Renewable Engine is an exciting €6.1m cross-border Research & Innovation project aimed at facilitating direct knowledge transfer and technology development within the Advanced Manufacturing and Renewable Energy sectors. Research themes focus on Energy Generation, Energy Storage and enabling technologies, including Industry 4.0 and Augmented Reality. Renewable Engine involves an internationally recognised cross-border research super-cluster involving four research institutes. Led by South West College, Renewable Engine operates across a network of research institutes including Queen’s University Belfast, Institute of Technology Sligo and the University of Strathclyde’s High-Value Manufacturing Catapult. The project delivers dedicated research support to industry through 12 PhD researchers and a further 4 postdoctoral researchers, bridging the “innovation gap” typically observed between academic and commercial entities.
The project exists across the eligible region of Northern Ireland, Border Region of Ireland and Western Scotland and is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), with match funding provided by the Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland) and Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Republic of Ireland). The €283m INTERREG VA Programme is one of 60 similar funding programmes across the European Union that have been designed to help overcome the issues that arise from the existence of a border. These issues range from access to transport, health and social care services, environmental issues and enterprise development. Since 1991 the INTERREG Programme has brought in approximately €1.13 billion into the region. This funding has been used to finance thousands of projects that support strategic cross-border co-operation in order to create a more prosperous and sustainable region.