University of Southampton - Rocking the boat

A university has joined forces with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in a bid to help cut the cost of building and maintaining its fleet of about 300 lifesaving vessels. The RNLI and the University of Southampton have signed a knowledge transfer partnership, part-funded by the government, so that two graduates can be appointed to use their expertise to help save the charity money. Academics from the university will supervise the management and engineering associates, who will look at the logistic, design and commercial issues raised by running the lifeboats, which can each cost £2.7 million to buy and equip.