The National Graphene Institute

We propose the creation of a National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester to exploit the UK's leading scientific position in graphene, to build on previous and future UK discoveries in this area, to commercialise them and to create sustainable economic value and competitive advantage for the UK. The National Institute would work closely with founding UK partners and with new centres of excellence in graphene research.

The key discoveries on graphene have been made in Manchester, as recognised, for example, by the 2010 Nobel Prize and many other international awards. Manchester continues to be distinguished by ongoing frequent breakthroughs on the subject and the critical mass of graphene researchers, as highlighted by the number of citations for graphene-related research papers.

The Graphene Institute will house state-of the-art facilities, laboratories and business services to be shared with commercial and academic partners and to support and nurture application and commercialisation of ongoing developments. The interaction between all collaborators will also stimulate and accelerate the pace of scientific discovery in the Institute. Graphene offers the potential for early commercialisation and for long-term pervasive application. The Institute aims to transcend typical divisions between stages of technological development and provide a model for future seamless dissemination and application of new technologies in the UK. Training research students as future business leaders to establish and run their own companies is an integral part of the Institute's programme. The Institute will also provide the foundation and required leadership for the growth of a 'hub and network' model of expertise and commercialisation throughout the nation. We request £38M towards the capital cost (total cost £45M) of the Hub, which will lever further external funds.

This is the next key step in Manchester and the UK's exciting and ambitious long-term vision. The Institute will capitalise on the UK's international leadership in the field and will act as a catalyst to build on UK collaborations, spawn new businesses, attract global companies and translate the value of scientific discovery into economic growth and job creation. It will also be an important step in rebalancing the UK economy. It would link up cutting-edge science with new commercial products to make sure that the development path is as short as possible.

Economic benefit will flow, not only through fast-growing start-up companies, but also by accelerating the growth of existing corporates particularly in the areas of aerospace, chemicals, energy and electronic devices where the North West has considerable strength; this proposal has very strong support from the City of Manchester. The GIH will also become a magnet for venture capital investment as the potential low production costs of graphene presents an attractive value proposition for investors.

Despite graphene's huge potential and its discovery here, the UK is falling well behind other countries (eg Singapore, Korea, USA, Japan and several European countries) in investment in research, manufacturing, applications and commercialisation of graphene. This was recognised by the timely initial capital investment of £50M announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to be concentrated around a critical mass of expertise. This will allow the UK to maintain our current lead in discoveries around graphene; develop applications and commercialisation in partnership with UK and international companies; and encourage inward investment. The UK has an outstanding record of scientific discovery and recognition, but is comparatively weak in capitalising on these breakthroughs to take advantage of their applications and commercialisation.

The quality and critical mass of scientific research and research training (see www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk) and level of industry contacts in graphene in Manchester is second to none. Graphene Industries Ltd and Graphene Research Ltd are two start-up companies established 3-5 years ago and run by Geim's former PhD students. Their customers range from individual academics abroad to multinationals such as IBM and Samsung.

We also have proven experience and success in commercialisation in general, through our UMI3 Innovation Centre, which is an integrated research, design and technology facility, incorporating state-of-the-art clean rooms for wet chemistry/biotech with scale-up capabilities for demonstration of quality and volume at production levels (eg NanoCo, a £100M valued University spin-out quantum dot manufacturer, grew-up from a proof-of-principle project in the UMI3 Innovation Centre, and now supplies commercial quantities of materials to firms). It houses University spin-outs and corporate and small private companies as tenants, and has very strong IP negotiation and management presence, licensing expertise, venture capitalists, expert advice on market strategy and business. The very successful, Manchester Science Park has larger premises, with similar business support. We have discussed with the City of Manchester opportunities for much wider growth in graphene based companies on our North campus, located in the heart of the city and with significant space and facilities. There is very strong local support for this longer term vision of Manchester making a huge positive economic impact in the graphene field through its own work and through excellent leadership of the NGI.

Leverage of the initial £50M capital investment will be sought from a number of sources. For example, the UK involvement in the Graphene Flagship Pilot where the only two UK advisory council positions are filled by Geim and Novoselov, will allow the original £50M investment to be matched by another £50-100M from the EU, should the Flagship bid be successful. The Flagship Pilot has also resulted in the development of a Graphene Technology Roadmap which was initiated by Novoselov and is being developed by collaboration between Manchester, Lancaster and Cambridge. This roadmap will feed into the long-term strategy of the national Institute. We are actively recruiting leading graphene researchers to Manchester and are especially seeking those with skills in application and commercialisation to complement our existing staff in these areas.