Chief Secretary to the Treasury commends IAAPS’ world leading R&I during visit

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen MP, paid IAAPS a visit during a tour of some of the most innovative enterprises and institutions in the South West of England. He was joined by Toby Savage, Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, Alka Graham and Rachael Hunt, local Emersons Green councillors, as well as John Wilkinson, Director of the Western Gateway.

IAAPS’ Engineering Director Professor Rob Oliver and Professor Jonathan Knight, Vice President Enterprise at the University of Bath, provided an overview of the state-of-the-art facilities and capabilities onsite, including the pioneering R&I project pipeline into hydrogen technologies for the transport sector and some of the upcoming collaborations with major industry partners, including GKN Aerospace, among others. John Glen was notably impressed with the vital research that is being carried out at IAAPS and commended the significance of IAAPS’ work in the wider context of decarbonisation of the transport industry and the transition to net zero.

“It’s a phenomenal facility. I’m incredibly impressed by the world leading nature of the projects that are being undertaken here and are really contributing to the development of future technologies and their applications within the aerospace and automotive sectors. I’m delighted that numbers and concepts that I see in briefing papers on my desk are actually reality and the quality of the science and thinking here is remarkable,” he said.

Professor Oliver commented: “It was a pleasure to welcome John Glen to IAAPS and to have the opportunity to showcase our capabilities and the work we do here in support of low carbon propulsion in the automotive, aerospace and marine sectors. His interest and engagement were greatly appreciated. It is very rewarding to see that he has come away with a better understanding of the impact of our R&I programmes on the future transport technologies and the pursuit to get to net zero, and I’m hopeful that this insight will help shape future policy around this hugely important topic.”