LIA receives boost from UK Regional Growth Fund


11th February 2015

(UK) – The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) secures £1.3m funding from UK Regional Growth Fund.

Funds will further develop LIA’s laboratory services (LIA Laboratories) and new Lighting Training Academy to cope with increased demand. It will house a unique R&D centre that will be available for UK manufacturers to use and develop new lighting products.

LIA will build a Lighting Academy that will provide education, learning and awareness services for the whole lighting supply chain. Located at LIA’s HQ in Telford, courses will have a ‘hands-on’ feel and will introduce new lighting technology and low energy initiatives.

LIA CEO Steve Davies commented: “These new facilities will be a fantastic asset for the industry. It will shorten lead times for the introduction of new products especially for the UK SME market and will raise 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 LIA will continue to deliver and develop its technical content for the lighting industry, the scope will increase to include the retail and wholesale aspects of the market.

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.

LIA Laboratories is 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.

www.thelia.org.uk