NanoPrime: Maximising Equipment and Expertise Sharing in Nanoscience

The number of applications for advanced materials, such as structured nanomaterials and biomaterials, is steadily increasing across the UK and internationally. Nanomaterials are used extensively across a broad range of sectors such as aerospace, construction, electronics, energy and the biomedical industry. Biomaterials are essential components in targeting infectious diseases and cancers, realising the potential of regenerative medicine and the medical devices of the future. These materials are intelligently designed and require extensive characterisation as part of the product development process. In this proposal, we seek to establish a scheme (NanoPrime) that provides researchers with i) capability based training opportunities and ii) access to state-of-the-art instrumentation within the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC) at the University of Nottingham.

The vision of NanoPrime is to catalyse development of nanomaterials research through equipment and expertise sharing. The scheme will target proof of concept and pump priming projects that are often inhibited by a substantial initiation cost barrier, but have the potential for high impact and high value in the longer term. NanoPrime will initiate over 30 new research areas within the Engineering and Physical Sciences.
The nmRC is a key facility at the University of Nottingham, opened in 2016, with extensive infrastructure and instrumentation including electron microscopy, mass spectrometry, electron beam lithography, Raman and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The combination of instruments offered at the nmRC, along with its specialised cryogenic sample preparation capabilities, makes the nmRC globally unique and ideally positioned to promote an integrated approach to materials characterisation across the Engineering and Physical Sciences. Training events based on these technical capabilities will be hosted through NanoPrime, upskilling the UK materials science research base.

Economic Impact:
A skills shortage in Materials Science has been identified in the UK science economy ('The Demand for Skills in the UK Science Economy' by the Science Industry Partnership (SIP), March 2016), an issue that is increasing in importance as the number of applications for advanced materials, such as nanomaterials and biomaterials, steadily rises. NanoPrime will directly address this by providing researchers with 1) a scheme to explore high-risk, high-gain projects with access to state of the instrumentation; and 2) by providing expert capability based training opportunities. NanoPrime will enable the co-creation of research programmes between HEI and research partner organisations, these will benefit companies by helping to mitigate some of the risk of undertaking fundamental and early stage applied research, providing a competitive advantage to the UK economy. In the last year, 25 industries from diverse sectors have utilised the nmRC's extensive instrumentation for research programmes, including: energy; aerospace and transport; optical technology, healthcare and pharmaceutical; construction, mining, surface and materials engineering; chemical and food industries. With such a high proportion of researchers and academic staff already collaborating with industrial partners, a high number of NanoPrime research initiatives will naturally translate to commercial applications and enhanced impact.
SIP has recognised that Materials Science is a 'key enabling technology' that will drive future growth. To address the skills shortage, 'upskilling of the existing scientific workforce' is a strategic objective and it is recommended that wider learning opportunities for key enabling technologies should be supported. NanoPrime will achieve this through its capability based learning events Ultimately, NanoPrime will enhance the UK's economic competitiveness in a number of Materials Science sectors and industries where, globally, there is an increasing focus on creating new advanced materials with unique functionalities.

Impact upon Society:
Projects seeded through NanoPrime will create impact of their own and, to exploit the opportunities within this, the NanoPrime events will be tailored to provide training on impact, outreach and engagement.
The multi-disciplinary spread of the users for NanoPrime impacts many sectors of research, particularly within applied disciplines and as such will impact society in a variety of ways.
For example, the ability of NanoPrime to enable research within the fields of pharmacy, tissue engineering and biomaterials will lead to the development of more effective drugs, controlled delivery systems, advanced biomaterials, and regenerative medicine technologies. These will produce improvements in the health and wellbeing of both UK and international society. Further materials science and physics related research areas including those within the field of graphene and semi-conductor research can also be enabled by NanoPrime ensuring that the UK remains competitive in state-of-the-art device manufacturing. Utilising both current and future academic links to industry internationally the impact of the research can be realised and implanted both within the UK and more widely.