Interview: Chris Courtney, CEO of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland

CEO focused on impact both tangible and more intangible of innovation-focused organisation.

Chris Courtney is chief executive of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), which unites industry-led research and development (R&D), innovation, and skills facilities to “transform” the future of manufacturing. It is operated by the University of Strathclyde, is backed by organisations including Scottish Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland, and last summer opened its flagship heather-coloured R&D facility in Paisley.

Courtney’s roles prior to joining NMIS in late 2022 span UK Government-backed UK Research and Innovation and corporate giants including Deloitte and Rolls-Royce, while he has also been chief technology officer at a start-up. He says his whole career has involved transformation projects enabled by technology. But he also stresses: “Knowing what technology can do is only half the story – you need to know how to apply it.”

NMIS recently delivered a project providing a £1 million boost altogether to 100-plus Scottish SMEs, helping them to harness the capabilities of industrial 3D printing. Can you explain more about this initiative and how it aligns with NMIS’s broader goals?

The Additive Manufacturing Business and Technology (AM-Bats) project is a great example of how NMIS supports manufacturers across Scotland to explore how they can best utilise novel and different technologies to deliver growth.

Additive manufacturing can be applied to a range of sectors, from oil and gas and renewables to electric vehicles and medicine, and our aim is to help them all embrace the opportunities the various manufacturing technologies offer. This will help them be more competitive on the global stage, cut costs, and enhance sustainability.

The AM-Bats project captures what NMIS was set up to do: help manufacturers of all sizes across the country to adopt new technologies, support their growth, and deliver positive impact for them and their communities. All of this was supported by funding through the Scottish Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Challenge Fund via the European Regional Development Fund, and many of the business involved have gone on to create new products or changed how they manufacture their current ones to incorporate 3D-printed elements.

Another key goal for NMIS is fostering productivity, something that has historically been a challenge for Scotland. How can you help boost this?

'Throughout my career I’ve been extensively involved with transformation projects enabled by technology,' says the NMIS CEO. Picture: contributed.

Productivity has historically been a significant challenge for Scotland and the wider UK, particularly in the last 15 years. It is not a simple issue to fix but, generally speaking, we have lower levels of adoption of automation, robotics, and digital technologies compared to other developed nations, which needs to be addressed.

While manufacturing is relatively productive compared to other sectors, there are opportunities for improvement through adopting new technologies and approaches. NMIS’s role is to help companies innovate and implement the advanced technologies that will most benefit their business, and support them with the skills to make the most of it. Productivity and sustainability are the dominant themes among most of the projects we work on, driving down costs, and driving up throughput.

We have a real challenge with skills shortages, so we must be more productive with the current workforce. We need to increase the application of technology all the way through the value chain as well as within different-sized businesses, and NMIS is here to support companies with that.

NMIS also says it is looking to help “develop a vibrant workforce, and create happier, healthier, greener communities”. How are you hoping to achieve this?

NMIS in June 2023 opened its flagship facility at the heart of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland in Renfrewshire. Picture: contributed.

We want to help companies in the development of new products and services, and to make those new products in more sustainable ways, helping them to grow. We are also supporting the growth of sectors key to a net-zero future, such as renewables, and helping established industries like maritime and transport to decarbonise. All of these activities can provide an economic boost and positive environmental impact, creating well-paid, highly-skilled green jobs in our communities. Ultimately, it’s about developing partnerships to effectively implement ideas, skills, and technologies that enable companies to grow.

When NMIS opened its flagship facility last year, you called it a “truly collaborative effort”. How do your partners and the broader ecosystem help drive forward its ambitions?

We work with hundreds of businesses every year; government departments across the UK; research and academic bodies, including our colleagues in other departments of the University of Strathclyde; and economic and skills development agencies; among a whole host of other organisations. Being part of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult means we have direct access to a national network of globally-recognised manufacturing and engineering capability that we can bring to bear on challenges within businesses in Scotland and beyond. The closeness of that ecosystem is a unique advantage for Scotland, and we need to make as much of that as possible.

Can you outline targets for the coming years, for example the number of R&D projects you would like to support, and number of people you would like to upskill and reskill?

We have set expectations in our funding agreements for a number of metrics. But rather than just talking about the number of projects we have delivered, I want us to also be asking questions such as: Have we seen the creation of companies? Has that translated into job growth and economic activity?

So, it’s about a mixture of hard metrics and softer, more difficult-to-measure impact – even at an individual level. Many of the people within NMIS work on extremely complex engineering challenges. When they come up with a solution, I want them to feel like they have made a difference and see that as part of the reason why they want to work here.

If you look at any growth transformation story, it has to involve skills too. Evolving the current workforce is just as important as developing the next one – and it will be an important measure of success not just in terms of the number of people trained, but how those skills translate into economic impact too.