Experimental Equipment Call

The research activity that will be supported by this proposal supports a wide range of advanced materials research and will focus on seven key areas including:
*High Speed Additive Manufacturing
*Fabrication and Characterisation of Functional Molecular Films
*New Frontiers in Material Characterisation
*Nuclear Materials
*Advanced Nanomaterials and Devices
*Polymer Science, Soft Matter and Colloids
*Functional Property Characterisation

The experimental equipment detailed in this proposal will deliver a range of benefits to the beneficiaries outlined below:

Firstly, industrial partners (both new and with whom the University already maintains close and productive relationships) will benefit from direct access to otherwise unobtainable cutting-edge equipment, as well as to the outputs/results of research conducted Sheffield academics and third parties on this equipment. This is expected to: offer greater design freedom for product designers and manufacturers by eliminating prohibitive up front tooling costs; remove the key barriers to wider adoption of additive manufacturing, i.e. cost and speed of production; generate new IP and new materials for fields such as energy, optical devices and photonic applications. The availability of this equipment is also expected to attract interest from new partners and act as a catalyst for new partnerships and collaborations.

SMEs in particular have already expressed interest in developing new types of product and optimising their quality using this new equipment, which would otherwise be beyond their reach. Among the names already interested in the commercial opportunities on offer are Attocube Systems, Helia Photonics, M2 Lasers and Toshiba Europe.

Secondly, a large number of the projects planned for the proposed equipment offer strong environmental benefits e.g. lower emissions by reducing weight in transport applications and offering digital 'transportation' of CAD files instead of transportation of products; and low-carbon technology using thin film techniques such as low-cost photovoltaics, low-energy lighting and thin-film batteries.

Care will be taken to ensure that the new equipment will also benefit students of the University at all levels but particularly at PhD and Early career levels giving them valuable practical and technical skills and experience on cutting edge machinery that are much sought after by (and of great benefit to) industrial employers.

By offering access, such as Dual Beam FIB beam time to other regional universities, the scientific and research benefits of the equipment will be shared and maximised and concrete opportunities for new collaborative and multi-disciplinary projects to foster innovation in this expanding sector will be.

The participating teams boast strong track records in communication and public engagement that will ensure that interested members of the public will be given every chance to find out more about a new and exciting field with myriad potential applications, in engaging and vivid ways.