First North Wales Growth Deal project launched at university

The £1bn North Wales Growth Deal has reached a milestone with the launch of new cutting-edge equipment at Bangor University’s Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Centre.

Technology at the DSP Centre manages the way digital signals are transmitted, providing a solution for the signals to be better processed and received and to be both more secure and more cost effective.

The £3million Growth Deal funding has enabled the DSP Centre to acquire new equipment to undertake cutting-edge research for digital communications. The funding will develop solutions to support the future’s digital requirements, benefitting businesses and residents with better communication capabilities such as 5G and 6G.

The state-of-the art equipment can also be used to advance the development of new prototypes; examples include applications such as enhanced security (an encryption/de-encryption connection to improve digital safety) and environmental sensing (identifying a change in external environment through video transmission).  This will provide businesses and communities who use the DSP technology with a more cost effective, more secure and more efficient use of their applications.

The launch event was attended by First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, David TC Davies MP.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, David TC Davies MP, said:

I’m delighted to see the North Wales Growth Deal making fantastic progress. It will bring significant investment and jobs and will help transform the economy of North Wales. Alongside the £120m committed to the North Wales Growth Deal, the UK Government has backed growth deals covering every part of Wales with hundreds of millions more in funding. Working hand in hand with our partners, the deals will unleash the full potential of our communities.

As the North Wales Growth Deal reaches this landmark, I look forward to seeing many more projects reach fruition across the region and throughout Wales in the coming months and years.

Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn, Chair of North Wales Economic Ambition Board said:

We are delighted to have reached a point where we are seeing our first project become reality. It’s fitting that it is in one of the fastest growing sectors, as we look to promote research and innovation in this field as well as improve digital connectivity across the region.

With the development of globally important technologies here, the DSP Centre is putting North Wales on the map and at the forefront of this exciting sector. The team already works with large international businesses and big names in the industry, including Ciena and Vodafone. They also work with business partners from local SMEs, providing access to state-of-the-art equipment to develop local skills and accelerate their product development.

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