Stimulus funds sought for aerospace research center

The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech are seeking federal economic-stimulus money to help build a manufacturing research center aimed at fostering growth in the state's aerospace industry and related businesses.

Officials with the universities said yesterday that they are seeking up to $15 million in stimulus-related funding, including a grant from the National Institutes of Science, to help build the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing near the Rolls-Royce North America aircraft-engines component plant now in development in Prince George County.

Plans call for a 50,000square-foot research center on 20 acres of land donated by Rolls-Royce, part of the company's 1,035-acre Crosspointe Centre development near the intersection of U.S. 460 and Interstate 295.

The universities and the company have been developing a research partnership program since Rolls-Royce announced plans in 2007 to open a manufacturing site in Prince George.

Rolls-Royce, a British company with its North American headquarters in Reston, broke ground Oct. 19 on the first phase of construction, a factory that will make discs for engines that power commercial aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787.

Rolls-Royce is investing $170 million initially, and it plans to hire about 140 people. The company has said it expects to employ 500 people at the plant eventually, and its investment could reach $500 million.

The Center for Advanced Manufacturing would serve as a university-operated, applied research center serving Rolls-Royce, its suppliers and other companies. The goal is to stimulate investments in high-tech manufacturing such as aerospace components, and to provide research and training opportunities for students.

"The vision that we have had from the beginning, when we started the partnership between the universities and Rolls-Royce, was to make Virginia the hub for aerospace technology research, as well as manufacturing and job creation," said Barry W. Johnson, senior associate dean and associate dean for research at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Johnson and Donald J. Leo, associate dean for research and graduate studies at Virginia Tech's College of Engineering, spoke about the project yesterday during a media event on the aerospace industry organized by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

The universities also are conducting basic research for Rolls-Royce on their own campuses, under a separate program called The Commonwealth Center for Aerospace Propulsion Systems. The universities are adding nine endowed professorships in engineering and related disciplines as part of that research effort.

Rolls-Royce has said it expects to complete the first phase of the manufacturing plant by 2011. Johnson and Leo said the universities also want to open the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in 2011, though the timing may depend on whether and when federal grants materialize.

Absent the grant money, the University of Virginia Foundation would borrow money to build the center, estimated to cost about $20.3 million. Costs would be recovered through fees paid by companies that conduct research there.

Officials said they also expect students to benefit from the research program.

"I would imagine that some of the students [doing the research] would eventually earn degrees and then become employees of Rolls-Royce," said Thomas Loehr, an executive vice president with Rolls-Royce North America overseeing the Prince George project.

Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or .