New funding for Henry Royce Institute will help Imperial ramp up its materials science activities at the new Royce facility in White City.

The £95 million funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced by Business Secretary Grant Shapps, will see Imperial receive around £500,000 per year for five years to develop Advanced Materials of the future. The funding will support research and innovation in advanced materials at the Henry Royce Institute, headquartered in Manchester. The Institute supports world-recognised excellence in UK materials research, accelerating the commercialisation of innovations and delivering positive economic and societal impact for the UK. 

This funding will allow us to expand and enhance our collaborative materials science activities at White City. Professor Neil Alford Research Area Lead at Imperial's Royce facilities

As partners of the Institute, Imperial College London will use its share to ramp up its activities at their new Royce facility in the Sir Michael Uren Hub at the White City Campus, part of the wider White City Innovation District.

White City Innovation District is a partnership between the College and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF), home to some of the world’s most innovative organisations, spanning life sciences, deep tech, media, and the creative arts. 

Royce at Imperial is open to hosting innovators including academics and commercial companies, including Paragraf, Puraffinity, Solena Materials & LoMaRe Technologies. Professor Neil Alford, Professor of Physical Electronics and Thin Film Materials said: "Our new labs are up and running and we are already welcoming new internal and external collaborators for the materials of the future.” 

Advanced materials for the future 

Advanced materials like biomaterials, smart materials and nano-engineered materials possess unique properties enabling superior performance to their traditional counterparts, and are critical in a wide range of industries including health, transport, energy, electronics and utilities. 

The Royce at Imperial team have been instrumental in driving forward the Materials for Quantum initiative that has resulted in an EPSRC funded Network. The team at Imperial has also partnered with Royce Partners University of Manchester and the University of Leeds, to develop the Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME) EPSRC Programme Grant, which aims to revolutionise the design and delivery of functionality on demand at the nanoscale within advanced materials. 

The Henry Royce Institute is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).  The Institute operates as a hub and spoke model, with the hub at The University of Manchester and spokes at the founding partners. The Royce partners include the universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College London, as well as UKAEA and NNL.  

For more information regarding collaboration and access to the Royce equipment please contact Dr Michael Leverentz at m.leverentz@imperial.ac.uk or royce@imperial.ac.uk.