Construction equipment manufacturer JCB today announced plans for a £31 million (about U.S. $48.4 million) engine development project in the United Kingdom that will create around 350 jobs in its Midlands and Wales plants. The company recently was awarded £4.5 million towards the cost from the government’s Regional Growth Fund.

Design and research into the new engine project will take place at JCB Power Systems in Foston, Derbyshire, where the company’s JCB Dieselmax engine is manufactured. The development of the new engine, which will be installed in JCB’s own products and also sold to third parties, means almost 50 new advanced engineering jobs are available immediately at JCB Power Systems. Recruitment has already begun.

The roles include engine design and development engineers, engine electronics and software engineers, quality technicians, manufacturing engineers, applications engineers, supplier development engineers and buyers. When the engine goes into production, more than 300 additional jobs will be created across JCB’s Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham factories between 2016 and 2021.

“The announcement that we now intend to invest £31 million developing our next generation engine is an important step in building on the success we have enjoyed so far and it will take the efficiency, productivity and environmental performance of our engines to new levels,” said JCB chief executive Alan Blake. “The new JCB engine will give our products a huge competitive edge across global markets that we anticipate will lead to substantially increased sales between 2016 and 2021.”

JCB began manufacturing its Dieselmax engine range at its Derbyshire plant in 2004. This year the company opened an engine production facility in India for the production of fuel-efficient engines for its Indian-built products. JCB’s own engines now power more than 70 percent of the company’s equipment range.