Highlands and Islands Enterprise tenders contract for Manufacturing Innovation Centre Moray at Forres Enterprise Park

Jobs are being made available at a refurbished building set to boost business innovation in Moray.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is looking to contract a specialist operating company to run the multi-million-pound innovation centre under development at Forres Enterprise Park to support manufacturing.

HIE area manager, David Reid, the deadline for bid submission is July 8, with the contract due to start in September.

He explained: “This is a really exciting project and a great opportunity for an experienced specialist service operator to develop, operate and manage the Manufacturing Innovation Centre Moray (MICM) service.

“We welcome bids from single suppliers as well as collaborative bids, for example with sub-contractors and/or consortium members.

“While there are specific contractual service requirements and milestones, we’d expect the supplier to bring new thinking and approaches to deliver the collective services.”

The three-year contract will involve developing and managing the service offering, as well as stakeholder engagement, marketing and promotion of the facility.

MICM is a Moray Growth Deal project that includes more than £4million of UK and Scottish Government funding and £2.56million investment from HIE.

HIE has been leading the creation of the centre through the refurbishment of a building at Enterprise Park Forres, which is nearing completion.

MICM will provide support and advice to manufacturing companies throughout Moray and is expected to support up to 300 manufacturing jobs in the next ten years. The centre’s primary focus will be on stimulating innovation and growth in product and process development, with a strong emphasis on transitioning to low carbon practices.

It will include business incubator spaces for start-up ventures alongside project spaces where existing businesses can innovate. There will also be a demonstrator suite for showcasing the latest concepts in advanced manufacturing technology and equipment.

There are currently around 7000 manufacturing jobs in Moray in sectors such as fabrication, technology and advanced engineering, forestry and textiles, and food and drink. This is more per head of population than any other part of Scotland.

See https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=MAY530251 for more information.