“With enhanced facilities due to open in early 2026, AMIC is transforming the manufacturing innovation ecosystem in Northern Ireland”
AMIC represents a £100m collaborative, innovative powerhouse of advanced manufacturing. It is being delivered by Queen’s University Belfast in partnership with industry, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Ulster University, and supported by the UK Government and NI Executive through the Belfast Region City Deal.
AMIC’s mission is to drive growth and competitiveness across the manufacturing sector through the development of, and partnering with, world-class innovation capability.
Accelerated by significant capital funding from the Belfast Region City Deal, and operational since 2023, AMIC incorporates a number of industry facing units in QUB with deep capability in precision engineering, automation, digital manufacturing, polymers processing and composites. Over decades, these teams have served industry through delivering collaborative research and development projects, and through the provision of technical and advisory services.
AMIC as an RTO
AMIC operates under the well-established Research & Technology Organisation (RTO) model. RTOs, while often hosted by universities, sit at the interface between basic research and commercial exploitation, delivering services and collaborative projects at Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) from 3 to 7. Conceptually operating across the “valley of death” in technology development, RTOs provide rich, capability environments to de-risk process and product innovations.
RTOs are part of the industry ecosystems across Europe, manifest in the likes of the Fraunhofer Institutes (www.fraunhofer.de) in Germany and the Carnot Institutes in France. In the UK the network of Innovate UK Catapult Centres (catapult.org.uk) provide advanced capabilities and expertise across a range of disciplines including through the six centres of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC).
AMIC is currently led by Professor Sam Turner who was instrumental in the establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at the University of Sheffield and maintains a role with the HVMC as Net Zero Champion. Sam brings valuable insight into the operational models for similar centres.
The concept of Open Innovation, popularised by Henry Chesbrough of the Haas Business School, refers to the practice of business adopting a collaborative and external partnership approach to delivering innovation and developments on technology roadmaps. Requiring a collaborative mindset, open innovation allows businesses to harness external facilities and expertise to achieve innovation goals faster, more effectively and with reduced internal investment requirements.
As an RTO, AMIC is Northern Ireland’s open innovation industrial environment with capability aligned to the needs of the manufacturing sector. This capability is established through the provision of facilities, equipment and the expertise of professional engineering staff; using the latest Industry 4.0 technology, smart automation design and materials to solve business challenges
Capabilities
In addition to the 10,500m2 Factory of the Future being constructed at Global Point, Newtownabbey, AMIC operates facilities at QUB (AMIC Campus) and the former NIACE facility adjacent to Spirit AeroSystems on Airport Road Belfast. This latter facility, the 3,700m2 AMIC Harbour, will continue to provide capability in advanced composites and polymer processing. AMIC will grow form a current staff cohort of 60 to a team of around 150.
AMIC’s capability is organised into four capability areas:
- Digital Factory – supporting the transformation of manufacturing with digital technologies
- Sustainable Polymers & Composites – harnessing advanced materials
- Smart Design – Accelerating New Product Introduction
- Nanotechnology & Photonics – Fabrication for advanced photonics and sensor applications
Ways to Engage
Businesses engage with AMIC through a myriad of mechanisms drawing a range of funding sources.
- Contract Research – Businesses contract with and fund AMIC to deliver a custom programme of engineering development
- Consulting & Technical Services – Typically shorter engagements, business access specific engineering expertise or the provision of testing and characterisation services
- Collaborative Research & Development – AMIC and business partners engage in a collaborative project often extending over several years. These projects harness public funding from agencies such as Innovate UK, Aerospace Technology Institute, Invest NI, InterTradeIreland and under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
- Training and Continual Professional Development – provision of co-developed specific training, complementary to other providers
Public funding is available to support many of these engagement mechanisms. Innovation vouchers from Invest NI can provide full funding for short technical or consultancy engagements while Invest NI R&D Grants can fund more extensive projects on a collaborative basis. AMIC supports companies in accessing innovation funding from Innovate UK and sector specific agencies such as the Aerospace Technology Institute and the Advanced Propulsion Centre, all of which provide grant funding to lower the investment barrier for Research & Development. The established Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme can provide support for a collaborative project through which a new employee, often a graduate, is embedded in a company to work on a technology transfer project under the co-supervision of AMIC engineers.
AMIC has developed a Membership engagement model through which companies commit recurrent funding and strategic input over several years. Member funding is distributed between company specific project requirements and a a shared, core research programme, the results of which are accessible by all members. Membership is operated on a tiered basis to attract engagement from companies of a range of scale and priorities.
Skills Development
In addition to its role within the innovation ecosystem AMIC has developed a Skills, Learning and Workforce development strategy. With a clear undertsanding that improving manufacturing competitiveness requires the addressing of skills gaps, AMIC will develop custom training offerings as well as embedding training opportunities into its collaborative projects. AMIC is working with other training providers, providing access to facilities and expertise that augments existing provision and is developing an engagement strategy with schools and colleges to promote manufacturing careers.
Industrial Decarbonisation
Cross-cutting all AMIC’s innovation capability is the need to respond to the Net Zero challenge. AMIC will play a leading role in the decarbonisation of individual manufacturing businesses and the sector as a whole. Northern Ireland represents the perfect test bed to examine industrial decarbonisation clusters and innovative approaches to renewable energy vectors such as the hydrogen economy and supply chain.
What does success look like?
If it achieves its mission AMIC will be the catalyst for a transformation in Northern Ireland manufacturing: increased growth, improved productivity and competitiveness while reducing the carbon impact of products and processes.
By 2050, it is estimated that AMIC will have contributed more than £1bn to the local economy, directly and indirectly created over 1,500 permanent jobs, and supported the training of 300 apprentices.
Welcome to your Workshop
Contact us at
we-are-amic.com
T: 08 9097 5433
Conor Quinn, AMIC, Business Development Manager : E: c.quinn@qub.ac.uk
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