Warwick Manufacturing Group
| Established | 1980 |
|---|---|
| Director | Professor Lord (Kumar) Bhattacharyya |
| Address | Coventry, United Kingdom |
| Campus | Semi-rural (University of Warwick) |
| Website | www.wmg.warwick.ac.uk |
The Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) is an academic department at the University of Warwick, providing research, education and knowledge transfer in engineering, manufacturing and technology. The group provides taught and research degrees for postgraduate students at the University of Warwick campus in England, and at overseas centres in China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Cyprus, Russia and Thailand.
The Warwick Manufacturing Group was founded in 1980 by Kumar Bhattacharyya to support the reinvigoration of UK manufacturing through research and knowledge transfer (Bhattacharyya, made a life peer in 2004, remains chairman of WMG). Its first venture was a part-time master's degree for senior industry staff; this considered technology and management as a unified whole, with modules taught at a purpose-built residential centre. While the course was initially criticised by academics, it proved popular with industry and companies began to send staff to WMG in greater numbers.
Bhattacharyya then decided to provide industry-related research services too, convincing the university to loan money for a centre where academics could collaborate with industrialists on the development of new products for the aerospace and automotive industries. The building was officially opened on 8 January 1990 by Margaret Thatcher and its success (and the income generated) allowed WMG to build two further buildings to enable expansion into other areas, including healthcare, construction, pharmaceuticals, mining, information technology and food and drink where learning from the manufacturing industry could be applied to similar processes and services.
In 2007, the group rebranded as WMG (instead of Warwick Manufacturing Group) to reflect its move to more diverse activities outside its manufacturing roots.
WMG is based in six buildings on the University of Warwick campus:
The group is leading the construction of the new National Automotive Innovation Centre on the University campus.
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