UK Design for Additive Manufacturing Network

This network grant aims at bringing together researchers working in different areas of Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) to enhance communication between groups, provide a focus for collaboration and innovation, and to maximise the future impact of DfAM-based research in the UK.
Additive Manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D Printing, has the potential to transform many UK industries thanks to its unique capabilities, such as the ability to produce extremely complex shapes, personalise products, reshore production, consolidate components, reduce weight through material minimisation and eliminate tooling and stock holding. Design Research plays a significant role in transforming these capabilities into societal and economic impact. In fact, is through Design that AM capabilities can be exploited for the development of innovative and high-value products. Our industrial, product and engineering design research communities are fundamental in developing the knowledge that will enable UK designers and manufacturers to deliver more cost-effective and high-value products through AM. This requires co-ordination to enable a regular, free and open dialogue between academic disciplines (including design, engineering, computer scientists, mathematicians, etc.), AM technology developers and suppliers, the professional design community and the industrial user-base.
DfAM is relevant to a broad range of engineering and science disciplines of the UKRI funding portfolio, including Digital Economy (e.g. Design, Personalisation), Energy (e.g. Energy Storage), Engineering (e.g. Simulation Driven Design), Computer Sciences (e.g. CAD software), Healthcare Technologies (e.g. Biomaterials and Tissues), and Manufacturing the Future (e.g. Materials Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Biomaterials). This has meant that DfAM has evolved tangentially and in a fragmented manner. Although research groups across a wide range of disciplines benefit heavily from DfAM-based research, they tend not to consider their work, design-related. Whilst there is a notable success in aerospace and medical applications groups largely focus on their own discipline and there is a general lack of communication and co-ordination between knowledge domains in both industry and academia. Such fragmentation leads to a duplication of effort, a lack of awareness of the progress made in related areas, limited knowledge exchange between different sectors, inefficiencies in the growth of research capacity and crucially in the most effective use of facilities and equipment.
Moreover, as it is often seen as an enabling discipline, DfAM has never been part of an initiative to co-ordinate such research activities. In the UK the profile of DfAM continues to be limited to academia, and the discipline does not successfully present itself with a unified voice to UKRI, government agencies or the wider population. Accordingly, as the relevance of DfAM continues to grow, it is crucial that the discipline develops a more co-ordinated and unified approach to initiate adventurous multidisciplinary research projects, meet future technological and societal challenges while providing support and reaching out to other disciplines.
This proposal aims to address this gap by forming a UK DfAM Network with diverse membership and industry support. It will co-ordinate the UK's DfAM research, facilitate the identification of common interests, foster knowledge transfer and accelerate the impact of DfAM research in the UK. The DfAM Network will draw together researchers through meetings, workshops, seminars, visits to facilities and laboratories, and a well-co-ordinated web presence.

UK Manufacturers will be a major beneficiary of the project. By visiting companies and engaging them into the Network, this project will seek to understand business challenges and disseminate them into the Design for AM research community in order to inform current and future research efforts. This will ultimately generate more focused and industry-informed proposals and research outcomes, with the ultimate goal of increasing the competitiveness of UK industry. Creating a single point of contact will help companies access information on the UK academic capabilities and connect with relevant expertise for their specific Design for AM needs.
We expect the Network to also benefit the UK Design community. Design is a major contributor to the UK economy. The network will help UK Designers understand the latest developments in Design for AM tools and knowledge thus supporting their professional development and competitiveness. The more designers can understand and successfully exploit AM capabilities, the more they will be able to develop innovative products and services for the benefit of the general public and the whole economy. The Network will provide an opportunity for professionals to connect with academia and providers of Design for AM education and training. This will support the people pipeline by enabling re-skilling of the current workforce. The Network will identify training needs and inform the future development of design curricula at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
The UK government and UK Research Councils (UKRC) will also be key beneficiaries of the project. One of the main contributions of the Network will be to provide the foundation for groups to come together and plan the development of large, adventurous, multidisciplinary and coordinated research funding proposals in Design for AM. By creating a community - connecting holders of many smaller grants, the Network can enhance existing UKRC funded research activity. The Network activities, and particularly the forums, are aimed at anticipating, reflecting, engaging and acting on the future of design and manufacturing in the UK and beyond.
Ultimately, the network will benefit the general public by facilitating the ideation and development of more functional, energy-efficient and appealing products.