Central Bedfordshire Council partners, Cranfield University, have officially opened their “AvTech” Eagle Lab in partnership with Barclays.  This is the first of Barclays’ Eagle Labs dedicated to aviation technology, drawing on the University’s aerospace heritage stretching over 70 years.

In January, the co-working and innovation space – one of the first cross-industry collaborations to accelerate the development of AvTech – opened for ambitious entrepreneurs in industry to scale and grow. Residents will benefit from business advice and mentoring from Barclays experts and access to world-class specialists and facilities at Cranfield University.

The Eagle Lab is the first step in the University’s ambitious aviation, innovation and entrepreneurship project which will create unique specialist enterprise facilities and programmes at Cranfield University to support start-ups and SMEs, particularly those with high-growth potential.

The Lab includes over 60 desks laid out over two floors with a combination of private offices, meetings rooms, hot-desking and breakout spaces. The ground floor is home to a fully-stocked Maker Space, a facility to support rapid prototyping and product development with features like 3D printing and specialised AvTech equipment – all supported by dedicated Eagle Labs staff.

Professor Tom Stephenson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Cranfield University, said: “We are delighted that Barclays has opening an Eagle Lab on campus, marking the first step of our ambitious aviation, innovation and entrepreneurship project, an intensive support package for aerospace and aviation entrepreneurs.