MIRA scheme benefits from £19.4m in RGF settlement
A NEAR £20m cash injection is set to transform advanced engineering and research facility MIRA into one of the finest centres of its kind in Europe.
The centre, near Nuneaton, has received £19.4m in the second round of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund settlement.
Earlier this year MIRA announced ambitious plans for the £300m transformation of its Nuneaton base. The plan is part of the centre’s strategy to expand and attract foreign investment.
Existing facilities at the centre are near capacity and this is hampering MIRA’s ability to take on new work, even though demand for its services is strong.
The RGF bid was among the top 15% received by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The cash is a further boost for the centre following its designation in August as an Enterprise Zone.
George Gillespie, MIRA’s chief executive, said: “Having met with Nick Clegg earlier this year to explain our engineering capabilities, the job creation potential and inward investment opportunities that our expansion represents, I’m very gratified with this result – which will help to create over 2,000 jobs.
“This is an excellent example of government working together with the private sector to encourage growth and investment – which in our case has been critical for the creation of the 155,000sqm MIRA Technology Park development which will incorporate a new MIRA engineering centre and will firmly establish both the region and the UK as a centre of excellence in transportation R&D.”
The RGF money will be used to improve the road infrastructure outside the centre, specifically key junctions along the A5. This will improve traffic flow and speed the pace of the greater redevelopment programme.
Elsewhere, Denys Shortt, chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said the MIRA funding would be an important boost to the area’s supply chain.
“The Regional Growth Fund announcement is good news for Coventry and Warwickshire. We have Elonex and Alamo in the county, while MIRA is in the very north of our area and will have a direct impact on the supply chain in Coventry and Warwickshire,” he said.
“The bid with which we were directly involved – the Advanced Engineering (AE) Supply Chain Investment – has been designed to boost cross-border economic growth for companies particularly in the automotive and aerospace industries, with the specific aim of boosting economic growth. Our High Value Manufacturing Focus Group has worked very hard on this bid – along with partners – so this news is very welcome.
“We hope that several other projects will have backing going forward.”
