Government and industry have committed to providing almost £365m of funding for new aerospace technologies, aimed at further enhancing the UK’s reputation as a world leading aircraft design and manufacturing hub.
Coinciding with this week’s Farnborough Air Show, the announcement builds on the £1.2bn of funding government has already jointly invested through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), which has contributed to 149 new projects, involving 188 different companies and organisations, including more than 100 SMEs.
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Reportedly, the research projects will target different aspects of aircraft manufacturing and performance, driving up competitiveness, lowering costs, and helping to deliver environmentally-friendly aircraft with lower emissions and reduced noise.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid explained: “Aerospace is a vitally important industry for the UK and it is one of our great manufacturing success stories, supporting more than 230,000 jobs and generating over £30bn a year for the economy.
“We are number one in Europe and world leaders in innovation, design and manufacturing parts for planes. With government and industry investing nearly £4bn by 2026, we are showing our continued commitment to this vital sector and our intention to keep the UK’s world-beating status.”
Aerospace Growth Partnership
Also at Farnborough, the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) updated the sector on the industrial strategy for UK aerospace.
The AGP has transformed the way in which industry and government work together to secure the long-term future of one of the UK’s most important sectors.
A key feature of the strategy is industry’s Supply Chain Competitiveness Charter signed by the sector’s leading civil aerospace manufacturers.
This aims to strengthen relationships between the large companies and their suppliers, fostering deeper collaboration to raise productivity and competitiveness.
Welcoming the new AGP strategy, Javid commented: “Means of Ascent, the updated strategy for the UK aerospace industry, is a great piece of work and will really help with the partnership between government and industry.
“I am also extremely pleased to see that the industry has also developed a Supply Chain Competitiveness Charter which will help our smaller companies become even more productive and export more.”
ATI chief executive, Gary Elliott said: “This is the largest batch of ATI projects to be launched since operations started three years ago.
“It moves UK aerospace towards delivering the next generation of quiet and low emission aircraft, whilst also tackling immediate manufacturing challenges. The participants are a who’s who of global aerospace, as well as the UK supply chain and research base – a powerful demonstration of the strength of UK innovation.”
