Pioneering collaboration praised in prestigious national awards

The innovative partnership was shortlisted in the Engineer’s Collaborate to Innovate Awards in the Aerospace and Defence Category.

Now in its fifth year, the Collaborate to Innovate Awards were established to uncover and celebrate great examples of technology-led engineering collaboration across a range of different disciplines and sectors.

The results from the annual competition were unveiled today (February 2^nd 2021), as part of special Collaborate To Innovate Week hosted on The Engineer’s website.

The collaboration between the University of Exeter and SC Innovation-Global has grown in strength over a number of years.

The collaboration started with engineering students doing projects on real life problems at SC Innovation, which then grew to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership awarded to Supacat and the University. That resulted in development of a new first in class Electric All Terrain Mobile Platform (eATMP).

Apart from emissions reductions, silent running, and reduced heat signature, and the ability to provide significant power in the field, one major benefit of the new clean powertrain was its ability for transfer to other vehicles and platforms. SC Innovation-Global is now involved in projects scaling up this powertrain for larger defence vehicles.

Professor Chris Smith, project lead for the University of Exeter and Director of CFCM, said: “The Engineers at SC Innovation are a very capable group, with world class capabilities, who’re welcoming and open minded. I enjoy working with them immensely.

“The eATMP is a very capable vehicle and a fantastic architecture for further development. I’m sure this will only be the start of bigger things for SC Innovation. Given the capabilities and role of the eATMP the powertrain we developed is very different from its predecessors.”

Steve Austen, Engineering Director and Chief Engineer of SC Group and Associate Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter added: “Over two KTPs, our collaboration with Professor Smith, Professor Menon and the wider team at the University of Exeter has already led to profitable new revenue for Supacat.

“It has helped to position us at the vanguard of the electric revolution in design, production and conversion of specialist and off road vehicles, particularly in the commercial and defence sectors.

“Beyond impact on the bottom line, other indicators of successful collaborations are that they stimulate new skills and ways of working in partner organisations and are enjoyable to be part of. In this respect, the H-ATMP project has surpassed expectations.”

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) aim to help organisations improve their competitiveness and productivity through better use of the knowledge, technology and skills held within the UK knowledge base.

KTPs are funded by UKRI through Innovate UK with the support of co-funders, including the Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government, Invest Northern Ireland, Defra and BEIS.

Innovate UK manages the KTP programme and facilitates its delivery through a range of partners including the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Knowledge Bases and Businesses. Each partner plays a specific role in the support and delivery of the programme.