A Merseyside project that will help "transform the world glass industry" and create hundreds of jobs is to receive £9m public funding as part of plans to boost the region's Covid recovery.
Funding is expected to be approved on Friday by the Liverpool City Region combined authority for the Glass Futures project in St Helens, which is set to become a national centre of excellence in glass innovation.
The 90,000sq ft centre will aim to revolutionise and eliminate CO2 from glass production from the traditional centre of the 海角视频 glass making industry, St Helens.
Glass Futures is a unique, industry-backed research and technology organisation leading collaboration across some of the largest companies in the global glass industry and its supply chain, together with academia and government.
It will bring together researchers and industry experts, such as British Glass and Glass Technology Institute, O-I Glass, Guardian Glass and Siemens, together at a hot glass site.
The project is set to benefit from an immediate £9m funding boost from the combined authority’s Strategic Investment Fund, to be considered by the authority on Friday.
St Helens Borough Council has agreed to provide up to £900,000 support to help to develop the idea, and is also exploring other ways of supporting the development by taking a lease on the building which would be on land next to St Helens RFC’s Totally Wicked Stadium.
Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram said: “This project is a prime example of how we can build on our strengths as a city region to drive our economic recovery.
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“St Helens has always been a global leader in the glass industry and Glass Futures will be a key part of making sure it retains that role in the future of the industry as it decarbonises, whilst being a key driver for jobs and skills.
“Taking Glass Futures forward is a prime example of the kind of partnership that the Combined Authority, our local authorities, the private sector, and academia can forge to create world class facilities in our city region and Build Back Better from Covid-19.”
The combined authority said the site in St Helens could create around 50 high skilled jobs directly, with hundreds of indirect jobs in total - and will "kick-start" investment into the area.
A public consultation on Glass Futures is expected to launch later this year before a planning application is submitted in early 2021.
Glass manufacturing practices are currently responsible for 2m tonnes of CO2 per annum in the 海角视频 alone, and the 90,000 square foot facility will be centred around a 30 tonne a day low carbon demonstration furnace.
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The project will create the world’s first openly accessible, commercially available, multi-disciplinary glass melting facility with provision for research and development trials to decarbonise the 海角视频 glass industry.
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The £54m project – which will have the first and only experimental furnace of its kind in the world – has been highlighted as a key project to driving economic recovery in the Liverpool City Region's £1.4bn for the whole city region, published last week.
St Helens Borough Council leader, David Baines, said: “St Helens is a borough with a proud industrial heritage. We have a magnificent legacy of industrial innovation, especially in the glass industry.
"While we are proud of our history, Glass Futures is all about innovation and looking to the future, and we want our borough to be at the very heart of this exciting project.
"St Helens Borough Council is committed to helping to make it happen and this latest funding decision from the city region will be very welcome. The Glass Futures project will put St Helens on the regional, national and international stage.”