Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, has launched a £150 million package of funding and measures to help UK Advanced Manufacturers seize new opportunities.
Advanced Manufacturing describes businesses that produce technologically complex products and processes, using a high level of design or scientific skills.
Speaking at the Advanced Manufacturing Strategy Launch in London, Lord Mandelson highlighted the importance of UK Advanced Manufacturing to the economic recovery of the UK:
“The reality is that British Manufacturing employs more people than the financial services sector. We are the sixth largest manufacturer in the world and manufacturing is one of our biggest exports.”
“And for that reason it’s critical for Britain’s fight back to growth and in the decades ahead, for us to back manufacturing. And to back manufacturing means backing advanced manufacturing.”
“The next generation of British entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers will be among the most important Britain has ever produced. And we must back them and investment in them now.”
The £150 million investment includes:
- £45 million from the Strategic Investment Fund to help develop low-carbon aircraft engine technology.
- £40 million of support for the SAMULET Research and Technology Programme which will strengthen the position of UK aero-engine manufacturing and its supply chain through new technologies.
- £40 million of support for the expansion of the Printable Electronics Centre (PETec) in Sedgefield, creating over 1,500 jobs in the next 5 years.
- £45 million of funding in Rolls-Royce, to build four new Advanced Manufacturing Facilities in the UK – creating and sustaining around 800 jobs and sharpening Britain’s competitive edge in aerospace and civil nuclear global supply chains.
- £150 million investment from the ‘Innovation Investment Fund’, which Lord Mandelson hopes to increase to a venture capital fund of £1bn over the next ten years. This fund will help to back innovative companies that need growth capital.
Lord Mandelson believes that the investment will ensure that the barriers currently facing UK Advanced Manufactures will be minimised or removed, thus helping to support Britain’s Future:
“We also need to recognise the risks involved in trying to succeed in high-growth industries and technologies at an early stage of development. Risky expensive barriers, especially in the current economic conditions, from which in my view it is the Government’s job to help set businesses free. Our job is to take away those barriers which hold back the development of innovative and potentially high growing companies using these technologies.
So that’s where I believe there’s a clear role and responsibility for Government in making sure we have the best possible business environment and skilled workforce for advanced manufacturing.”
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