Blog from Dr JT Janssen, Chief Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and member of the Strategic Advisory Board at the Henry Royce Institute.

As National Institutes, both NPL and the Henry Royce Institute (Royce) recognise that innovation in advanced materials is crucial in helping to solve many of the grand challenges we see in our world today, from energy transition and electrification of transport to healthcare and the digital economy.

Since the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NPL and Royce in December 2020, the two organisations have focused on collaboration on one of the key innovation challenges for advanced materials, namely building confidence in the repeatability and reproducibility of the characterisation of the materials, through NPL’s measurement expertise and Royce’s state of the art facilities.

At NPL, our research is aimed at developing new and improved, validated measurement and instrument technology which will improve the understanding and reliability of the measurement techniques used by industry and academia, and in recent years we have been working with experts at Royce to combine expertise around advanced materials innovation and cutting-edge materials metrology. I’m delighted that Royce’s new Hub building will act as a centre of scientific excellence and enable the collaboration between academia and industry in this area.

It is imperative to accelerate the development and adoption of advanced materials and processes to drive innovation and productivity within UK industry. Combining greater understanding of performance with improved measurement techniques means that industry can have the confidence to employ advanced materials and reap the benefits that they offer. Read more