At the turn of the century, some disused coalfields in northern England were an ugly symbol of the UK’s industrial past. But today, where slagheaps once stood at Orgreave in South Yorkshire sits a thriving collaboration between university academics and leading companies on high tech manufacturing.
The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, founded in 2001 by Sheffield university and US aerospace company Boeing with government and EU funding, pursues world leading research into manufacturing that is of practical use to industry. Smart ideas are turned into commercial products, and the centre continues to expand: it recently opened a new site in Lancashire that is focused on aerospace manufacturing and clean energy technologies, among other things.
The government now wants to use a similar partnership approach between universities and industry in three “innovation accelerators” in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow city region.