Cranfield University has been given £15m by the government to set up three new centres for innovative manufacturing and take part in a further two.

These centres will focus on emerging science including low carbon technologies.

The initiative was unveiled by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts, who said: “Partnerships between higher education and industry are increasingly essential drivers of innovation, opportunity and national prosperity. These new centres will combine inventive research and business acumen to develop the high-tech manufacturing industries we need to secure sustainable growth.”

Cranfield’s vice-chancellor, John O’Reilly, said: “We generate and transform knowledge. Having been selected as a significant partner in this new initiative, we will build on our strengths to help UK manufacturing remain competitive internationally.”

Cranfield will use £4.5m of the government money to set up a Centre for Innovative Manufacturing for Industrial Sustainability, designed to rapidly reduce the resource and energy-intensity of the production of existing goods, and investigate options for a radical redesign of the industrial system.

It will spend a further £3.5m on a Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through-life Engineering Services, which will design systems such as aircraft engines that require less engineering service, and incur less whole life cost.