The Greater Manchester Investment Zone is a funded development plan for advanced materials and manufacturing. Over the next ten years, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority will invest £160 million in projects that drive growth and innovation, building on the city region’s strengths by developing new infrastructure, delivering business support and skills programmes and fostering new research and industrial ingenuity.
Investment Zones are areas across the UK where central and local government will work with businesses, higher education institutions, and other local partners on growth and innovation opportunities. In the first five years of the programme Greater Manchester will invest £80m in advanced materials and manufacturing projects here. These will help to:
- Develop new premises for materials and manufacturing businesses to start up, and to scale up.
- Unlock the materials and manufacturing expertise in Greater Manchester’s universities, turning advanced research into viable businesses and supporting existing businesses to applying new technology to their work.
- Provide subsidised finance to growing companies and hands-on support for SMEs, helping them to adopt new innovations and to scale-up.
- Upskill and reskill people in Greater Manchester, helping them access careers in manufacturing.
The Investment Zone programme will distribute funding to projects across the city region, and each offers the opportunity for Greater Manchester businesses to engage and benefit.
Accelerating the development of start-up and scale-up employment sites at SISTER and Atom Valley.
SISTER is the largest city centre innovation project in Europe, a major redevelopment of the University of Manchester’s north campus and a hub for businesses and organisations looking to advance research and development in specialist sectors including digital tech, biotech, health innovation and advanced manufacturing and materials. Investment Zone funding will accelerate the redevelopment of the site, creating the space to house spinouts, start-ups, scaling local SMEs and global businesses new to the region.
Atom Valley is the most significant opportunity to deploy the research happening in the city region core to scale up advanced materials and manufacturing businesses. Investment Zone funding will provide investment in research and innovation programmes to be delivered enabled by the infrastructure needed to make Atom Valley work.
Investment Zone funding will support highways infrastructure at the Northern Gateway – the largest employment site in Atom Valley – preparing it for development unlocking the space for materials and manufacturing businesses to grow at scale.
Located at the Kingsway Business Park area of Atom Valley, a new Sustainable Materials Manufacturing Centre (SMMC) will provide the facilities and tailored support to enable businesses across the city region to understand and adopt new technologies.
Alongside these investments, Greater Manchester will establish projects to develop a wider advanced materials and manufacturing cluster through the investment Zone programme:
- GM Advance a Revolving Investment Fund offering subsidised seed finance for materials and manufacturing businesses. This fund is now open for applications - more information here.
- Funding for business support and skills programmes, preparing firms for advanced activity and people for manufacturing careers.
- Funding new translational research facilities and university-led programmes supporting businesses to adopt new technologies, including the Acoustics Innovation Institute, the North of England Robotics Innovation Centre (NERIC), and the Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Innovation Centre (AMMIC).
- Funding for planning capacity across the region, supporting local planning authorities to progress major developments at speed.
Alongside these projects, through the Investment Zone policy Greater Manchester will retain the growth in business rates for 25 years across two sites spanning Manchester and Salford and in Atom Valley. Greater Manchester will reinvest these into advanced materials and manufacturing activity, supporting projects that sustain the sector's growth over the long term.
Businesses interested in engaging with Investment Zone initiatives should get in contact with the GMCA via iz@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk and further information is available in the Greater Manchester Investment Zone prospectus