By Paula Gill NWAA Chief Exec’s autumn statement
It is with great pleasure that I write my first article for Plane Talk and I am delighted to have joined the NWAA as CEO. One of the biggest changes NWAA has seen since I joined is that we have welcomed new team members following the period of lockdown. Those new team members include Nichola Burton as Head of Marketing, Membership and Events, Paul Bell as Project Manager, Shona Pal as Projects Co-ordination Manager and you will hear much more from them over the next few months. You’ll find a brief introduction and their contact details as you read through this edition of Plane Talk, please do take the opportunity to contact them and introduce yourselves if you can. They are a very friendly bunch! Our Chairman, Prof Andy Schofield, and I attended the 2022 Farnborough Air Show in July. With temperatures soaring many successful meetings were held with business leaders, government officials, international trade organisations and existing and future partners, all focused on positioning and further growing the presence of the aerospace and AEM sector in the region and promoting the NWAA brand, strategies and future programmes.
The focus at Farnborough this year weighed very heavily around sustainability as part of the recovery of the industry. There was a lot of opportunity to see the technology of the future and how that is developing, including a focus on future fuel technologies, materials and manufacturing activities such as factories of the future. Future programmes to support this will be launched by NWAA soon and will begin in early 2023. Farnborough will prove a catalyst for the ongoing development of the relationships between the five aerospace alliances in the UK. The CEOs of the five regions spent time together, planning the strategy for greater collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the regions in order to support the growth of the member organisations, and the opportunities and capabilities of the members across the whole UK supply chain. Make sure to remember to keep your capabilities register on our website up to date! The Lancashire Watchtower programme is a major programme of work and we are looking forward to the launch event being held on 14 September at Burnley College. This programme is designed to support and promote the businesses in areas of diversification, enabling and adapting innovation and the retention and development of skills for the future, ensuring that prospective procurement leaders have a thorough understanding of the skills, expertise and experience to be found in the region.
Other exciting programme launches are eagerly anticipated as the NWAA is taking the lead in driving sustainability across the advanced engineering and manufacturing sector, enabling members to meet the future expectations and needs of their customers, government set targets for carbon reduction, Net/Jet/Fly zero and sustainable product development. The government has also launched a funding pot for businesses that are looking to supply into the development of defence technology. The application for funding is being delivered by a competition for bids and the closing date for this round of funding is 20 September and can be found here. Similarly, a continuation of the SC21 - Supply Chain for 21st Century programme is being launched and a small funding pot will be utilised to support businesses in supply chain excellence programmes. The launch from ADS will be communicated soon. Finally, I look forward to meeting, working and supporting all our members and look forward to speaking to you soon.
The NWAA welcomes the following new members…
FDM Digital Solutions Burnley, Lancashire
Kingsbury Gosport, Hampshire
Innovation in Life London
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Righton Blackburns Kingswinford, West Midlands
Kernow Oils Hayle, Cornwall
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plane talk autumn 2022
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