Upskilling the country’s workforce within the engineering domain:
State-of-the-art Engineering Research & Innovation Laboratories inaugurated at UM’s Msida Campus
After having embarked on a large-scale Infrastructural Project to further strengthen Engineering-related Research in Malta, named the Transdisciplinary Research & Knowledge Exchange Project (TRAKE), the University of Malta is proud to be inaugurating the Engineering Research & Innovation Laboratories (ERIL), a reinforcement of the University as a research-intensive higher education institution.
The inauguration comes at a significant time; the 60th anniversary since the University of Malta first offered an educational programme in engineering.
Accompanied by Malta’s Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, Hon. Clifton Grima, and Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Research and Innovation, Hon. Keith Azzopardi Tanti, Prime Minister Dr Robert Abela was given a tour of the premises, before he officially inaugurated the building.
The TRAKE project, costing €39M, was partly funded through the European Regional Development Fund with the rest funded by the Maltese Government. It commenced in 2016, was awarded funding in 2017 and completed at the end of 2023, and embodies a consolidation of the engineering facilities on campus and leverages the smart specialisation strategy established by the Malta Council for Science and Technology to invest in facilities that contribute to the Maltese industry at large.
“Today, we celebrate a milestone of huge impact for the Faculty, its off-shoot entities and collaborators, but also for the engineering profession and industry at large. This transformational project was conducted on the premise that the country has pre-existing knowhow, a supporting private industry and a reasonably well-established job market. It provides a stronger foundation for locally-spawned research to gather traction and will result in innovation that is protectable and of commercial value”, said Prof. Inġ. Andrew Sammut, Project Leader and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
“This project is a concerted effort to further narrow the gap between academia and industry for enhanced knowledge creation and transfer. Its deliberate focus on advanced engineering Research and Innovation not only highlights a dedication to technological progress, but also cultivates fertile ground for the inception of inventive projects. It is envisaged that at least 350 students will make use of this facility annually both at undergraduate and postgraduate, including PhD levels. This continues to reinforce our University’s activity in upskilling the country’s workforce within the engineering domain,” commented UM Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella.
The Engineering Research & Innovation Labs, which cost circa €21M, is one of the labs that are helping the University fulfil its objectives for this project, with another three strategically located close to the University’s Msida Campus due to their inherent synergies.
These are the Metallurgy & Materials Engineering Laboratories, costing circa €10M, which were inaugurated in September 2022, the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Lab in collaboration with Mater Dei Hospital, costing circa €3M, inaugurated in December 2020, and the Crystal Engineering Laboratory at the Malta Life Sciences Park, costing circa €4.5M, .
The Engineering Research & Innovation Laboratories, inaugurated on 23 February 2024, are composed of eight levels on a usable floor area of 6000 sqm. The labs are equipped with over a hundred fifty pieces of state-of-the-art equipment for research use.
In recognition of the value for human capital, the facility incorporates researcher suites and hot desking areas, which will serve as conducive environments for students and researchers to engage in focused work. Moreover, social spaces and a foyer serve to encourage interaction among various research groups and as an ideal exhibition space to showcase work and further advance the promotion of STEM to visitors.
It is also noticeable that through TRAKE, UM supported the engagement of 20 research support officers, and exposed them to collaborations with industrial partners.
Projects being conducted at TRAKE include research on the reduction of ship emissions whilst berthing in Maltese harbours, a study on the improvement of energy and material-use related to injection moulding of plastics in manufacturing, research on the development of patient-specific surgical removal of tissue as treatment for cancer, the development of above-knee prosthesis, that of low-wear implantable hip joints, a study on brain control of a smart-wheelchair, the use of artificial intelligence for the control of complex systems, and the development of a probe for the understanding of rock formation prior to excavation.
There are other projects funded through MCST’s Fusion and space programme, grants by the Energy and Water Agency, as well as European wide instruments such as PRIMA, ERASMUS+, Horizon Europe and the various EU joint-undertakings, that the University of Malta is an active participant in, which have and will continue to leverage the facilities made available to them through TRAKE.
Plans are also in place to leverage funding made available through the University’s Research Cluster Concept to fill gaps in external research funding and maintain the necessary critical mass of ongoing research activities.
