VISTA is a pioneering project, established in Blaenau Gwent and funded by the UK Government's community renewal fund. It has access to research facilities and staff from University of South Wales, as well as project partners to support the participating enterprises. VISTA supported 24 businesses across the county, in Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Bryn Mawr and Abertillery. In total, VISTA provided £480K in direct funding to its partner companies, which range from large to small, local to international and old to new enterprises.
THE TEAM BEHIND THE PROJECT
Professor Nigel J Copner is Project Leader/ Principal Investigator on the VISTA Project. He is the Head of the Wireless and Optoelectronic Research & Innovation Centre (WORIC) and Professor of Optoelectronics in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science. He has an extensive patent portfolio (>30) generated during his extensive industrial career working at JDS Uniphase (Senior Manager, San Jose), DERA (Research Fellow, Malvern), Renishaw and through his work at the University of South Wales. Professor Copner is Visiting Professor at four universities in China – Changchun University of Science and Technology, Xiamen University of Technology, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, and Foshan University.
Dr Nick Lambert is the Director of Operations on the VISTA Project. Prior to this, he was Head of Research at Ravensbourne University London, and has held lecturing positions at Birkbeck University of London and other institutions including the University of the Arts, London. He was Principal Investigator and Co-PI on UKRI and EU Interreg North West funded schemes, and worked with UK and international universities as well as the Victoria & Albert Museum on previous projects. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a panel reviewer for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Esther Ajibewa is the Project Administrator for VISTA. A recent MA graduate of the University of South Wales, she previously worked for the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in Nigeria.
Bethan Copner is Schools Coordinator on the VISTA Project. She obtained a BSc (Hons) in Physics from the University of Southampton in 2019 and is currently working on a PhD at USW on ‘A novel solution to motion induced errors in frequency scanning interferometric coordinate metrology for high value manufacturing’ in partnership with NPL.
