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Despite all the confidentiality surrounding the scheme. The studio visit to the AMP and AMRC facilities was incredibly revealing in terms of shareholder structure and involvement of corporate investors and academic researchers. It was fortunate that we had access to information from the University of Sheffield and members of Studio Poplo who were involved with the project.
CLIENT BACKGROUND AMRC The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre began in 2001 as a £15 million collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Boeing (LTD) with support from Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund. Its mandate was to push research into future engineering technologies through research and prototyping. In 2004, the AMRC moved into a purposebuilt site, the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Waverly, a former open cast mine at the border of Sheffield Rotherham. The AMP was devised by the University of Sheffield and local business partners before presented as part of the entire vision to Boeing who proceeded to secure relevant funding streams for the newly formed AMRC. The purchase and reclamation of the AMP site was subsequently funded by a joint venture between Yorkshire Forward and UK Coal with an agreement to split revenue from land sales. Yorkshire Forward, along with Rotherham Investment and Development Office, also undertook business development and marketing activities to attract additional companies locate to the AMP. The AMRC was to be its keystone tenant.
1 Knowledge Transer Partnership 2010 Case Study 6: Waverley Advanced Manufacturing Park Sheffield: The University of Sheffield; 2010 Available at: http://www.portlandworks.co.uk/research/reimagining-portland-works-the-book
Currently the AMRC operates as a consortium of tiered shareholders who invest various sizes of funds in return
for a corresponding proportion of access and use of the AMP site, spaces and research facilities. The larger Tier 1 shareholders fund the construction of technology centres within the site such as the Rolls Royce Factory of the Future, the Nuclear AMRC and the AMRC Training Centre supported by national and EU grants. The land and facilities allow various shareholders to develop and prototype technologies in return for collaboration with researchers across disciplines and granting education opportunities for the University of Sheffield and local apprentices. Specific financing information for the AMRC is largely confidential due to the key tenants being heavily embedded in government, private and match funding, however it is reported that the total investment attracted for the AMP is projected to be £650 million. Much of the initial match funding for the AMRC is intended to be a finite initial injection with the aim of creating a self-sustaining industry non-reliant on ongoing funding.1 The AMRC is now part of a larger consortium of seven established manufacturing and research centres, collectively called High Value Manufacturing Catapult, backed by Innovate UK who are currently investing £200 million over six years.2
2 https://hvm.catapult.org.uk/our-mission H Y D ROG E NE RA TION
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