The world's manufacturing economy has been transformed by the phenomenon of globalisation, with benefits for economies of scale, operational flexibility, risk sharing and access to new markets. It has been at the cost of a loss of manufacturing and other jobs in western economies, loss of core capabilities and increased risks of disruption in the highly interconnected and interdependent global systems. The resource demands and environmental impacts of globalisation have also led to a loss of sustainability. New highly adaptable manufacturing processes and techniques capable of operating at small scales may allow a rebalancing of the manufacturing economy. They offer the possibility of a new understanding of where and how design, manufacture and services should be carried out to achieve the most appropriate mix of capability and employment possibilities in our economies but also to minimise environmental costs, to improve product specialisation to markets and to ensure resilience of provision under natural and socio-political disruption. This proposal brings together an interdisciplinary academic team to work with industry and local communities to explore the impact of this re-distribution of manufacturing (RDM) at the scale of the city and its hinterland, using Bristol as an example in its European Green Capital year, and concentrating on the issues of resilience and sustainability. The aim of this exploration will be to develop a vision, roadmap and research agenda for the implications of RDM for the city, and at the same time develop a methodology for networked collaboration between the many stakeholders that will allow deep understanding of the issues to be achieved and new approaches to their resolution explored. The network will study the issues from a number of disciplinary perspectives, bringing together experts in manufacturing, design, logistics, operations management, infrastructure, resilience, sustainability, engineering systems, geographical sciences, mathematical modelling and beyond. They will consider how RDM may contribute to the resilience and sustainability of a city in a number of ways: firstly, how can we characterise the economic, social and environmental challenges that we face in the city for which RDM may contribute to a solution? Secondly, what are the technical developments, for example in manufacturing equipment and digital technologies, that are enablers for RDM, and what are their implications for a range of manufacturing applications and for the design of products and systems? Thirdly, what are the social and political developments, for example in public policy, in regulation, in the rise of social enterprise or environmentalism that impact on RDM and what are their implications? Fourthly, what are the business implications, on supply networks and logistics arrangements, of the re-distribution? Finally, what are the implications for the physical and digital infrastructure of the city? In addition, the network will, through the way in which it carries out embedded focused studies, explore mechanisms by which interdisciplinary teams may come together to address societal grand challenges and develop research agendas for their solution. These will be based on working together using a combination of a Collaboratory - a centre without walls - and a Living Lab - a gathering of public-private partnerships in which businesses, researchers, authorities, and citizens work together for the creation of new services, business ideas, markets, and technologies.

The Scottish Manufacturing Institute aims to research technology for manufacture, addressing the requirements of European, UK and regional industries. It taps into the broad expanse of research at Heriot-Watt University to deliver innovative manufacturing technology solutions. The SMI delivers high quality research and education in innovative manufacturing technology for high value, lower volume, highly customised, and high IP content products that enable European and UK Manufacturers to compete in an environment of increased global competition, environmental concern, sustainability and regulation, where access to knowledge, skills and IP determine where manufacturing is located. Our mission is to deliver high impact research in innovative manufacturing technologies based on the multidisciplinary technology resource across Heriot-Watt University, the Edinburgh Research Partnership, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and beyond. The Institute is organised into three themes:- Digital Tools;- Photonics; and - MicrosystemsThe vision of the Digital Tools Theme is to provide tomorrow's engineers with tools that will help them to easily capture, locate, exploit and manipulate 3D information for mechanical products of all kinds using distributed, networked resources. Photonics has strong resonance with the needs of developed economies to compete in the 21st Century global market for manufacturing, providing: routes to low cost automated manufacture; and the key processes underpinning high added value products. We have a shared conviction that photonics technologies are an essential component of any credible strategy for knowledge-based industrial production. The Photonics Theme vision is for the SMI to be internationally recognised as the leading UK focus for industrially-relevant photonics R&D, delivering a mix of academic and commercial outputs in hardware, process technology and production applications.The principal strategy of the Microsystems Theme is to research into new integration and packaging solutions of MEMS that are low cost, mass manufacturable and easily adoptable by the industry. The vision is to become a European Centre of Excellence in MEMS integration and packaging over the next 5 years. We thus aspire to service UK manufacturing industry with innovative technology for high value, lower volume, highly customised, and high IP content products; and to help UK industry expand globally in an internationally competitive market.

The Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) will undertake a wide variety of work in the Manufacturing, Construction and product design areas. The work will be contained within 5 programmes:1. Transforming Organisations / Providing individuals, organisations, sectors and regions with the dynamic and innovative capability to thrive in a complex and uncertain future2. High Value Assets / Delivering tools, techniques and designs to maximise the through-life value of high capital cost, long life physical assets3. Healthy & Secure Future / Meeting the growing need for products & environments that promote health, safety and security4. Next Generation Technologies / The future materials, processes, production and information systems to deliver products to the customer5. Customised Products / The design and optimisation techniques to deliver customer specific products.Academics within the Loughborough IMCRC have an internationally leading track record in these areas and a history of strong collaborations to gear IMCRC capabilities with the complementary strengths of external groups.Innovative activities are increasingly distributed across the value chain. The impressive scope of the IMCRC helps us mirror this industrial reality, and enhances knowledge transfer. This advantage of the size and diversity of activities within the IMCRC compared with other smaller UK centres gives the Loughborough IMCRC a leading role in this technology and value chain integration area. Loughborough IMCRC as by far the biggest IMRC (in terms of number of academics, researchers and in funding) can take a more holistic approach and has the skills to generate, identify and integrate expertise from elsewhere as required. Therefore, a large proportion of the Centre funding (approximately 50%) will be allocated to Integration projects or Grand Challenges that cover a spectrum of expertise.The Centre covers a wide range of activities from Concept to Creation.The activities of the Centre will take place in collaboration with the world's best researchers in the UK and abroad. The academics within the Centre will be organised into 3 Research Units so that they can be co-ordinated effectively and can cooperate on Programmes.