Manchester’s Graphene Commercialisation Hub is a Trusted Game-change
Wednesday, 22 March 2023
The Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), based at The University of Manchester, is a unique innovation accelerator that is focused on lab-to-market applications for the nanomaterial graphene and other 2D materials.
The GEIC – which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year – has been working with industry partners to accelerate the development of a range of applications, including: composites and lightweighting; construction materials and infrastructure; energy storage (electric and hydrogen); membranes and coatings; as well as printing and inks.
The GEIC has access to world-class science and facilities but is led by engineers and application experts that look to solve real-world problems – and these experts form part of an innovation ecosystem that now includes a growing community of spin-out businesses who are following an entrepreneurial pathway to take graphene-related innovation to market.
James Baker, CEO of Graphene@Manchester, said: “The GEIC opened its doors in 2018 and in that time we have successfully proven our effectiveness in taking world-class science from the lab and placing it into the marketplace.
“The graphene and 2D market has also matured significantly in recent years as more and more innovations are being made into products or components that provide significant competitor advantage.
“Too often, graphene was seen as a magic dust that could be sprinkled into a product to transform its performance – and even if you were lucky and achieved positive results, this ad hoc approach was usually non-replicable or able to be developed with a reliable quality control to earn market confidence.
“What the GEIC has shown is that by working with our in-house application teams, partners from a range of sectors have commissioned R&D projects that are evidence-based and deliver trusted game-changer outputs that are ready for scale up. This is why our original and other long-standing collaborators are renewing their partnerships with the GEIC as they look to deliver more ambitious projects.
“The collective knowhow and expertise that we have built up in the past five years is now providing a unique innovation platform which existing and new partners can benefit from as graphene commercialisation fast gains momentum.”