Inventing future towns

Planning permission and funding have been agreed for the creation of a new building at Southampton Science Park. In an exciting collaboration, the new facility will enable leading academics and businesses to develop engineering and technological solutions to make the region’s towns cleaner, healthier, happier places to live and work.

The Future Towns Innovation Hub will be a collaborative environment for breakthrough engineering research and technologies. Bringing together university research and commercial enterprise, it will create an environment for innovative translation of research to commercial applications that will contribute to the economic growth of the local area and wider regions.

The Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, Research England and the University of Southampton are funding the £10m initiative, which aims to transform the towns and places of the region into modern, smart towns. It will do so by developing engineering solutions to solve the challenges of energy efficient housing, water conservation, sustainable transport, carbon neutral waste management and recycling, and improving health outcomes. Initially, the focus of the Hub’s work will be towns across Hampshire and Surrey.

Science Park CEO, Dr Robin Chave, commented: “Southampton Science Park, already a magnet for the commercialisation of research and new technologies in the south, is uniquely positioned to host this new facility and we are delighted to be at the forefront of this exciting initiative. I’m absolutely confident that the positive societal impacts arising from the outputs of this new centre will resonate significantly beyond our region’s boundaries and for generations to come.”