Yorkshire and the Humber · England
Sheffield & Rotherham
Machine the part in the morning, be on a moor in the National Park by six.
Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation
The place
Sheffield made steel for two centuries and then did something unusual with the decline: it rebuilt the knowledge rather than the tonnage. The applied research campus east of the city works on machining, forming, casting and process control for aerospace, energy and nuclear supply chains, at a scale of physical equipment few countries maintain.
It is also the greenest large city in England by a wide margin, a third of it sits inside the Peak District National Park boundary, with a music and independent scene that has never much cared what London thought of it.
- A city built in a bowl of hills, with the moors visible from the centre
- Steel and cutlery inheritance, still audible in the workshops
- Two universities that dominate the centre
- Genuinely cheap for a big English city
- Independent music, climbing and outdoor culture
Why Sheffield & Rotherham?
Machine the part in the morning, be on a moor in the National Park by six.
- Applied manufacturing research with production-scale machines, not benchtop demonstrators.
- Aerospace, energy and nuclear supply chains that will take a first order from a small company.
- Advanced metals and alloys research with a two-century industrial memory behind it.
- Housing costs among the lowest of any major English city.
- The Peak District begins inside the city boundary. This is not a weekend trip.
Sheffield is not a venture capital city, and its digital scene is smaller than Leeds or Manchester. Come for the metal and the making.
What's happening here
Britain is building, and a lot of it is here.
Each item below is a real programme, institution or development with a named source. UKIZ does not publish claims it cannot point at.
Sheffield hosts one of the largest applied manufacturing research campuses in Europe
The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre works with industrial members on machining, forming and process research at production scale.
University of Sheffield AMRC ↗About a third of Sheffield lies inside the Peak District National Park
The park boundary runs inside the city, an unusual arrangement for a large English city.
Peak District National Park Authority ↗
What this place is good at
Strengths, from the canonical record.
- Machining, forming and process research
- Aerospace and energy supply chains
- Advanced metals and alloys
- Industrial digital technologies
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Advanced Materials
- Clean Energy
- Robotics & Autonomous Systems
- Mobility & Transport Technology
- Digital Technologies
UKRI publishes the location and specialisms of High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres in the area.