Ben Morgan, newly appointed permanent chief executive of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), tells Professional Engineering why moving fast is not optional.
The forces reshaping industrial competition – clean energy, digitalisation and domestic capability – present every advanced manufacturing nation with the same opportunity. What makes you confident the UK can come out ahead?
We’re building on real manufacturing heritage, particularly in nuclear and aerospace, where UK industry is the second-largest globally. But heritage alone isn’t the answer. Look at Australia with its vast land and critical minerals. The US has a huge service industry, an enormous manufacturing base and the world’s largest economy.
What’s the UK got? A vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem, and world-class fundamental research. That’s the asset. The only way we compete – and make no mistake, we are in a race – is not through subsidies. We can’t match the US, China or India on that front. We need to use innovation to leapfrog and remain ahead.
You used the word race. Climate change, digitalisation, global instability – none of these are new. Are we moving at the pace these opportunities – and threats – demand?
I always think you can go quicker. But look at where government has laid down the gauntlet. We’re investing in nuclear and progressing Rolls-Royce SMRs [small modular reactors] in North Wales – the UK’s first domestic nuclear technology in more than 20 years. Defence spending is set to increase next year and again by 2029. The signals are there. But if you ask supply chain businesses in Sheffield or Rotherham, they’d say they haven’t seen much difference yet.
We have to expand our industrial base, and that requires more than government investment. We need to get private capital interested in hard tech and manufacturing. That’s not easy when the City can back a software business in Silicon Valley with low overhead and a two-year return.
We’re actively trying to change that. We were recently in London to open the stock exchange, showcasing manufacturing start-ups and scale-ups that are genuinely investable. There’s also the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult network – of which AMRC is a part – that can help investors back the right technology and the right innovation, de-risking decisions so fantastic manufacturing businesses with massive opportunities in high-value markets can scale quickly. That’s not to say investment isn’t flowing – it is, but we need more.
We also need greater coordination, ensuring industrial policy is aligned with what industry actually needs. We’ve seen real improvements over the past year, but in a couple of key areas, we’re still waiting on the fine details. So, to answer your question directly: no, we’re not moving quickly enough. But we are moving in the right direction.
What is the single biggest obstacle between where the UK is now and where it needs to be?
Capacity. If you look at the machine shops in Sheffield supplying defence and aerospace, they’re probably going to get pressed and see growth in both areas. And if Rolls-Royce re-enters the narrowbody engine market with UltraFan 30, as it’s talking about doing, that will be a huge amount of work in the UK.
Skills, yes, but it’s more nuanced than how it’s often framed. Most businesses I talk to don’t struggle with apprentice or graduate recruitment. They struggle with what I’d call the hollowed-out middle – people with 10 years’ experience, the 30- to 35-year-olds who can manage and deliver complex programmes. That’s the gap that’s hardest to fill quickly.
There are ways to address this, such as recruiting from previously overlooked pools, greater focus on continuing professional development and upskilling current engineers. There’s also a timing dimension. Much of what we’ve discussed will come to fruition in the 2030s, which gives today’s graduates four or five years to build that experience. But a lot of the engineering is being done now.
The AMRC sits at the intersection of research and industry. In practical terms, how does that translate into addressing the challenges you’ve described?
The majority of our work sits in the innovation space – driving cutting-edge research and making transformational process improvements. With Composites at Speed and Scale (Compass), for instance, we’re aiming to reduce the manufacture of large-scale composite components from 40 hours to four. That’s the kind of step-change that would cement the UK’s position at the forefront of large-scale integrated aerostructures.
We also do significant work on the adoption and diffusion of technology. A lot of that is convening – connecting businesses with the right integrator, the right supplier. Signposting rather than inventing.
And thirdly, developing current and future skills, from apprenticeships to PhDs through the University of Sheffield. Where we could do better is ensuring engineers coming through spend a year with a company like Rolls-Royce or Boeing. Getting that experience earlier is exactly what the industry needs.
Tell me more about Compass – what is it, and why does it matter?
Compass is an open-access facility developing high-rate, high-accuracy large closed-mould structures to meet future demand for lighter commercial aircraft, although the learnings and processes also carry over to defence and offshore energy.
What makes it pioneering is that it operates fully at scale. The components we’re working with are 10 metres long, the same dimensions as components in production. And we’ve specified the facility to run at the rate the aerospace industry anticipates: 100 aircraft per month.
We’ve also enabled it with a full digital twin, running simulations in real time alongside the physical asset. The data sets we’re building have value well beyond aerospace – across the HVM Catapult network and advanced manufacturing sectors. It’s a really valuable piece of infrastructure for us and the UK.
Can you give a concrete example of research translating into real-world impact?
The intelligent workstation is a strong example. We started work on it around a decade ago, initially built around a motorbike engine. It was co-developed with aerospace partners and came to maturity around 2020. Today, that technology is manufacturing parts on the Typhoon production line for BAE Systems. And what’s possibly more exciting is that it forms the baseline for future fighter jet programmes such as Tempest.
For me, the most meaningful part links back to the experience gap. The workstation has digitised a lot of knowledge that previously lived only in the heads of time-served engineers – people who might have worked 10 years or more before being trusted with certain parts. Now, an apprentice can come in, having completed their training, and work on those same products.
If this truly is a generational opportunity, what will determine whether the UK captures or misses it?
Coordination, fundamentally. Closer alignment between government, industry and the innovation community, with a shared understanding of the mission, the barriers, the pace and scale required, and, ultimately, the size of the prize.
The AMRC is in a privileged position to support that. We’re close to government, to funders and to a broad range of industry, we’re part of the University of Sheffield and embedded in academic networks and the wider HVM Catapult network.
While this government has done a lot to back manufacturing that it probably doesn’t get full credit for, what industry needs above all else is consistency. The sectors we’re working in operate in decades – new facilities, new supply chains, new technologies. Companies need confidence that the policy environment supporting sectors like aerospace, nuclear and advanced manufacturing remain stable over time.
We’ll have a new aircraft in the 2030s that will still be flying in the 2060s and 2070s. These industries need confidence that Britain is a good place to invest and grow a manufacturing business. This government, and future governments, need to keep giving the industrial base that confidence.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.