Distinctive Strathclyde
The Future of Manufacturing in Scotland
The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) is driving the future of manufacturing through innovation. Developed in partnership with industry, the Scottish and UK Governments, and national innovation and economic development agencies, NMIS is accelerating productivity to grow our economy, develop a vibrant workforce, and create happier, healthier, greener communities.
From our growing network of world-class manufacturing R&D facilities, NMIS works with businesses of all sizes and sectors across Scotland, the UK, and beyond to find technology solutions to help them succeed.
NMIS turns brilliant ideas into reality, and does this at industry speed. Coming from diverse backgrounds, the passionate team at NMIS works alongside industry, academia, and the public sector to solve problems, train the next generation of leaders, makers, engineers, and inventors, and generate creative ideas that will change how we make things and protect our planet.
Enabled by funding from the private and public sectors in Scotland and the UK, NMIS grew out of the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC), which was itself seeded by investment from Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Scottish Enterprise. NMIS now includes the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre, Digital Factory, Manufacturing Skills Academy and soon to be opened Digital Process Manufacturing Centre. This NMIS ‘group’ approach has positioned it as a key part of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult. NMIS collaborates closely with the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, operated by CPI, in which we are the strategic research partners.
Based in the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District beside Glasgow Airport, NMIS is helping Scotland become a global leader in manufacturing and to recapture our historical reputation for engineering excellence and innovative technologies. Collaborating with industry, academia and the public sector, we are turning smart ideas into reality, delivering ground-breaking research to transform productivity and supporting the development of a modern and diverse workforce.
Developed in partnership with industry, the Scottish and UK Governments, and national innovation and economic development agencies, NMIS is accelerating productivity to grow our economy, develop a vibrant workforce, and create happier, healthier, greener communities.
Quantum & Photonics
Our Quantum Technology Cluster provides significantly enhanced capabilities in timing, sensing and measurement, imaging and communications across a range of sectors and applications. Quantum simulation and computing have the potential to revolutionise how computation is done.
The cluster builds on the presence in Glasgow of our leading spin-out businesses in quantum technology and photonics, as well as the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (F-CAP) the UK’s only Fraunhofer Centre, based within Glasgow City Innovation District in our Technology and Innovation Centre. Our vision for the cluster is to create a vibrant, internationally competitive centre of activity that provides the translational ecosystem required to develop, test, validate and demonstrate disruptive quantum technologies, and respond to current and future market demand. The significance of the contribution of the University of Strathclyde in this field has been recognised by the award of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2023 for excellence, innovation and entrepreneurship in Photonics.
The cluster consists of an expansion of our longstanding academic activities in this area since we appointed the UK’s first Professor of Photonics in 1982 and it has grown into a highly-developed research community that is working at scale on the leading edge of technology, and translating that to practical application. The cluster is now supported by a substantial research and innovation infrastructure to expand development, scale-up and demonstration of new technology. It has established a strong track-record of enterprise and commercialisation through support for significant numbers of spin-out companies.
This is supported by the provision of additional on-campus industrial co-location space for local supply chain companies and a further emphasis on advancing the technology readiness of research outputs towards commercial applications. The cluster is distinctive in its capability to accelerate the ‘pull’ for research by industry and the ‘push’ of new ideas into industry. The culture of the cluster enables staff to work comfortably across all Technology Readiness Levels, further supporting a close working relationship with industry. It is an environment where collaboration and innovation can flourish, and companies are attracted to cluster and thrive. The environment is further enhanced by a high-quality talent pipeline, from undergraduates to PhDs and early career researchers.