Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Knowledge Transfer Network event

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) has £93m allocated to the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (RAI) sector. Naturally, with such an investment it makes perfect sense to maximise the value from such a budget. Part of the value is derived from the results expected from each separate project, of which there are many in this fund. But a wider part of the value to be harvested from such a fund is the cross-pollination of ideas and approaches that can occur when those involved in the separate work streams come together in an event focused on a common theme.

An event was hosted by the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) on 21st February and brought together representatives from the £93m ISCF fund who are involved in various capacities. Those capacities include; research programmes, demonstration programmes and the Hubs (of which RAIN is one of the four).

Barry Lennox (RAIN PI) and John Jukes (RAIN PM) represented the RAIN Hub at the event.

A similar event was held twelve months ago, and it presented an opportunity for networking and improving awareness of the planned developments across the different work streams. This time around, a selection of success stories were shared, which helped show that the funding is being used in a demonstrably beneficial way.

Barry shared a presentation on the CARMA platform, which is the first fully autonomous robot to be deployed on the Sellafield site. You’ll remember CARMA, it’s the wheeled, path-planning, autonomous radiation detector. The platform is also going to be commercialised with Nuvia Limited. It’s a great example of a user-defined challenge moving from the stage of an idea, through into a functional prototype and now going further into a commercial solution to form business as usual in a nuclear environment.

There were other great success stories shared in the event and we wish everyone else who is part of the ISCF fund the very best with their endeavours and we look forward to hearing from you next time around.