The University of Birmingham and a consortium of Welsh universities have been awarded £15 million by the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) to establish a new world-leading railway research and innovation centre in South Wales. The UKRPIF investment will enable the University of Birmingham, working with Cardiff and Swansea Universities, to establish a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) site, currently under construction.