A planning application has been lodged for a planned £30m Engineering Innovation Centre that is hoped to reclaim Lancashire’s role as a national centre for advanced manufacturing.

The project is backed by a client professional team including architects Simpson Haugh & Partners, project manger AA Projects and BDP as the mechanical and electrical and structural consultant.

It is hoped work can start this year for completion in 2018.

Rob Wallace, Dean, School of Engineering, said: “UCLan aims to close the skills gap by inspiring and shaping the next generation of engineering leaders, producing an extra 500 locally trained graduates a year and increasing the number of young people and, in particular, the proportion of females who choose to take up engineering at a local university.”

The EIC, which is the first major milestone in UCLan’s £200m campus masterplan, has been identified as a signature project within Lancashire’s Strategic Economic Plan and has secured £10.5m via the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) Lancashire ‘Growth Deal’ with Government.

It received a further £5m cash injection from Higher Education Funding Council for England, which will go towards equipping the facility to the highest standard with advanced technology and specialist equipment.