London 24 marzo 2015 14:30
The UK Defence Solutions Centre is an industry-first, bringing together the very best minds from across the defence industry to develop world-beating products and services for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and international customers.
The opening marks the launch of a key initiative set out by the DGP as part of an implementation plan announced by the Prime Minister at the Farnborough International Airshow in 2014. The DGP is a partnership through which industry and Government seek to ensure that the UK continues to develop a thriving defence sector capable of delivering security, growth and prosperity.
Recognising the need for greater cooperation across industry, the DGP identified the UK Defence Solutions Centre as a way to better address the major challenges facing the sector, and develop innovative defence solutions for customers around the globe, including the MoD. The UK DSC will engage the entire defence value chain, from large multinational primes, mid-tier companies, the impressive diversity of small and medium sized companies as well as academia and technologists.
Sir Brian Burridge, VP Defence ADS and Senior Vice President Finmeccanica S.p.A., said: "These types of challenges act as a real motivator to university research departments, SMEs and the laboratories of the larger companies to work together over the integration of highly innovative technology to create solutions that actually work and are capable of commercial exploitation. The DSC with its systematic, collaborative and transparent approach is ideally placed to meet this important challenge and we are grateful to the Ministry of Defence for entrusting us with the task so early in our formation."
Operating as a ‘hub’, the UK DSC will work to maximise the potential of existing research and development, and manufacturing support. It will bring together experts from leading companies throughout the sector so that they can work collaboratively in a pre-competitive environment to deliver tailored services and products which meet long-term requirements of international customers - enabling the UK to grow its global market share.
The UK DSC is an integral component of the DGP jointly resourced by Government and industry, with BIS providing £5.4 million and industry providing people resource to support the establishment and operation of the Centre up until 2017/18. It will have a permanent central core of staff, with around 25-30 people, operating independently of the partner companies.
As a centre for coordinating strategic planning, the UK DSC will facilitate new ways of working and business models to better meet the challenges of a changing economic environment; and it will provide technology and skills road maps to enable more effective business planning across the industry.
The UK DSC is open to involvement from organisations across a range of sectors. It aims to ‘unlock’ Britain’s wider industrial infrastructure in order to maximise research and development opportunities, manufacturing support, expertise, and capability. Many SMEs are already involved in projects and studies underway.
In order to engage with a broad customer base the Centre will work closely with the UKTI’s Defence and Security Organisation. A dedicated Customer Advisory Group is to invite customers from around the world, as well as the UK MOD, to explore future needs and requirements.