A futuristic 3-D printing project for Carmarthenshire school-children could soon be expanded across Europe. Swansea University has led a Horizon 2020 consortium bid for a grant worth over £1.2 million (under the Science for Society work programme), which will enable the roll-out of the project in 60 international schools.

School-children in Ireland, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Portugal are among those who could benefit, if the bid to the Europe-wide Collaboration on Science and Engineering Education programme is successful.

As part of an on-going project led by Ysgol Gynradd Nantgaredig in Carmarthenshire, children at eight county primary schools are 3-D printing and assembling battery-controlled toy cars, ahead of a race this summer.

Swansea University (www.swansea.ac.uk) has loaned 3-D printers to each school, with a number of local car dealerships on board as race event sponsors.

Aimed at introducing school-children to ‘smart manufacturing’ from a young age, the scheme is helping to raise awareness of a project called ‘Factory of the Future’ that is due to be part-funded by the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay City Deal.

After the toy car race, the school-children will be asked to 3-D print local landmarks.

The Factory of the Future project is one of 11 across South West Wales that are due to be part-funded by the City Deal, which will create over 9,000 high-quality jobs and boost the Swansea Bay City Region’s economy in the coming years.