July 21, 2010 5.19 pm This story is over 163 months old

Go-ahead for University’s Engineering Hub

Future-proof: The University of Lincoln got the green light from the City of Lincoln Council to build a £37m Engineering Hub.

The City of Lincoln Council granted permission for the University of Lincoln’s £37m School of Engineering, with works due to start in September. The building will host the first purpose-built Engineering School in the UK over the last 20 years.

The new development will create 129 new jobs, and would welcome 20 full-time and 24 part-time students. The first batch of students will be hosted in the Think Tank on Ruston Way, until the new building is finalised in September 2011.

Next to the £5 million build cost, principal expenditure centres around set-up, infrastructure and teaching equipment.

“The Engineering School represents the efforts of individuals and groups within the University of Lincoln and Siemens who believe that this School will make a significant contribution to both the local and national economy in years to come,” said Professor Paul Stewart, Head of the School of Engineering.

“My staff and I are absolutely delighted with the news that planning has been granted. Although still only in our first year of existence, we have been overwhelmed by the level of interest in the School’s activities in terms of teaching, research and enterprise,” Stewart added.

The school set to open in September 2011, and will create 129 new jobs in the city.

The University of Lincoln’s School of Engineering attracted funding from the a number of regional agencies, a grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and includes a significant investment from one of Lincoln’s largest employers, Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Ltd.

The main contractor on the build was local construction firm Lindum Group and received funding from an ERDF grant (£1.83million) and Lincolnshire County Council (1.18million).

“The main focus of our collaboration with the University of Lincoln is to enable education and training for the calibre of people we need in a world-class engineering company such as ours,” said Willi Meixner, Divisional Managing Director for Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Ltd.

Source, Photo: University of Lincoln