From giant robots building tomorrow’s aircraft to nuclear technology, defence and artificial intelligence – our special 25th anniversary supplement celebrates the University of Sheffield AMRC, writes Graham Walker.
Made here. Made better. Made for the future.
It’s a Yorkshire success story 25 years in the making – transforming a former industrial wasteland into a world-leading powerhouse of manufacturing innovation.
And today, marking the month it opened, we’re putting the spotlight on the AMRC’s remarkable achievements, groundbreaking technology and, above all, the extraordinary people who have made it happen.
READ HERE: View our 16-page e-supplement below – or open it in a new window, in full screen – click here.
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Find out more - visit the AMRC’s 25th anniversary page on its website at www.amrc.co.uk.
Founded in 2001 on the former Orgreave colliery and coking works site, the AMRC has helped transform a symbol of industrial decline into a global powerhouse of advanced manufacturing. It now also has a site in Lancashire and North Wales.
The numbers tell an extraordinary success story: £350 million of inward investment attracted into South Yorkshire, 2,500 jobs brought into the region’s manufacturing cluster and 2,200 apprentices recruited, leading to 1,600 jobs.
Today, more than 550 staff work with industry giants including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, BAE Systems and McLaren, alongside smaller manufacturers, to make things faster, smarter, safer and more sustainable.
The supplement brings together the engineers, innovators and industry leaders behind the AMRC’s success, alongside tributes from leading political figures and a welcome by Yorkshire Post Editor James Mitchinson, who likens his AMRC factory tour to entering Willy Wonk’s chocolate factory.
He says: “It isn’t what’s there that captures your imagination, it is what the place might make possible.”
Professor Ben Morgan, AMRC chief executive, who rose from project engineer to the top job, says: “Our people are extraordinary yet humble and make a massive impact.”
Chris McDonald MP, Minister for Science, says Sheffield’s manufacturing expertise ”stands there with the best”, while Tom Riordan CBE, Northern Growth Envoy, hails what can be achieved bygetting ”the right people, in the right place”.
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard looks to the future. He says:”The question is not whether South Yorkshire can reinvent itself. The question is what we choose to do next.”
Discover the remarkable stories behind the technology – from a chip shop worker who went on to inspect Formula 1 cars and an apprentice tea-maker now managing giant robots, to a miner’s son helping shape Britain’s nuclear future.
Meet the engineers developing tomorrow’s aircraft, robots that could save lives and spinout companies attracting Silicon Valley experts to move to Sheffield, to help make manufacturing smarter.
And discover a special ingredient in the AMRC’s 25th birthday celebrations – a cake baked by one of its own nuclear engineers, who just happens to be a double Great British Bake Off champion!
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