The UK’s Lighting Industry received a huge boost this week as the Lighting Industry Association received a share of GBP 1.3 million (US $2 million) from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund to further develop its laboratory services (LIA Laboratories) and new Lighting Training Academy.

The funds will help the Lighting Industry Association create a new Lighting Testing Laboratory to cope with increased demand, which will house a unique R&D centre that will be available for UK manufacturers to use and develop new lighting products.

Alongside the new laboratory, the Lighting Industry Association will also build a Lighting Academy that will provide education, learning and awareness services for the whole lighting supply chain. Being sited at the Lighting Industry Association’s HQ in Telford, means that the courses will have a distinctly ‘hand-on’ feel and will help drive the introduction of new lighting technology and low energy initiatives.

“These new facilities will be a fantastic asset for the industry,” said Steve Davies, CEO. “It will shorten lead times for the introduction of new products especially for the UK SME market as well as raising awareness of the potential of such products – consequently jobs will be secured and created both within the Lighting Industry Association itself but also across the Lighting Industry as a whole”.

The Lighting Academy will be a unique proposition for the industry. Whilst the Lighting Industry Association will continue to deliver and develop its well-respected technical content for the lighting industry, the scope will increase to include the retail and wholesale aspects of the market. It is envisaged that specifiers and designers will also benefit as courses are developed over the next 12 months.

Already the UK’s largest independent lighting test laboratory, the new facility will house new ‘state-of-the-art’ testing equipment that ordinarily would be out of reach of many of the Lighting SME’s.

The LIA Laboratories is already accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to ISO/IEC 17065, “General requirements for the competence for product certification”, the main ISO standard used for certifying a products safety and performance and has plans to extend its capability for European and world-wide accreditation services.

The award is subject to the clearance of satisfactory due diligence