Government Minister Opens New £9m Research Facility

The Labour Government Minister for Higher Education, David Lammy MP, officially opened a new £9 million world-class centre of excellence in global navigation satellite systems and geospatial sciences at the University of Nottingham in March.

The striking Nottingham Geospatial Building, which houses three inter-related groups — the Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy (IESSG), the Centre for Geospatial Science (CGS) and GRACE, the GNSS Research and Applications Centre of Excellence - is the latest addition to the University’s successful new Innovation Park, which is set in a 12-acre site adjacent to Jubilee Campus and offers high quality incubation space for small- and medium-sized businesses and access to University researchers, facilities and support.

Welcoming the Minister, Professor Chris Rudd, the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Knowledge Transfer said: “The Nottingham Geospatial Building represents what we do best here at Nottingham — world-leading research and close collaboration with industry to fast-track the latest technological developments and to stimulate a flow of highly-trained future employees.”

The new building has been designed as a sustainable, low-carbon facility and was funded by a combination of a £3.4 million grant from the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and University investment. It features research laboratories, testing facilities, industrial outreach and business development projects.

The IESSG is an internationally-leading postgraduate teaching and research centre, funded by Government and European bodies, research councils and industry with a current portfolio of around £3 million. It is one of a handful of academic institutions in Europe involved in the development of the new European satellite positioning system Galileo and was recognised in 2001 by the European Commission as the Marie Curie Training Site in The Technology and Applications of Global Navigations Satellite Systems (GNSS).