A £40 million centre to pioneer manufacturing techniques in the West Midlands has been given final Government approval. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed that two regional development agencies, Advantage West Midlands and its East Midlands counterpart Emda, would split the cost of developing the Manufacturing Technology Centre, planned for Ansty Park near Coventry. The project was described by DBIS as “one of the largest public-sector investments in manufacturing for many years”.

The centre, which is expected to be up and running in 2011, will allow major industrial companies and academic bodies to collaborate on R&D projects aimed ultimately at ensuring that UK-based manufacturers can compete on technology, as well as cost. The centre’s ‘founder industry partners’ have been named as Rolls-Royce, Airbus UK, Aero Engine Controls and Jaguar Land Rover. The Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Loughborough — together with TWI Ltd, the operating division of The Welding Institute — are its research partners.

The centre will be a key component of the 100-acre Ansty Park development (at Junction 2 of the M6), which replaces an ill-fated high-tech ‘campus’ planned by telecoms group Marconi before it went bust in 2001. Of the £40 million funding earmarked for the centre, £25 million will come from Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and £15 million from Emda. In total, £130 million of public- and private-sector investments will be made in the centre over the next 10 years.

Announcing the scheme, which has been developed as part of the Government’s manufacturing strategy, Business Minister Pat McFadden said: “Britain has a great manufacturing future, not just a great manufacturing past. We are the sixth-largest manufacturing economy globally. However, the face of manufacturing here is changing, and we need to embrace and support the numerous opportunities created as a result. That is why we’re investing in centres like Ansty Park, to help business and universities collaborate and commercialise new and innovative products and processes.”

AWM chief executive Mick Laverty said independent economic research suggests that the Midlands will recoup £25 for every pound spent on the new centre. “The combined investment by the two RDAs will also firmly establish Ansty Park as the region’s home of world-class research and development,” Mr Laverty said.