chennai jaguar land rover will lead a five year research programme with epsrc and four leading uk universities the unique 10 million five year collaboration between jaguar land rover and uks leading academics will develop the capability of the virtual simulation industry and will give manufacturers like jaguar land rover access to new worldclass simulation tools and processes this is the first phase of a 20 year strategic project by the british government focussed on virtual simulation the research will improve the quality and capabilities of simulation using sights sounds and even smells to make virtual simulation more realistic giving engineers a more realistic perception of what a design might achieve as well as giving them access to more powerful computers will mean even more engineering can be virtual this will help manufacturers like jaguar land rover deliver more complex new vehicle programmes more quickly it will also help save costs in product development by reducing the reliance on physical prototypes and have environmental benefits by limiting the number of prototypes that need to be driven and tested in the real world the projects form part of the programme for simulation innovation psi a partnership between jaguar land rover and the engineering and physical sciences research council epsrc loughborough university university of leeds university of cambridge and warwick manufacturing group wmg the psi project is funded by jaguar land rover 4 million the engineering and physical sciences research council epsrc 4 million and the partner universities 2 million and is split into two phases that will run over the next five years the projects announced today form the first phase and will make up 80 of the programme bob joyce jaguar land rover engineering director said while we already utilise a wide range of sophisticated virtual engineering tools and processes to design engineer and test our new vehicles we are keen to enhance the future capability of virtual simulation and tailor them for automotive product development we want to make advances in the simulated driver and passenger experience including more realistic imagery sounds and even smells these projects will help us analyse increasingly complex cars at whole vehicle system and component levels as well as enhancing the high performance computers that industry will use in the future to mine increasing amounts of more complex data epsrcs chief executive professor david delpy said this partnership shows how the research community can work hand in hand with industry to push boundaries in science and engineering epsrcs role as a sponsor of innovative research has been to work with jaguar land rover to define the longer term research needs of the industry issue a call for proposals and facilitate robust peer review