ELIRE Group Launches ELIRE Labs to Accelerate Net-Zero Innovation Across Transport, Infrastructure, and Clean Energy
- Shareen Ali
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Introducing ELIRE Labs, a dedicated innovation division aimed at driving the research, development, and commercialisation of net-zero technologies, bridging the gap between groundbreaking research and real-world application.
A New Era of Sustainable Innovation
ELIRE Labs offers customised net-zero solutions grounded in innovation and cutting-edge research, enhancing the group’s multiple capabilities. This innovative division focuses on delivering next-generation solutions that accelerate decarbonization across various sectors, including aerospace, maritime, mobility, energy, and government.
Developing and expanding ports with appropriate characteristics, including adequate lay down area, load capacity, lifting capability, and quayside depth is complex, costly, and will take several years to implement.
Building on the success of the group's flagship innovations, ELIRE Labs is set to lead the way in sustainable technology, infrastructure solutions, new product development, and end-to-end life-cycle capabilities management through collaborations with industry leaders and academic institutions.
Core Pillars of ELIRE Labs
ELIRE Labs' unique offering combines cutting-edge research and development, engineering and infrastructure expertise, and strategic consultancy to develop breakthrough technologies tailored to industry needs. The division operates across three core pillars:
Co-Creation & Intellectual Property Development: Collaborating with partners to design and develop proprietary innovations.
Technology Enhancement & Integration: Redefining and improving existing technologies through advanced engineering and design.
Strategic Market Development: Identifying and unlocking new business opportunities, ensuring market readiness, and scaling commercial solutions.
‘Creative Solutioneering’ - Transformative Net Zero Solutions That Reshape Industries
ELIRE Labs pioneers a "creative solutioneering" approach—leveraging Innovation Incubators and Think Tanks to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and bring visionary sustainability solutions to life.
At the heart of ELIRE Labs is a philosophy of “solutioneering”— an innovation-first mindset combining R&D, prototyping, leveraging Innovation Incubators and Think Tanks to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration to solve critical sustainability challenges and bring visionary solutions to life..
Flagship Innovations
ELIRE Labs has already delivered innovative net zero projects, including:
Smart City Floating Infrastructure: Transforming waterfront infrastructure for ports, river cities, and coastal cities with the world's first solutions aligned with eight UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
eSTOL (Electric Short Take-Off and Landing) Aircraft: Accelerating the electrification of commercial light aircraft, marking a world-first from the production line.
Global Music Vault: Safeguarding the world's music with the world's first zero-energy, long-term infrastructure and data medium solution. Located in Norway’s Arctic, this eco-friendly, long-term archival solution is inspired by the Global Seed Vault. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, the vault utilizes cutting-edge silica-based technology to archive master-quality music, protecting it from digital obsolescence, natural disasters, and climate risks for over 1,000 years without relying on energy-intensive servers.
Global Expertise Driving Innovation
Spanning the UK, UAE, Europe, North America, Australia, and Southeast Asia, ELIRE Labs is powered by a world-class team with extensive experience in innovation and engineering from leading organizations such as Rolls-Royce Labs, Formula 1, Boeing, BAE Systems, NATS, AECOM, GE Power, GE Aviation, and QinetiQ. The team’s expertise spans naval architecture, floating infrastructure, subsea engineering, clean energy, aviation, and sustainable mobility, enabling them to tackle complex industry challenges with customized, risk-minimized, and scalable solutions.
Leadership at the Helm
At the helm of ELIRE Labs as Managing Director, is Patrick Lane-Nott, a seasoned operations, systems, and technology engineer with over 28 years of experience in project management, execution, and strategic delivery of cross-continental technical and data projects.
As a Chartered Engineer, Patrick brings a wealth of knowledge from diverse sectors, including automotive, construction, and heavy industry, encompassing both hardware and software domains. His illustrious career includes leading global roles at MTS Systems Corporation, where he was instrumental in designing, developing, marketing, and selling a next-generation 6DOF automotive dynamic driving simulator in collaboration with McLaren Applied Technologies. At hyperTunnel, he spearheaded revolutionary and now patented tunneling technologies, utilizing AI, digital twins, and machine learning to enhance safety and efficiency in underground construction for Network Rail, and in the process built the world’s first 3D printed tunnel using swarm robotics.
Patrick has also served as an innovation mentor and advisor to deep-tech start-ups and has participated in numerous accelerator programs. He has been a judge for the New Civil Engineer Awards and contributed to a National Institute of Building Sciences positioning paper on ‘Digital Twins for the Built Environment’ for The White House. His thought leadership articles on digital twins have been featured in publications such as Planning, BIM & Construction Today, and Construction Europe.
Under Patrick’s leadership, ELIRE Labs will continue to incubate, develop, and deploy world-first sustainable technologies, bringing together breakthrough engineering and commercial innovation to shape the next generation of clean mobility, energy, and smart infrastructure.
Patrick Lane-Nott, Managing Director of ELIRE Labs, commented:
"At ELIRE Labs, we’re combining decades of hands-on engineering, systems thinking, and real-world delivery across infrastructure, clean energy, aerospace, and mobility to tackle the urgent need for scalable, sustainable technologies. Our team brings deep technical insight across robotics, digital twins, simulation, power systems, and advanced manufacturing—enabling us to approach problems with a level of rigour and creativity that sets us apart. This isn’t theoretical innovation; it’s grounded, fast-tracked, and built for impact. ELIRE Labs exists to help industry partners move faster, think bigger, and deliver solutions that genuinely shape a better future.”
Expert Leadership in Maritime & Place Innovation
Bringing further strength to ELIRE Labs is Tom White, appointed Non-Executive Director of Maritime & Place Innovation. With over 15 years of experience leading innovation programs at Rolls-Royce, Lloyd’s Register, and the Connected Places Catapult, Tom has shaped collaborative programs across hydrogen hubs, autonomous maritime systems, predictive digital twins, and smart port energy infrastructure.
Tom White commented:
“What excites me about ELIRE Labs is the clarity of vision and pace of delivery. We're not just talking about maritime innovation; we’re creating the enabling platforms and ecosystems for next-gen transport, energy, and place-making. The opportunity to help redefine coastal and port infrastructure for a net-zero future is hugely compelling.”
Strategic Collaborations
By working with global experts, ELIRE Labs ensures that its technologies are market-ready and scalable, from prototype to commercialized product, with minimal risk and accelerated timelines. With a track record of innovation partnerships including Hyundai HTWO, Hyundai Superna, and multiple future mobility start-ups, as well as collaborations with leading academic institutions and industry leaders Microsoft, MHTech, CEME, and Strathclyde University; ELIRE Labs' partnerships drive collaborative research and development (CR&D), fast-tracking the commercialization of net-zero technologies.
Next-Gen Technologies Shaping the Future
The innovative lab integrates AI, digital twins, robotics, and automation into sustainable infrastructure and engineering solutions, reducing operational costs and enhancing infrastructure resilience. The division is also pioneering offshore and subsea robotics, renewable energy advancements, and modular infrastructure solutions to accelerate the energy transition and drive global decarbonization efforts.
Luke Jenkinson, Founder & Group CEO of ELIRE Group, commented:
“The world urgently needs scalable, commercially viable net zero solutions. ELIRE Labs brings together unmatched cross-industry expertise, bridging infrastructure, mobility, and clean energy to deliver real impact. We’re not just responding to today’s challenges; we’re anticipating and shaping the future of sustainable technology.”
“Our experts are working across engineering, aviation, infrastructure, data storage, maritime design, smart cities, systems integration, ports, supply chains, power generation and power storage to develop new commercial technologies that push beyond what’s currently available. ELIRE Labs represents a bold step forward in defining the next era of fast-to-deploy sustainable solutions.”
Partner with ELIRE Labs
As industries worldwide accelerate their decarbonisation efforts, ELIRE Labs is actively seeking new collaborations to drive impactful, scalable change.
ELIRE Labs is actively exploring future use cases, bringing emerging research to market and fast-tracking new sustainable solutions in modular infrastructure, aerospace, and clean energy. These innovations not only meet today’s market demands but anticipate the sustainability challenges of tomorrow.
ELIRE Labs invites companies, researchers, and industry leaders to collaborate on breakthrough innovations in mobility, infrastructure, and clean energy.
Want to learn more or explore a potential partnership with ELIRE Labs? Get in touch — we’d love to hear from you.
Contact Patrick Lane-Nott - Managing Director: