It all started a couple of years ago. The Automotive Innovation and Growth team organised a study, under the chairmanship of Ian Gibson, the head of Nissan, to examine the issues around the growth and survival of the UK automotive industry. Seven recommendations emerged ranging from the need to improve skills within the industry by setting up an Automotive Academy through to reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Some of the ideas to emerge were new, others built on various initiatives going on around the country such as Foresight Vehicle. In particular, two new centres of ex- cellence were proposed, one to tackle the issues around global climate change and the end of the carbon economy, and the other to drive developments within intelligent transport systems. A report was sent to the DTI in May 2003 and, to cut a long story short, in the fullness of time the DTI pledged a sum of money to implement all seven recommendations.
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