University to establish Europe’s first Materials Innovation Factory
08 October 2012
The University of Liverpool is the latest to announced a share of the government’s £1bn investment in science to establish Europe’s first Materials Innovation Factory.
The multi-million pound centre, established in collaboration with Unilever, will develop a new generation of functional materials for science and industry and hopes to accelerate the research and development process by a factor of 200. The project is one of five to receive funding from the Government’s Research Partnership Investment Fund and will generate new science to underpin the advanced manufacturing sector in the UK.
The new centre will ultimately accommodate researchers from a number of higher education and industry partners with the potential to work collaboratively to develop new science for a number of sectors.
The centre will be home to around 140 researchers from the University who will collaborate with scientists from other organisations, working closely on a number of areas from materials synthesis through to genomics. Researchers will also focus on the use of non-petrochemical feedstocks for use in the development of new functional and sustainable materials.
University scientists will carry out collaborative research into the development of nanomedicines using nanostructured organic materials which have the potential to transform certain areas of healthcare. Research in the area of biotechnology will enable the analysis of microbial populations by direct DNA sequencing, with the potential to deliver entirely new product lines such as personalised care formulations.