Plans have been revealed for a new tech facility in a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University and Tatton Estate. The Cheshire 3D Print Hub (C3D) will create a major new addition to the Liverpool-Manchester science corridor.

Manchester Metropolitan University are set to speak at our North West Universities Development Plans Conference later this month, and they’ll be sharing details around this and other estate development plans alongside University Academy ’92, University of Salford and Lancaster University.

The C3D will be located on Tatton Estates’ Yarwood Heath Farm, part of the wider Cheshire Gateway Scheme. It’ll see an initial investment of around £6m to transform the area into state-of-the-art tech facilities which will also include some 40,000 sq ft of existing buildings accessed directly from J7 of the M56. It will also provide grow-on incubation space to accommodate the emerging North West Industrial Digital Technologies market and supplement Manchester Met’s existing central Manchester PrintCity® facilities.

Henry Brooks, Tatton Group Managing Director, said: “C3D is a very exciting prospect, regionally, nationally and internationally. It will help contribute to the global imperative for the UK and the North West to increase manufacturing, to create wealth, jobs and social cohesion. It will also become an integral part of Cheshire’s international corridor of science and innovation which has some of the most significant science based assets in the north of England, some of which are of global importance. Sitting at the geographical heart of the UK, Cheshire Gateway already boasts fantastic connectivity to all major cities via train, which will be yet further fed by the HS2 hub stations at Crewe and Manchester Airport, where it is expected to connect to Northern Powerhouse rail, connecting C3D to the global community.”

Collectively the Cheshire Science Corridor, which has Enterprise Zone status, currently comprises: Capenhurst Technology Park, Thornton Science Park, Sci-Tech Daresbury (in Liverpool City Region LEP area), Birchwood Park’s Nuclear and Forensics Clusters, Alderley Park (Life Sciences), Jodrell Bank and the Square Kilometre Array.

Tatton Estate will support other science and technology businesses to occupy parts of the Yarwood Heath Farm site to create critical mass and foster industry collaboration.

Professor Craig Banks, personal chair in Electrochemical and Nanotechnology at Manchester Met and Faculty of Science and Engineering lead for Research and Knowledge Exchange, said: “The long-term ambition of the project is to create an open and inclusive science and technology hub. It will enhance our research and innovation infrastructure and capacities to develop excellence and promote business investment, including for SMEs. The collaboration between Tatton Estate and Manchester Met will also form academic partnerships, using research knowledge to drive commercial growth. SMEs will be supported by postgraduate research projects, with senior academic expertise and could take ideas from concept through to commercialisation. As ideas develop, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships could be exploited to accelerate suitable projects as a route to commercialisation.”

To hear more about the project join us for the North West Universities Development Plans Conference later this month.