The University of Bristol and its Bristol Composites Institute is part of a new Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) funded £42.5M partnership with academia, industry and RTOs to deliver ground-breaking new research into materials for extreme environments.
Advanced materials play a vital role in keeping people and equipment safe in the harsh physical environments such as polar or tropical heat, shock, space and extreme water depth. The new Defence Materials Centre of Excellence (DMEx) will be led by the Henry Royce Institute along with 23 other partners from academic, industry and research organisations. Using leading edge technology, the Bristol Composites Institute, along with other researchers across the Science and Engineering Faculty will contribute to this national effort in advanced materials research.
Regius Professor Phil Withers FRENg FRS, Chief Scientist at the Henry Royce Institute and Regius Professor at the University of Manchester, said: “I am very excited about this opportunity for the Royce to team up with Catapults, industry, other universities and Dstl to bring many of the brightest minds and state of the art capabilities together to undertake materials research and development in support of the UK.”
Stephen Hallett, who led the University of Bristol’s participation in the bid and will represent the Air Domain as Partner Principle on the DMEx Science Board said: “It is great to be part of this successful consortium, that will allow Bristol researchers to contribute their expertise and skills.”
As the DMEx centre gets underway and gathers momentum, research at Bristol will support the upscaling of exciting new materials and technology and feed into the growth of advanced materials activity, which is estimated at £14.4 billion in gross value to the UK economy.
Written by Simon Quinn, BCI Engagement Manager.