By Staff Reports

“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 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 50,000-square-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.