Supporting innovation with engineering insight, equipment and technical expertise

RS Components has formed a strategic alliance with Eagle Labs, a Barclays initiative to foster innovation in communities. As technology partner, the company will support Eagle Labs with world-leading engineering equipment and technical expertise from its RS Local innovation centres and DesignSpark, the company's online community of 650,000 makers, students and design engineers. The aims of Eagle Labs are closely aligned with the company's focus on enabling communities with the digital and technological skills they need to unlock collaborative innovation projects. There are now 13 Eagle Labs, launched at underused Barclays branches, offering spaces that provide open and membership-based access to digital fabrication tools, education workshops, rapid prototyping facilities, a LoRaWAN SigFox base station and a vibrant community. Steven Roberts, managing director of Strategic Transformation at Barclays, said: "Eagle Labs and RS Components share the same ambition of providing communities with the digital skills to thrive. By partnering with the leading provider of IoT components and tools and connecting the Eagle Lab network to their DesignSpark community, we are excited about how we can support members of the Cardiff Ecosystem to create, innovate and grow." Richard Curtin, vice president - Global Strategic Alliances at RS, said: "Eagle Labs is an exciting initiative and mirrors the ethos of RS, which is all about supporting innovation and bringing great ideas to life. As a business, we're perfectly placed to provide equipment and technical support through our RS Local innovation centres as well as DesignSpark, our growing community of makers, inventors and design engineers. This is key to inspiring and supporting people in the community; it's exciting to think that the next big invention could be born from this initiative and we're proud to have become part of it."