ultra-low-emission vehicles and will attract sector-related businesses to the region.

It will exploit the engineering expertise of the university for the benefit of the UK’s automotive industry, stimulating over £67 million in additional automotive research investment by 2025, creating an additional turnover of £800 million for the UK automotive sector and supporting nearly 1,900 skilled jobs.

Automotive companies including McLaren, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Hofer Powertrain and Horiba Group, as well as more local businesses such as HiETA Technologies, have been key to the success of the IAAPS concept.

Professor Steve Egan, vice-president (implementation), said: “This grant is another important milestone in turning our Institute into a reality. We are delighted to receive such significant funding from the West of England Combined Authority and LEP.

“Our industrial partners in the automotive industry and beyond have played a key role in our progress so far and will continue to be vital to our future success.”