A multi-million-pound NISCO-UK Research Institute is to be established in the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester (www2.le.ac.uk).
This was announced at a ceremony in China marking the 60th anniversary of NISCO — a joint venture between Hong Kong-listed Fosun International and Chinese state-owned Nanjing Iron and Steel Group that involves the manufacture of ferrous metals.
NISCO focuses on specialised applications including oil and gas pipeline steel, high-strength ship plate, wind-turbine plate and heat-treatment plate. As part of its growth plans, it is escalating its investment in R&D and internationalisation.
NISCO chairman Yixin Huang said: “The institute will focus on research and development activities in a number of areas, where the University of Leicester’s expertise can be used in areas of mutual interest.
(
www.networkrail.co.uk)It will be jointly supported by NISCO and the university to support research and potential collaboration with partners in the UK and Europe.”
Hong Dong, professor of materials engineering at the university, said: “This is a tremendous coup for the university, bringing our expertise to bear on international industrial processes for metal processing and production.
"The Research Institute will receive funding of £400,000 per year from NISCO over an initial period of five years, and the University of Leicester will co-invest through non-financial contributions.”
The technology focus of the institute will be on: low-carbon manufacture; novel manufacturing (robotics, AI, sensing) and casting technology; and new metallic materials.
There will be sponsored R&D projects that will be open to all UK universities and research organisations through a bidding process.