Stimulating economic growth

University hosts visit from BIS Director General of Business and Science

The UK Government’s Director General of Business and Science has visited the University to see the new Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre and meet the first cohort of students at the University’s centre of excellence for software engineering in Wales.

Gareth Davies leads the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ work to stimulate economic growth through research, innovation and commercialisation, and on start-ups and enterprise.

Hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, Gareth started his visit at the National Software Academy where he met with students working on real-life projects as part of their three-year degree studies under the mentorship of experienced software engineers from industry.

Set up last year to address the national shortfall of skilled programming and software engineering graduates, the National Software Academy recently picked up the ‘Collaborative Partnership prize’ at the fourth annual ESTnet Awards in recognition of the innovation around applied teaching and its industrial partnerships.

Mr Davies was later shown around the Cardiff Catalysis Institute by Professor Graham Hutchings and heard how novel catalysis research is helping to make every day processes faster, cleaner, economical and more sustainable, before touring the newly completed Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre on the site of the University’s new £300m Innovation Campus.

The expanded facility houses a combination of neuroimaging equipment unique within Europe, which will help the Centre continue to further its world-leading research which has already established Cardiff University as one of the UK’s top three Universities for Neuroimaging, Psychology and Psychiatry.