With 17 sites now operational in the UK, Rosa Wilkinson looks at ways in which High Value Manufacturing Catapult has responded to local and national needs, helping manufacturing companies connect better and bringing vital jobs back to historically neglected areas in the process.

Manufacturing is a vital part of our economic mix. With annual output worth some £192bn to our economy, it provides high-skilled jobs, produces some 44% of our exports and, as COVID-19 has shown, gives us the capability and resilience to tackle global challenges.

However, which of us hasn’t heard the claim that ‘we don’t make anything anymore’?

That cry may be a perfect example of ‘fake news’ – the UK remains a premier division manufacturing nation, but our position in the league table is under threat.

Now, as the country looks to bounce back from the effects of the pandemic, the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult is playing a key role in efforts to transform our industrial performance in ways that will both keep us at the top table of global manufacturing and kick-start the economic future of historically neglected areas, bringing high skilled jobs and prosperity back to deprived communities.

When the HVM Catapult was created in 2011, our footprint reflected the locations of the seven founding centres: Renfrewshire, Darlington, two Centres near Sheffield, Coventry, Warwick and Bristol.

Today, the Catapult has 17 sites around the UK to connect better with manufacturers and help them to transform their operations.

Wherever we have set up a base we have seen the magnetic effect of our presence, drawing in investment from around the world, attracting multinational firms and national institutions keen to access our expertise and, of course, creating new jobs in the process.

From industrial unrest to industrial innovation
Built on the site of the historic Orgreave coking plant, the Advanced Manufacturing Park is a beacon of industrial transformation.

With the AMRC as anchor tenant from its launch, the cluster of global companies and their supply chains now established on the site is one of the most concentrated manufacturing bases in the UK.

The likes of McLaren and Rolls-Royce were drawn to the AMRC’s expertise with their factories surrounding the AMRC’s facilities. With the Nuclear AMRC joining the park in 2010, it has one of the widest sets of engineering expertise in the UK.