Chemistry and the chemical sector will be ‘absolutely critical’ to driving the UK’s materials industry and meeting major challenges such as net zero and a circular economy, as outlined in a new national materials innovation strategy. Speaking at the launch of the strategy, David Knowles, chief executive of the UK’s advanced materials centre the Henry Royce Institute which oversaw the work, said that it presents a ‘vision for an economy that’s transformed by materials innovation’.
The strategy draws on interviews conducted by a panel of experts from industry and academia with over 2000 leaders of companies, universities, government and non-government organisations. These interviews identified 19 materials innovation opportunities and more than 40 priority areas, which it gathers under six ‘opportunity themes’ of energy, healthcare, infrastructure, surface technologies, next-generation electronics and consumer products. To drive this ‘transformational change’ the strategy also identifies five cross-cutting priorities for materials innovation: the circular economy, manufacturing, skills, policy and regulation, and materials 4.0 (using digital tools, including AI and machine learning, to speed up innovation in the materials sector).
The strategy is a 10-year vision that the panel will now be working with the Henry Royce Institute to implement. This will involve bringing together investors with government, researchers and industry.
The chemical sector … is absolutely critical to all this
David Knowles, chief executive of the Henry Royce Institute
The materials sector already contributes an estimated £45 billion every year to the UK economy and also supports the country’s manufacturing sector. There are more than 2700 innovative materials companies in the UK, 90% of which are SMEs, with 52,000 employees. The new strategy hopes to harness these high-tech companies to address some of the country’s most pressing priorities, including improving productivity, becoming a ‘clean energy superpower’ and creating high-skilled jobs.
‘We need to be ready for the things that are going to come take us by surprise and that could become those big growth engines of the future,’ said Patrick Vallance, minister of state for science, research and innovation and former government chief scientific adviser, speaking at the strategy’s launch. Vallance added that what the UK needed was lots of innovative materials companies to give it a foothold that can ‘lead to the thing that we’re not so good at, which is getting [those companies] to a scale where they can be long-term successful’.
‘The chemical sector … is absolutely critical to all this,’ Knowles added. ‘Whether we’re talking about catalysis, biosynthesis … things like composites, they all have these raw materials coming through foundation industries … they’re central to what we’ve been talking about.’
Knowles explained that the work is a government–industry partnership. ‘A lot of what we’re talking about is going to be delivered by industry, so industry has to have a major stake in that process, and [companies] need to work together with government.’ He added that ‘quick wins’ are possible regarding technologies for a transition to net zero concrete, and circularising plastics.
Providing the training and skills the materials sector needs will be the responsibility of many providers, he noted. He points to universities and a recent Materials 4.0 centre for doctoral training when it comes to supply the high-end skills industry needs. But government and industry will also need to work together on training such as apprenticeships and on-the-job learning. ‘I think industry is prepared to put its hand in its pocket, but it wants to do that with some sort of certainty and clarity,’ Knowles said.
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