Gene Haas Foundation Pledges $1m to Silverstone UTC to Create World-Class Engineering Centre

The Gene Haas Foundation, the charitable foundation established by American entrepreneur Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation and owner of the TGR Haas F1 Team, has pledged $1 million to Silverstone UTC to create a new Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing at the home of British motorsport. The announcement was made today at Silverstone UTC during the F1 British Grand Prix weekend.

The pledge brings together two of the defining forces in modern motorsport: Formula 1 and advanced manufacturing. Gene Haas is the founder of Haas Automation, one of the world’s largest machine-tool suppliers, and the owner of the TGR Haas F1 Team - home to British driver, Oliver Bearman. The same precision-engineering expertise that builds Haas machine tools and powers an F1 team will now help shape the next generation of British engineers, just metres from the Silverstone grid.

The funding will support Silverstone UTC's “Engineering the Future” project, a £1.25 million capital transformation that will modernise the UTC’s engineering facilities, bringing it right up-to-date with industry-standard 5-axis CNC machines, mills, lathes, metrology equipment and a fully equipped CAD suite running professional design software.

The Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing will give young people aged 14 to 19 access to the same tools and technology used every day in the F1 teams and advanced manufacturing businesses that surround the UTC in the UK's Motorsport Valley. It will also, for the first time, enable Silverstone UTC to extend its reach beyond its own students, supporting apprenticeship education, school visits, teacher training and community outreach across the region.

Gene Haas (Founder of Haas Automation) and Angela Murphy (Principal at Silverstone UTC)

This investment would not have been possible without the advocacy of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, whose close engagement with the Gene Haas Foundation and leadership of the network of 44 UTCs across England has been instrumental in securing this transformative opportunity.

This project is timely. The recent Milburn Review warned that Britain faces a “lost generation,” with one million young people already not in education, employment or training and numbers rising fast. Meanwhile, 76% of engineering employers cannot fill the roles they need. The Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing is a direct response: real skills, real equipment, and a real route into one of the country's most in-demand industries, for the most in-need young people.

The Gene Haas Foundation has supported advanced manufacturing education across North America and Europe for more than a decade, funding the best CNC training programmes in the world. The centre at Silverstone will be among its most visible investments, located at a venue that welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and watched by a global F1 audience of hundreds of millions.

"This project of upgrading the labs at Silverstone UTC is an exciting next step in our collaboration. For years, I have been witnessing the impact and joy of young engineers and technologists as they learn to design and create with the latest technology. The Gene Haas Foundation has been partnering with UTCs for a few years now; training instructors, providing scholarships and sponsoring competitions. This project is an exciting next step. I look forward to the future with the joint goals of providing HOPE and opportunity to this and future generations."

Kathy Looman, Executive Director of the Gene Haas Foundation

Angela Murphy, Principal of Silverstone UTC, said: “Our students are extraordinary, and they deserve facilities that match their ambition. Every day I see young people who want to build, to design, to solve problems, young people brimming with potential who simply need the right tools and the right opportunities. This centre gives them both. It means a young person from Northampton or Milton Keynes can learn precision engineering on the same kind of equipment used in F1, and even more of our students will leave us ready to step straight into a career that will change their life. For some, this is the difference between a future they had to imagine and one they can actually reach. I could not be prouder of what this represents, and I cannot wait to see what they go on to achieve.”

Ben Ward, Chair of Trustees at Silverstone UTC, added: “This is a landmark moment for the UTC and for every young person who will walk through the doors of the Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing. There is a perfect symmetry here. Gene Haas builds the machine tools that the engineering world depends on, and he owns an F1 team that races on this very circuit. For his foundation to invest in young British engineers, at the home of British motorsport, during the British Grand Prix, is about as fitting as it gets. The Gene Haas Foundation has a global reputation for backing the very best in engineering education, and its confidence in Silverstone UTC is both a huge endorsement and a huge responsibility. We are now within touching distance of making this a reality, and we are calling on the wider motorsport and engineering community to help us finish the job.”

A call to support the campaign

The Gene Haas Foundation's generous pledge takes the Engineering the Future campaign to within £400,000 of its Phase One target. Silverstone UTC is now appealing to trusts, foundations, corporate partners and individuals, particularly those connected to the motorsport and engineering sectors, to help close the remaining gap and bring the Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing to life.

Organisations and individuals who wish to support the campaign can contact Laura Scott at Silverstone UTC on 01327 855012 or Contact Us