Technology and Innovation Centre Opens

One of the first of at least six new Technology and Innovation Centres announced recently by the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and due for completion by April 2013, has been established, with aims to attract investment in high value manufacturing (HVM).

The TSB will invest £140 million in the centre over the next six years in an effort to encourage inward investment for new and established manufacturing businesses.

The centre will use expertise and facilities from seven established manufacturing groups, offering support across a variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, food and beverages, healthcare, aerospace, automotive, energy, chemicals and electronics.

Peter Chivers, Chief Executive of the National Composites Centre which is involved in the project, said “The new centre would be the‘go-to place’ for manufacturing innovation. We have already received strong interest from UK businesses to use the service and will be working collaboratively with UK manufacturing businesses from today.”

The centre aims to commercialise business-led research and innovation. It will receive around a third of its funding from contracts with UK firms, while another third will come from grants, including
money from the EU.

Organisations involved include the University of Strathclyde's Advanced Forming Research Centre, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield and the University of Bristol's National Composites Centre.

The other organisations to be incorporated into the centre are the Centre for Process Innovation in Wilton and Sedgefield, Coventry's Manufacturing Technology Centre, the Warwick Manufacturing Group at Warwick University and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre run by the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield.

The TSB also plans to open centres for cell therapy and offshore renewable energy thanks to a government grant of at least £200 million over the next four years.