BLADE RUNNER


Rolls-Royce has strengthened its already significant links with the Sheffield City Region after starting construction


“We’ve already attracted 15 new companies to our Enterprise Zone, creating over 200 new jobs. Perhaps the most visible success to date is LB Construction, a division of a US-owned company, which has brought three of its operations onto the Enterprise Zone.” The zone is spread across four well- connected development areas across the M1 motorway corridor – Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Markham Vale – all of which offer highly attractive investment opportunities. They include the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) near Rotherham, home to a growing cluster of technology companies and facilities such as The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing. A unique partnership between industry and academia, the AMRC is a model for research centres worldwide and focuses on advanced manufacturing problems in areas such as high-performance machining; low-volume, high-value assembly; manufacturing technologies for composite materials; and structural testing. Last month, it hosted the 2013 Global Manufacturing Festival, an annual Sheffield-based event that aims to connect SMEs in the UK’s materials- based engineering supply chains with major international customers.


ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Sheffield’s quality of life is another attraction for inward investors. It is England’s greenest city and is the only one in the UK to have a national park, The Peak District, within its boundary. Transport links are excellent, house prices are among the most competitive in the country and there is a wealth of leisure, cultural and sporting activities. Crucially, Sheffield is also a world-class


The city is the UK’s most concentrated and popular higher education destination outside London


centre for education. The city is the UK’s most concentrated and popular higher education destination outside London, with 12 universities less than an hour away providing more than 313,000 students and 92,000 graduates per year. The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University are both highly respected for their research output, and the city has one the highest graduate retention rates in the country. “Our universities offer a very good skills base,” states Cutler. “We’re the only location in the country that has had funding specifically to create 4,000 new apprenticeships. This will help to ensure that companies based in the Sheffield City Region are prepared for the future. n


LET’S DO BUSINESS


For further information about investment opportunities in Sheffield, contact Ellen Cutler on 0114 254 1313 or email ellen.cutler@sheffieldcityregion.org.uk


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of a new Advanced Blade Casting Facility on Rotherham’s Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP). The facility will be capable of manufacturing 100,000 blades per year when fully operational in 2014. Each blade will be cast to form a single crystal of super alloy, making it extremely strong and able to resist the intense heat inside a jet engine. The 14,000m2


site will be one of the


most advanced blade-casting facilities in the world, featuring groundbreaking manufacturing techniques such as 3D structured light for geometry inspection. It will initially employ some 180 people. Nick Kay, programme executive – turbines at Rolls-Royce, said: “As well as the AMP’s good transport links and the technology here, Sheffield and Rotherham have a good history of engineering excellence. We’re confident that we will find the right calibre of people here.”


Rolls-Royce has also identified locations at the AMP for a factory to manufacture, assemble and test components for the proposed next generation of civil nuclear power stations, as well as a smaller factory which could house one of the company’s suppliers. Rolls- Royce already has a research and development facility at the AMP and is a partner in the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing. > rolls-royce.com


TATA STEEL


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