Oliver Letwin MP, minister of state at the Cabinet Office, visited the University of Sheffield AMRC to learn about how the centre works with the UK manufacturing industry.

The visit followed a meeting of the Cabinet in Bradford, the first meeting of the new coalition government outside London. Ministers then toured key business sites around the region.

AMRC directors Adrian Allen and John Baragwanath gave Letwin a tour of the Factory of the Future shopfloor, highlighting the centre's work in high performance machining and large-scale automated assembly, and introducing the minister to industrial partners, researchers and apprentices.

Letwin was also taken aboard MANTRA, the AMRC's unique MANufacturing TRAnsporter which travels the country to promote engineering to students; and given an overview of the next stage of development at the centre, including the new Nuclear AMRC and Knowledge Transfer Academy.

"Mr Letwin was very interested to see the work we do to solve manufacturing problems and help our industrial partners compete in the global marketplace," said AMRC commercial director Adrian Allen. "It was particularly pleasing to see the minister take such interest in the AMRC model of collaborative industry-led research, which is now being sought by governments worldwide."