A £10million advanced ceramics facility has completed 150 projects and attracted 22 new companies in its first year of operation, according to newly published performance figures.
The AMRICC Centre, which opened on Stone Business Park in February 2024, supports industries including defence, aerospace, energy, space and healthcare, and is the UK’s only advanced ceramics pilot-scale centre of its kind.
An audit of the Centre’s first year shows strong demand for its services, with increasing customer visits, demonstrations and equipment use, alongside repeat engagement from businesses.
Twenty-two companies, who had not worked commercially with AMRICC before, have worked with the Centre this year.
Other highlights from the first year include the launch of The AMRICC Academy, an educational hub providing training and development programmes for scientists and engineers to address skills gaps in traditional and advanced ceramics.
Dr Cathryn Hickey, CEO of AMRICC, said: “The AMRICC Centre has now transitioned from commissioning to commercial delivery, with a great deal of positive early momentum and increasing recognition as a successful representation of a public/private partnership.
“With an equipment suite of over 350 items of high-value technology and an open-access structure that enables product and process development to be carried out at an industrially relevant scale, it provides a unique resource.
“The facility has already successfully delivered 150 projects in critical sectors, including nuclear, ceramic matrix composite (CMC) development, energy transition technologies, and traditional ceramics, and attracted 22 new companies.
“Many of these organisations have already returned for more engagement demonstrating early trust in its capabilities.”
The AMRICC Centre was conceived by Lucideon with the support of the Midlands Industrial Ceramics Group (MICG), with regional backing from Midlands Engine and Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
It came out of MICG’s £18.27 million research programme, funded by Government under UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund.
Tony Kinsella, CEO of Lucideon, said: “The work undertaken in its first year underscores the significance of The AMRICC Centre as a place uniquely positioned to bring together sectors, places, and systems, at local, national, and global scale.
“The development has already pumped around £4 million into the local economy for equipment, services and material supply.
“The projects being undertaken boost productivity, support innovation, and strengthen the UK’s industrial base.”
The MICG members that founded The AMRICC Centre were: AEON Engineering, Birmingham University, CDS Group, Foseco, Leicester University, Loughborough University, Lucideon, Mantec, Morgan, PCL, Precision Ceramics, Rolls-Royce and Trelleborg.
