Bloc Digital wins Innovate UK grant to build AI manufacturing testbed

What's the deal? Bloc DigitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has secured an Innovate UK grant to lead AI-STREAMS, a feasibility study exploring an AI manufacturing "test centre" at the University of Derby. The project will evaluate AI solutions in a real manufacturing environment, working with the university and foundry firm AluCastDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.

What's the endgame? Bloc wants to help manufacturing SMEs extract more value from the data their operations already generate. The focus, it said, "isn't the volume of data available" but connecting fragmented sources to see "how operational events influence one another."

How it works: Bloc will enhance blocHub, its data platform, to combine enterprise systems, machine data, production schedules, and energy use in one secure environment. Controlled machining trials aim to spot early signs of process drift "before they contribute to downtime, waste or reduced productivity."

Who's involved? The University of Derby brings AI, data analytics, and digital twin expertise, led on the data side by associate professor Dr Hong Qing Yu. A university engineering team under Professor Paul Wood will build an industrial testbed with AluCast.

Yu said the project aims to help manufacturers "identify issues sooner, reduce the likelihood of unplanned downtime and unlock greater value from the information they already possess."

The signal: Grant-backed collaboration between a tech firm, a university, and an industrial partner points to how smaller manufacturers may adopt AI — through shared public funding and controlled trials rather than costly in-house deployment.

Read more: marketingderby.co.uk

Image credit: Generated with Gemini