NSW’s government-backed manufacturing incubator has officially launched, signing on with a new partnership between 10 of the state’s biggest universities to help translate innovative research.
After a three-year wait for the first new building in the brand-new city of Bradfield, the long-awaited Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility (AMRF) arrived on Wednesday.
It launched on the same day as the state’s industry policy, which establishes hard manufacturing targets and launches three ambitious state missions in housing, net zero and local manufacturing.
Renamed from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility late last year, the shared-use facility provides an avenue for government, industry and research to incubate manufacturing projects.
It also offers technology, expertise, training and networks to help support local manufacturers, having been funded with $261.9 million over 10 years by the former Coalition government.
The ARMF arrives with a new agreement with the NSW Vice-Chancellors’ Committee that will see the world-class research capabilities of 11 NSW and ACT-based universities combine with the AMRF’s industrial production expertise and infrastructure.
The partnership with universities like the UNSW, Macquarie University and Western Sydney, as well as the Australian National University, is expected to allow universities to “bring their industry partners into the AMRF ecosystem”
All 11 universities will also be “integrated” with AMRF’s scaleup hub, which is run by the CSIRO and the team that manages Western Sydney University’s Launch Pad program, and take part in a paid internship program, the government said.
“With Bradfield and the AMRF, we’re showcasing the NSW government’s commitment to rebuilding the state’s critical manufacturing capability and delivering economy growth in the region,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.
In December, even before it had launched, the AMRF completed its first project – a time-study with Markley Flow Control, one of the country’s leading cooling tower manufacturers.
The project identified potential cost savings of up to 20 per cent in the company’s manufacturing processes, showcasing the types of work the facility could help businesses with.
At the time, many of the other projects in the aerospace, agriculture, defence, energy and MedTech sectors were “queued up” and waiting for the official launch before progressing, AMRF research facility executive director Ben Kitcher said at the time.
The first stage facility will house specialised additive manufacturing, precision machining, composite manufacturing, and metrology equipment for small to medium-sized businesses to trial production processes and build prototypes.
Construction of a second building housing the second stage of the AMRF, which will focus on advanced semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, is slated to begin next year and be up and running by the end of 2026.
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