Industrial collaboration is the hallmark of success for the Materials Research Centre (MRC). The MRC currently interfaces with a large number of companies including Rolls Royce, Corus, BASF, Cogent Power, Jaguar Land Rover, The Home Office, Novelis, Airbus, European Space Agency.  

The UTC Materials for Aerospace research group has recently successfully received £54 million from Rolls Royce / EPSRC in collaboration with Cambridge and Birmingham providing 10 years funding for materials research and doctorate studentships.

The MRC has received £7 million from ESF for the Steel training research and innovation partnership (STRIP) that will train 30 EngDs and 48 Mres students over the next 6 years with collaboration from companies in the steel supply chain.

Industrial collaboration filters into the undergraduate degree programs that offers students a taste of industry throughout their studies.

Specific activities include:

• Undergraduate vacation and year-out placements, often leading to industrial sponsorship.
• Industry-linked Level 3 and Level M student projects.
• Sponsored postgraduate projects.
• Large-scale research projects.
• Part-time training courses for industrial delegates.
• Development of innovative ideas, generating new patents and start-up companies.

Professional Development

Continued Professional Development is important at all levels and we have active involvement in the local sections of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining as well as the Materials Network Wales (part of the Government-funded Materials Knowledge Transfer Centre).  This gives students access to a programme of talks, site visits and workshops hosted by industry-based experts across the Materials discipline.

Workshops and Training Courses

All of our postgraduate modules are available to external delegates from industry. This arrangement can benefit both the employee and employer. The employee enhances his or her education and qualifications without having to leave employment, while the employer gains from the enhanced job-related knowledge and skills gained by the member of that company’s workforce. The modules can be taken as stand-alone units or combined over a certain period of time to provide the full MRes degree qualification.

Collaboration with SME’s

The Materials Research Centre has extensive collaboration with smaller companies (SME’s) via research, consultancy and training for all types of materials related projects, including materials selection, manufacturing process improvement and component life assessment. The Centre incorporates advanced computer modelling capabilities and experimental testing facilities. Projects can be carried out ranging from rapid turnaround (1-10 days) consultancy to long term research over a period of years. These projects always have the key objective of producing results that are immediately applicable to the improvement of a particular material or process within a given industry. The staff of the Centre are well experienced in managing, setting-up and obtaining funding from organisations in the private commercial, public and government sectors and the Centre has achieved accredited “Centre of Excellence for Industrial Collaboration” status.

The Centre has recently been successful in gaining over half a million pounds of funding from the Welsh Assembly Government’s A4B programme to develop the “Welsh Composites Centre”. This has been established to drive the uptake of new composites technology across Wales and to provide an accessible mechanism for companies and other organisations across Wales to develop innovative ideas, share best practice and to keep up-to-date with this rapidly-changing field of technology.