The University of Sheffield has signed a deal to secure 50 acres of land at Sheffield Business Park - a move which will support the progress of plans to create a critical mass of high-tech advanced manufacturing businesses centred on the new AMRC Factory 2050.

Factory 2050 will be the UK's first fully reconfigurable assembly and component manufacturing facility for collaborative research. The state-of-the-art building will combine a range of technologies, including advanced robotics, flexible automation, unmanned workspace, off-line printing in virtual environments linked to plug-and-play robotics, 3D printing from flexible automated systems, man-machine interfaces, and new programming and training tools.

The planned developments will build on the success of the University of Sheffield's investment in the original Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) at Catcliffe.

The new location - on the other side of Sheffield Parkway to AMP - will help secure Sheffield's place at the heart of advanced manufacturing in the UK and as a key player on the global stage.

Professor Keith Ridgway, executive dean of the University of Sheffield AMRC, said that the new development represented a step change in the University's ability to work in partnership with some of the world's leading companies.

"We already have fantastic relationships with a number of leading aerospace and engineering companies and we've proved over the last decade that there is an enormous appetite from industry for the innovative work we do here," said Ridgway. "This significant expansion will put us in an even stronger position in terms of translating the research carried out by the University of Sheffield into practical applications which offer high-tech solutions right across the manufacturing sector."

Keith Lilley, the University of Sheffield's director of estates and facilities management, said the land deal was the key to the future for this increasingly important sector.

"The success of the AMRC over the last few years has shown clearly the demand there is for this kind of specialist, high-tech, high-value engineering activity, and it was clear that we would soon outgrow the small amount of land still available on the existing Waverley site," Lilley said.

"An independent survey of the economic benefits has demonstrated that, during construction, Factory 2050 will directly contribute £6.4 million to the local economy and create 162 jobs, with a much wider indirect economic impact. And once operational, it will directly contribute almost £2 million annually, as well as employing 75 people - with further significant indirect economic impact. And once the rest of the site starts to be developed, there will be massive economic benefits, both direct and indirect."

Sheffield Business Park managing director Graham Sadler added: "The University's commitment is fantastic news, both for the business park and the city region. A landmark development in its own right, it will also act as a catalyst for our Phase 2 extension, which will include advanced manufacturing enterprises."

Plans for Factory 2050 were submitted to Sheffield City Council at the end of January and a decision is expected by April. A detailed master plan for the entire 50 acres will be submitted to Sheffield City Council's planning department in the spring.