Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Ian Greer and AMIC CEO Sam Turner spoke at the event to mark the major milestone for the Queen's-led innovation centre, a £100m investment in an innovative powerhouse of advanced manufacturing for Northern Ireland.

AMIC builds on more than 50 years of Queen's delivering industry-focused innovation through the Northern Ireland Technology Centre (NITC), Polymers Processing Research Centre (PPRC) and Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre (NIACE).

FBC approval means the green light has been given for construction to start at the state-of-the-art Factory of the Future in Newtownabbey, in a tangible mark of progress which will bring social and economic benefits across the region.

There is also significant progress on Queen's other Innovation Centres, iREACH Health and Momentum One Zero.

iREACH Health, a £62m integrated clinical research centre Queen's is leading in partnership with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and HSC R&D, recently received full planning approval from Belfast City Council’s planning committee and is moving towards construction in Autumn 2024.

Momentum One Zero, a £70m innovation centre which aims to take Northern Ireland’s digital economy to the next level, is moving at pace with major interdisciplinary partnerships being formed and grants secured to work on exciting projects. In recent weeks Momentum One Zero has also led the signing of an MoU with HSCNI to shape the design of a data-sharing arrangement in a Trusted Research Environment.

Queen's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Ian Greer, said:

"I congratulate all staff working on our innovation centres on the progress being made. City Deal is about partnerships and requires doing things differently for the benefit of all in our society. It is challenging but presents massive opportunities and we must seize this for the benefit of generations to come, in the spirit and rich tradition of this University.

“The event marked successes including the hard work and commitment of the AMIC team, under the leadership of Professor Sam Turner, to carefully plan the Full Business Case. We look forward to seeing the three transformational Queen's-led innovation centres deliver for Northern Ireland and beyond."

Find out more here about Queen's Belfast Region City Deal Innovation Centres.