Advanced materials
Highest concentration of materials experts at any UK university.
Invested in state-of-the-art facilities in the last 10 years.
Providing partners with a pathway to scale up.
Supporting progress and prosperity through relationships with local, national and global partners.
Businesses supported by the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre to accelerate lab-to-market development.
Businesses supported by the Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub to create solutions for plastics use and end of life.
Innovation District partnership with Bruntwood SciTech, boosting research and development, and creating more than 10,000 jobs.
Multi-million pound partnerships, like the Manchester Biomedical Research Centre and Christabel Pankhurst Institute, translating research into products and services.
From the Industrial Revolution to Graphene City, we develop materials systems to support sustainability, AI, quantum and digital, and health.
Driving inward investment, supporting levelling up and consolidating the UK's position as a technology superpower.
Leveraging world-class strengths in biomedical materials to provide the only UK CDT offering bespoke training in this rapidly growing field.
€3 million investment secured to bring a lithium-free storage solution to the global market.
Developing next generation therapeutic and diagnostic nanoscalegraphene neural interface systems to decode brain signals and create 2D therapeutic platforms for oncology and neurology.
Developing game-changing materials to tackle global challenges
Our researchers partner with industry to unlock potential. Whether this is discovering game-changing materials like graphene, real-world applications with commercial impact, accelerating technology readiness, or boosting productivity and reducing carbon footprint in the foundation industries, we’re embracing opportunities, mitigating challenges and ensuring the UK’s reputation as a technology superpower.
We’re creating transformative interdisciplinary solutions to tackle some of the biggest global challenges. These include clean energy and net zero; climate action and clean water; good health and wellbeing; industry; innovation and infrastructure; and sustainable materials and responsible production.
With our partners we’re developing new materials, while making existing ones lighter, stronger, more sustainable and cheaper to produce, all to underpin sustainable and circular solutions to global challenges.
Our research covers
- The home of graphene research with more than 300 people working on 2D materials across 30 academic groups.
- Covering a broad range of research areas, from scalable routes towards graphene and related 2D materials, to energy and biomedical applications, and multifunctional composites for aerospace.
- Connected Institutes and Centres delivering semiconductor materials and device development for energy, photonics and quantum technologies.
- Internationally leading researchers delivering novel materials chemistry spanning biomaterials through to catalysts and bioanalytical spectroscopy.
- Developing advanced polymers and multi-functional composites as foundations for a sustainable future.
- Creating innovative textile materials, technologies and products, from biomedical devices to advanced composites for space technology.
- Supporting a sustainable future and circular economy through the development of high performance, durable and efficient construction products.
- Developing and improving the properties and performance of metals and alloys for demanding environments.
- Enhancing efficiency by increasing operational temperatures, enabling materials to withstand harsher environments and allowing for more accurate predictions of life span.
- Home to the largest community of metallurgists in the UK.
- Accelerating the discovery, manufacture and translation of new materials.
- Pioneering new therapies and diagnostic technologies in collaboration with partners worldwide, helping to speed up the translation to clinical trial.
- Bringing science and engineering together with humanities and social science to embed socio-economic and business perspectives into research.
- Delivering interdisciplinary research on sustainable business models and socio-technical transitions.
- Providing holistic expertise to support partners in considering real-world application when making impactful decisions.
Key research hubs and centres
Department of Materials
- Home to a pioneering research community of 300+ PhD students, 90+ academics and 80+ postdocs.
- Globally renowned for research excellence in biomaterials, coatings and ceramics, fashion marketing and management, metallurgy and corrosion, nano and functional materials, polymers and composites, and textiles and apparels.
- Hosting an unrivalled network of facilities including the Electron Microscopy Centre (EMC), one of the largest in the UK, the International Centre for Advanced Materials (ICAM) and NXCT at the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility.
Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre
- Accelerating lab-to-market development, enabling companies to fast-track technology readiness levels and get new graphene-based products to market quickly.
- Commercialising innovation and helping companies to secure the competitive edge required to reach their economic potential.
- Giving access to world class facilities and resources, supported by internationally renowned academics and experienced applications engineers.
National Graphene Institute
- Working in partnership with industry to develop transformative solutions
- Investigating the latest cutting-edge science in 2D materials, supported by leading equipment and scientific expertise.
- Home to the largest academic cleanroom facilities in Europe, providing researchers with the capability to work with 150 different types of 2D materials.
Henry Royce Institute
- Giving industry and academics access to more than £150 million worth of equipment.
- Offering key ‘make and test’ technologies, supported by dedicated platform leads, to drive agile and cost-effective materials discovery and application.
- Providing SMEs with supported access to new technologies and processes.
Christabel Pankhurst Institute
- £25 million initiative between the University, NHS, business and local government to develop innovative solutions to pressing health and care challenges.
- Acts as an external flagship for the University’s rapidly expanding health technology portfolio.
- Provides support across the translational pathway, from application to funding, regulation, clinical trials, commercialisation and deployment.
Tomorrow Labs
Discover the cutting edge facilities where you can access the expertise and equipment you need to address your material innovation needs.
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Events
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AMBS Event: A multi-level analysis of net-zero transitions Acceleration and new obstacles
1 May 2024, 12pm-1pm
At this Original Thinking Lecture, Frank Geels, Eddie Davies Professor of Sustainability Transition, will give his inaugural lecture as Eddie Davies Chair. Net-zero transitions hav.. -
A Community Event on Teamwork in Research
14 May 2024, 12pm-2.30pm
Hosted by The Team Research Programme, funded by Research England, who aim to increase awareness of the Team Research (Team Science) interdisciplinary model and its value to resear..
Connect with us
For business
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For policy work
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- Access high quality policy articles and publications from our academics.
General enquiries
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Research at Manchester
Find out more about the breadth and depth of research at our University.