Who we are: Our role in the UK manufacturing landscape
Established by Innovate UK in 2011, the HVM Catapult is a network of seven research, development and innovation centres transforming UK manufacturing.
Working through and with our Centres, we help to move the world-leading research of UK universities towards commercial uses.
We are also part of the wider Catapult Network, where we help to co-ordinate the broader innovation landscape in the UK.
The HVM Catapult’s role
At the junction of business, research, and government, we play a unique set of roles in the UK manufacturing sector.
These are:Â
- Growing manufacturing businesses and the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the UK economy
- Investigating innovative technologies or scaling-up new products and processes to prove they have achieved manufacturing readiness
- Working with academic partners to build on research at universities and research establishments in the UK and beyond, using our expertise to help shape and deliver UK manufacturing policy
- Working with UK Government and others to develop high quality training provision to meet industry standards
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Three pillars of innovation
To successfully play our role in the UK economy, we focus on three pillars that support the commercialisation of new technologies.
Technology development
The foundation of innovation is the development of new technologies, whether based on fundamental research or modified for scale from prototype and low-usage items. We support commercial and collaborative research and development across the UK, creating our own innovations and helping businesses to realise their technological ambitions.
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Supply chain development
The commercialisation of a new technology will fail without a stable supply chain for making the product and its components. We focus on developing UK capability in supply chains for the technologies of today and tomorrow, anchoring national capacity to high-growth sectors and increasing our resilience to supply shocks. We also help individual companies to optimise their supply chains and use their existing capabilities to break into new markets.
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Workforce development
No innovation will succeed without the skills in the economy to operate its underlying technologies. We use our unique position within manufacturing to identify the skills needed for continuing economic development, working with UK government to build the systems to deliver these skills in the right places at the right times. We also train thousands of workers each year within our centres, investing in the current workforce and enabling the next generation.
See more about manufacturing workforce developmentOur vision
We will be:
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- delivering industrial foresight and transformation for the UK;
- operating at scale in a deep collaborative alliance; and
- growing the UK’s community of world-leading engineers and scientists.
This will allow us to rise to the nation’s grand industrial challenges to deliver lasting impact for the UK economy, society, and the environment.
Industrial partners since 2011
SME partners since 2011
Commercial and collaborative R&D projects since 2011
In over a decade of work, we have helped more and more businesses each year grasp the opportunity of innovation and grow.
We’re helping to move cutting-edge research from the UK’s world-leading universities into the commercial market, supporting companies to transform the products they sell, the way they make them and the skills of their workforce.
HVM Catapult centres
Working through and with our seven centres of industrial innovation, we have cover development in areas from material formulation to advanced assembly.
Our People
Our leadership team with over 100 years of combined experience.
Mandy Calvert
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Clive Johnson
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Andy Jones
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Professor Andy Neely
Senior Pro Vice Chancellor: Enterprise and Business Relations, University of Cambridge
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Sarah Newbitt
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Lauren Flanagan
Executive Director – Engagement and Communications, High Value Manufacturing Catapult
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Professor Sam Turner
Net Zero Champion, HVM Catapult; Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC);
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Steve Foxley
Chief Executive Officer, The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC)
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Chris Courtney
Chief Executive Officer, National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS)
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Andy Storer
Chief Executive Officer, Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC)
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Related case studies
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CASE STUDY
Leading the Ventilator Challenge
On the 16th of March 2020, the Government asked UK industry to support the NHS in its fight against COVID-19. The VentilatorChallengeUK (VCUK) Consortium, led by the HVM Catapult’s outgoing CEO Dick Elsy and made up of more than 33 businesses from the aerospace, automotive and medical sectors, came together at speed to build medical ventilators.
3 February 2022
CASE STUDY
Developing the skills system for emerging technologies
HVM Catapult is leading work to create a better technical skills system for manufacturing and many other key sectors in the UK
6 February 2023
CASE STUDY
Attracting global firms to Renfrewshire
Forging new relationships with both industrial leaders and local communities alike, HVM Catapult’s presence in Renfrewshire is bringing tangible benefits to the region and Scotland as a whole.
3 February 2022
CASE STUDY
Saving the Great British cuppa
Many manufacturers and distributors struggled to meet this demand, with basic products like toilet rolls, tea and pasta disappearing from shelves. Big brand firms were not immune from the difficulties, even household names like Tetley Tea, owned by Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL).
3 February 2022
CASE STUDY
Quantum leap in data security in UK first
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been identified as one of the solutions to maintaining this security, using principles from quantum mechanics to keep data encrypted and reliably detect eavesdropping attempts.
3 February 2022
CASE STUDY
Battery of the future powering South Yorkshire investment
The AMRC helped to bring the Ultimate Battery Company to South Yorkshire, along with future economic benefits to the region and a positive environmental contribution to global net zero targets
6 February 2023
