Written Evidence Submitted by

Clive Hickman, Chief Executive, The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)

(CRV0067)

It was a pleasure to host you and the Science and Technology Committee, at the Manufacturing Technology Centre last week. I hope you and the Committee found it to be a valuable event. I wanted to take this opportunity to touch on some of our key discussion points from the day, and offer my help and support in the Committee’s future work.

With regards to the UK R&D budget, though substantial, it retains a distinct imbalance. The United Kingdom has an impressive record in research, and the funding corresponds to this. However, financing for the development work required to translate this activity into viable products lags behind. The MTC, and the HVMC more widely, would like to see a more equitable balance between research and innovation funding to enable more of the great research from our universities to be translated into products and processes for UK manufacturing.

We also discussed our facility at Ansty Park, which has secured £800 million of inward investment, generating over 2,000 jobs locally. To build on this, one of the MTC’s greatest challenges is to find a way to secure government funding to increase and match the private investment which the West Midlands, as a region, excels at attracting.

Locating the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) in the West Midlands would lay the groundwork for attracting the additional investment the region needs. With its proud manufacturing heritage, longstanding status as the home of UK innovation, and central geographical location, the West Midlands has the strongest case for hosting ARIA, and offers the perfect launchpad for the next chapter of the UK’s innovation story.

Whilst our discussion focused on the undoubted strengths the region holds, I also want to reiterate the ‘ticking time bomb’ that the UK faces. Over 42,000 people are employed making vehicles with internal combustion engines in the West Midlands, and all of these jobs are at risk from the necessary transition to net zero. It is essential that we reskill those individuals to future-proof the automotive workforce. The money for this reskilling is not guaranteed from the private sector, and as such, the MTC needs help from the public sector to kick this work off, and ensure these workers avoid a cliff-edge in, what is now, less than a decade.

If you would like, I would be very happy to provide a written submission, expanding on the points above. Please do let me know your thoughts.

Once again, I would like to thank you and the Committee for visiting our facility, and look forward to reading your Report: ‘The Role of Technology, Research and Innovation in the Covid-19 Recovery’, when it is published

(December 2021)