Plans has been submitted for an advanced sustainable materials and manufacturing hub, the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre (SMMC), which will be located in Atom Valley.
Atom Valley is one of six growth locations in Greater Manchester (GM) and includes significant parts of Bury, Oldham and Rochdale local authority areas.
It is a vast, dynamic area of 17 million sq. ft. flexible employment space which once fully realised will offer 20,000 new highly skilled roles within world-class businesses. It offers the greatest opportunity to deliver transformational economic growth in the north and east of the GM conurbation and improve people’s lives
The centre which has 2,724 m2 net floor area, will be located at the Metrolink tram stop at Kingsway Business Park and will include laboratory space, workshops, metrology space, design and analysis studios, a lecture theatre, meeting rooms, flexible workspace for start-ups, office space for manufacturers and a café.
It will be an inherent part of an existing ecosystem which supports the development and commercialisation of smart intelligent machinery and advanced sustainable materials and Made Smarter technologies. In addition to supporting Innovation Accelerator funded programmes like CEAMS, the Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability, , SMMC will host a range of RTOs and programmes that will support the Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s ambitions to build a world class cluster of advanced materials and manufacturing in Atom Valley.
Central to the creation of the SMMC has been GAMMA; Greater Manchester’s Graphene, Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Alliance. GAMMA is an alliance of manufacturers, universities and public bodies. Its aim is to create an advanced manufacturing super-cluster in the North of England, focused on advanced materials and industrial digital technologies to support advanced manufacturing in its transition to net zero. It will drive a more productive, sustainable, highly skilled, and innovative industry.
The SMMC will create a step change in GAMMA’s ability to be able to provide businesses with the right support at the right time and provide a route for key advanced manufacturing initiatives to be sustainable for the long-term. It will provide a single point of entry to the GAMMA ecosystem, not just for businesses located in Atom Valley in the Boroughs of Rochdale, Bury and Oldham but also across Greater Manchester and the North of England.
Atom Valley Innovation group chair, Professor Richard Jones of UoM said:
“The submission of planning for SMMC is an important milestone in the work of Greater Manchester to take an innovation-driven approach to transforming the city region. It will form a key part of Atom Valley and wider plans including ID Manchester, connecting companies with world class capabilities from the University of Manchester and others.”
