Construction of one of the most advanced factories in the world has passed another milestone.

The £43 million Factory 2050 at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is starting to take shape as construction workers begin to erect the structural steelwork. Fitting out of both the research block and workshop is due to begin early in May, with completion of the whole project scheduled for the end of the year.

Factory 2050 will be the first building on a new Advanced Manufacturing Campus, which could see the university build up to 1 million ft2 of new research facilities on the site of the former Sheffield City Airport over the next seven to 10 years.

AMRC executive Keith Ridgway said: “We want Factory 2050 to be the most advanced factory in the world and part of our long-term development of high-value manufacturing — an area where this region has an international lead.

"Factory 2050 will be the UK’s first totally reconfigurable, digital factory, built to respond to an increasing requirement for advanced manufacturers to be able to make rapid changes to product design, as a result of ever-changing customer demands.

“The development will ensure that the UK’s advanced manufacturing supply chain can tap into the expertise it needs to make the most of those trends. Factory 2050 has also been designed to make young people enthusiastic about following a career in advanced manufacturing. We want to see hundreds of kids noses pressed up against its glass walls as they marvel at what is going on inside and want to be part of it.”