North West England primed to become advanced manufacturing hub with new government funding

A UK consortium has secured £22.6m funding for a 5-year innovation initiative, the first for the Advanced Machinery & Productivity Institute (AMPI), which will be based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

The University of Manchester will take a key role alongside the National Physical Laborartory (NPL) other partners to stimulate and support the rapid growth of the UK’s machinery manufacturing sector as it transitions to highly integrated digital solutions with sophisticated automated and autonomous robotic systems. It will enable invention, realise innovation, and increase the adoption of new machinery and robotics through UK equipment manufacturers.

This funding has been provided through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund (SIPF). This funding provides the stimulus for AMPI in its journey to become a pivotal UK intervention, centred around existing capabilities and research excellence across the North of England. The support provided through AMPI and its partner organisations will provide benefit to businesses across the region, positively impacting direct and indirect local employment, as well as UK industry export.

Professor Luke Georghiou, the University’s Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for business engagement and commercialisation, has said: “We greatly welcome the opportunity AMPI gives us to work with NPL and our other partners to apply our strengths in advanced materials and related technologies to support leading-edge innovation. Bringing together these capabilities will support manufacturers in driving up productivity and making Rochdale and the North of England more generally a globally competitive hub for the sector.”

In the longer term, AMPI is expected to grow the UK’s advanced machinery capability to a £2bn export capacity within 10 years establishing over 30,000 high value manufacturing sector jobs.

NPL will manage the programme and will be working in partnership with Rochdale-based precision machine tool maker Precision Technologies Group (Holroyd), Fives Landis, Wayland Additive, CR Solutions, Rochdale Development Agency, Advanced Machinery & Productivity Initiative Ltd, University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT), University of Leeds’ Institute of Design, Robotics and Optimisation, The University of Manchester’s Departments of Materials and Electrical and Electronic Engineering and University of Salford’s Centre for Autonomous Systems & Advanced Robotics (ASAR).

The North of England has an active and high concentration of industrial expertise in the design, development and manufacture of complex machinery. This machinery is used in a wide range of industries to manufacture products such as pharmaceuticals, food and drink, and automotive components. The North of England also has some of the world's leading academics in industrial research, including robotics, advanced materials, automation, metrology and artificial intelligence.