Making Welsh expertise more accessible to business and industry
Got a problem with corrosion?
Keen to reduce carbon emissions from your business?
Looking to test a new energy product or process?
We can introduce you to researchers in South Wales who have the relevant expertise.
One of SWITCH’s key roles will be to make Welsh research expertise more accessible to business and industry through a single hub: SWITCH Connect.
With a broad knowledge of all the researchers, businesses and partners across its Net Zero themes, SWITCH Connect will make connections that might otherwise be difficult for one group to coordinate.
It means that advances towards Net Zero can be accelerated into the places where they will have most impact.
Over more than a decade, the research groups and projects involved with SWITCH have worked with hundreds of companies.
The list includes: large multi-nationals like Tata Steel, Bosch and Airbus; Welsh organisations like Dŵr Cymru, Natural Resources Wales and Transport for Wales; energy and construction companies including Octopus, National Grid and Costain; plus countless SMEs across the UK (see the animation below for a longer list).
Their combined efforts have created practical solutions through:
- Research to improve products and processes – for example, the Steel and Metals Institute supported Wall Colmonoy Ltd. to develop a new corrosion resistant alloy.
- Industrial scale demonstration of new technologies and systems – such as SPECIFIC’s Active Office demonstrator building, which has helped to de-risk the commercial development of new low carbon energy technologies and systems.
- Data modelling and simulation – for example, Cardiff University researchers provided simulation studies, models and technical recommendations to convert an AC transmission line to DC, making long-distance transport of renewable electricity more efficient.
- Training for employees – more than 1,000 people have benefitted from METaL project’s materials and manufacturing courses.
SWITCH brings this vast network together for the first time.
It will make links between decarbonisation research that has been – and is being – done in the region and the industries that need it, in order to deliver lasting change.
