Building work to start on £130 million Ansty Park centre

BUILDING work on a £130 million Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) at Ansty Park looks set to start within weeks.

Construction company Morgan Ashurst has won the contract to build the centre, a key component of £300 million plans to transform Ansty Park into a centre for research and technology, creating up to 5,000 jobs.

The MTC project, jointly funded by Government development agencies Advantage West Midlands and the East Midlands Development Agency, looks destined to become a new home for science, technology and innovation in the UK.

The 12,000 square metre centre will be run by its founding research partners, which include the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, and Loughborough, and TWI Limited, the operating division of the Welding Institute.

It will allow researchers to demonstrate new processes to would-be manufacturers in an industrial setting, before manufacturers take the major financial risk of putting the processes into practice.

Major companies signed up to MTC to date include Rolls-Royce, Aero Engine Controls and Airbus.

Peter Flinn, interim director of the MTC, said: "The MTC provides a real step change for national manufacturing. By bridging the gap between academic research and commercial production, the MTC will meet the needs and requirements of industry in a way which has not been achieved until now."

Mick Laverty, chief executive at Advantage West Midlands, added: "It will be great to see the first sod turned after many months of negotiation with partners to bring the MTC from concept to reality.

"Through cutting edge research and development, the MTC aims to not only change the face of manufacturing in the Midlands, but the world."
The MTC looks set to open next spring.

For more information on Ansty Park, visit http://www.anstypark.co.uk