Manchester institute kickstarts national materials innovation strategy
5 May 2023
The Henry Royce Institute has issued a ‘call to arms’ for industry and research institutions to join forces and develop a national strategy for advanced materials innovation.
Launched on 20 April at the House of Commons, the Materials Futures consultation document is aimed to ensuring the UK has a world-leading position in advanced materials markets and innovators are supported in turning their discoveries into game-changing products and services.
The consultation is designed to kickstart a National Strategy for Materials Innovation, which the Henry Royce Institute says is urgently needed to deliver a coherent approach across government, industry and the materials technology community.
The Strategy will identify and prioritise high potential areas for materials innovation, such as applications for graphene, the world’s first 2D material, and thin-film flexible semiconductor chips.
Prof David Knowles, CEO of Henry Royce, said:
“More than ever materials innovation has to be accelerated in the UK if it is going to deliver against the needs of major challenges such as net zero, health improvements, sustainable use of resources and, of course, underpin a robust economy.
“We know that the UK leads the way in materials R&D, however it does lag other countries in its ability to translate all that effort and commercialise new and improved materials. Today is a “Call To Arms” particularly to industry leaders around the UK to join forces with us to develop a focussed strategy designed to ensure we urgently expedite the translation of this research into new products and services.”
Henry Royce, based at the University of Manchester, describes itself as the ‘front door’ to the UK materials research and innovation community. Its facilities and research expertise are available to both academia and industry, including SMEs.
The Institute has worked with around 300 UK SMEs to date and recently received a £95 million government injection to support R&D projects in new advanced materials.
Interested parties can provide their feedback on the proposed Materials Innovation Strategy online. A leadership group will now be established to oversee the development and implementation of the strategy through to 2024.
For more information on the support available, contact one of our Manufacturing Advisors today.