The Henry Royce Institute is the UK's national institute for advanced materials research, with its hub at the University of Manchester and partners across the country.
The Henry Royce Institute describes itself as the UK's national institute for advanced materials research and innovation. Advanced materials are the new substances and coatings that make better batteries, lighter vehicles, cleaner energy systems and smaller electronics possible. The Institute gives researchers access to advanced equipment, expertise and skills training, and works with industry to move discoveries from the lab towards real products. It aims to close a gap in the UK innovation chain so that new materials can be designed and tested faster.
Its vision is stated as Advanced Materials for a Sustainable Society. Its work rests on four pillars: shaping national materials research through bringing people together and strategy work, supporting industry collaboration from start-ups to large firms, offering fast and flexible access to cutting-edge equipment and skilled technical staff, and building skills through training and outreach. Research themes include future city energy, decarbonisation, recyclable materials, the hydrogen economy, fusion power, low-energy digital devices and bioelectronics.
The Royce is a hub-and-spoke organisation. The hub is at the University of Manchester, and the partners are the universities of Cambridge, Liverpool, Leeds, Oxford and Sheffield, Imperial College London, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the National Nuclear Laboratory. Cranfield and Strathclyde are associate universities. The Institute coordinates more than 700 academic, technical and research staff. It is funded through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. It is named after Sir Henry Royce, the engineer who co-founded Rolls-Royce.
The Institute calls itself a convenor, which means it brings the UK materials community together rather than working in one building alone. It offers services for industry and academia, skills and training, support for entrepreneurs, funding calls, data curation, and public engagement and outreach. This makes it a place where researchers, technicians, data specialists, events and communications teams, and training staff all work together.
For a student, the Royce is a good way to see how chemistry, physics, engineering and computing fit together in one field. People who work in materials science might develop a material for a fusion reactor, a recyclable plastic or a tiny electronic device. Many of the Royce's partner universities are also places you could study materials, so the Institute's website is a useful starting point if you like science subjects and want to know where they can lead. It is not a company, so jobs usually sit within its partner organisations.
Website: www.royce.ac.uk
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