On 11 September, AMIC and Northern Ireland Manufacturing came together for a major industry event that shone a spotlight on innovation, collaboration, and the future of manufacturing in Northern Ireland. Held under the banner of “working together to drive forward,” it gathered SMEs, universities, industry leaders and technology providers to explore shared challenges and new opportunities.

Colm Higgins, AMIC’s Chief Technology Officer, set the tone by emphasising the “sweet spot” in collaborative R&D — when industry, tech providers, universities, and AMIC each play their role. He argued that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. Everyone in the ecosystem has a part to play.

A recurring theme was how smaller enterprises often lack the resources or staff dedicated to innovation. Speakers highlighted the need for mechanisms to facilitate collaboration, to help companies navigate funding, and to ensure that the results of R&D are disseminated effectively into the business.

Steven Hunter, Senior Preform Engineer and Operations Manager, urged a balanced view: while 3D printing is opening new doors for R&D innovation, traditional machining still has a vital role to play. The two approaches aren’t in competition but complementary in enabling businesses to experiment and improve.

Graeme Ralph, Head of AMIC Digital Factory, warned against being blinded by shiny tech. You may end up “with a confident answer with bad data.” His message: understand your whole business; good data is essential to correctly understanding the problems you aim to solve.

Jenny McAuley, AMIC’s Skills Lead, underlined that talent development must be more than an HR function—it needs to be a strategic priority. She emphasised that organisations should partner with others, including universities and colleges (with AMIC partners such as ANBC and UU represented by Michael McKenna & Jonathan Acheson), to build a sustainable future workforce.

On sustainability, Emma McKenna, Head of Sustainable Manufacturing at AMIC, stressed that it’s not enough to measure — you must decide what you want to impact, take data-led action, and follow through. Clarity of purpose and real impact must replace token gestures.

Ciaran Prunty, Head of Strategy Development at AMIC, delivered perhaps one of the most resonant calls: “You can go faster by yourself, but further together.” Collaboration across shared challenges allows collective learning, better use of diverse facilities, and stronger ability to lobby for change in areas of shared interest—even beyond the limits of any single organisation’s R&D capacity.

In sum, the event underscored that in Northern Ireland’s advanced manufacturing scene, it’s not just about new machines or big investments—it’s about people, data, shared purpose and building the ecosystem so that innovation can thrive, especially among SMEs.

What a great day it was. We look forward to following up all the conversations, the shared ideas, and working together to turn today’s inspiration on into tomorrow’s impact.