The UK’s only Advanced Manufacturing Park is one of the world’s leading hubs for research and development, innovation, manufacturing, engineering and technologies in advanced manufacturing and materials.

It is making Britain a leading global player in a wide range of activities - aircraft are flying cleaner and more fuel-efficiently, surgeons are improving reconstructive surgery…and some of Britain’s top bobsleigh athletes are competing for and winning medals.
 

The Park is in the Yorkshire borough of Rotherham, at the geographical heart of the UK. But it is not just a Yorkshire, or even UK, success story and resource for industry. It is a flag-carrier for a wide range of the best of international talents and co-operation.

Globally recognised names are involved on the 100-acre site. Partnering some of the best brains at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing are Rolls-Royce, Messier Dowty and other less publicly recognised names that are nonetheless massive in their field, such as equipment manufacturer Mori Seiki.

A major step forward in that £60 million international collaboration was the AMRC’s striking Rolls-Royce Factory of the Future.

Swedish-owned Dormer Tools has brought its innovative manufacturing skills to the Park. The Welding Institute’s TWI Technology Centre (Yorkshire), and Castings Technology International (Cti), are among the research and development operations spreading knowledge and experience worldwide.

But it’s not all about the giants. Small but important companies such as Fripp Design, Arrow Technical and Bromley Technologies are pushing back the boundaries of technology, innovation and manufacturing.

From Fripp Design’s improved scalpels for reconstruction surgery, to ice-sport R&D and manufacture by Bromley Technologies, the range of activity on the Park is wide and varied. Bromley is backing three of the world’s top bobsled stars, who flew the flag for Britain at November 2009’s World Championships. At the time of writing, Shelley Rudman, Kristan Bromley and Nicola Minichiello were contenders for the Great Britain team for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. As more and more innovation-led specialists see the value of moving there, it is also ramping up its support for them by becoming a member of the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA). The AMP is a joint venture between public and private sector organisations, including regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and land-owner UK Coal, and it is growing fast. One of the many attractions companies cite is the convenient location. Rotherham is at the heart of the UK and the Park is on the Rotherham-Sheffield border, a couple of minutes’ drive from Junction 33 of the UK’s main north-south highway, the M1 motorway.

That also puts it about five minutes from Rotherham Central Station, 10 minutes from Sheffield Midland Station and 25-90 minutes from international airports, including Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield, East Midlands, Manchester and Leeds Bradford.