£½ m Product Development Centre advises business

In November, a state-of-the-art Product  Development Centre in the Faculty of Art and Design was launched by Paul Pankhurst.

Paul Pankhurst graduated with a first class degree in Product Design from Leicester Polytechnic, now DMU, in the 1970s and received an honorary doctorate from the University last year.

The Centre has attracted £ 1/2 million funding from Leicestershire Economic Partnership, to improve the performance of small and medium sized businesses across Leicestershire. It contains state of the art design and manufacturing equipment and software. It will offer design advice and support so that local businesses and consultancies can see the value of new product development techniques.

The Centre will act as a catalyst for energising many design and manufacturing businesses in the region and will lead to a greater number of design ideas becoming commercially viable.