High Value Manufacturing Catapult sets direction for the UK’s advanced manufacturing future

The High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult has today published its technology strategy, setting out how it will help develop the technologies UK industry needs to remain globally competitive in a rapidly changing industrial landscape.

Developed in close collaboration with over 150 industry partners, the strategy sets the course to translate novel technologies into market-ready products over the next 15 years by providing direction for capability development and investment.

At the heart of the strategy are a series of technology roadmaps, offering a structured view of how key manufacturing capabilities must evolve until 2040. These roadmaps will help HVM Catapult’s national network of centres direct their technical expertise towards the UK’s most pressing industrial priorities, including the clean energy transition, national security capability, healthy living and industrial sustainability.

The roadmaps will enable UK industry to compete and thrive in existing and emerging global markets – from developing digital twin systems in composite engineering that will deliver the next generation of floating offshore wind turbines, to advancing design techniques in joining engineering for the future fleet of nuclear power reactors. Or scaling cost-effective manufacturing to meet the growing demand for personalised medicines.

The UK government’s modern industrial strategy identified the HVM Catapult technology strategy as a key milestone in delivering the advanced manufacturing sector plan, supporting the ambition to nearly double annual business investment in the sector.

Professor Chris Dungey, Chief Technology Officer at HVM Catapult, said:

Advanced manufacturing is entering a decisive decade. Around the world, nations are investing heavily in the technologies that will define future industrial leadership. For the UK the question is not simply whether we can invent these technologies, but whether we can adopt, integrate and scale them fast enough to turn innovation into industrial and economic advantage.

“Our technology strategy sets out how HVM Catapult will help meet that challenge. It is a practical framework for industrial transformation, shaped by industry need and designed to guide capability development across our centres and the wider innovation ecosystem.

“By providing greater clarity on priority technologies, capability gaps and the pathways needed to translate innovation into deployment, we can help businesses across the UK move more quickly from ideas to industrial impact.

As part of the strategy’s ongoing development, HVM Catapult will also begin work in 2026 on a complementary set of frontier technology roadmaps, covering areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and semiconductors.

Alongside this, funded by Innovate UK, the Catapult will explore how the developments in technology identified in the technology roadmaps will impact people and skills. People roadmapping is an emerging strategic methodology for how HVM Catapult can identify workforce impacts and skills requirements with the aim of preparing industry and the UK skills landscape to respond to technology change to achieve industrial strategy goals.

Download our technology strategy here