Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0

**Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0:** £18.27m SIPF investment would be part of an £80m+ programme to make the Midlands a global leader in advanced-ceramics (targeting the heart of Midlands manufacturing across Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Black Country, Warwickshire, Birmingham, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire).

Advanced-ceramics are vital 'enablers' for many manufacturing sectors, like energy, health, aerospace, automotive and defence owing to their high strength, low corrosion, thermal and electrical properties. Given their importance to unlocking performance in advanced manufacturing the global demand for them is growing exponentially (the global advanced-ceramics market is projected to reach £143 billion by 2023, more than doubling in value since 2015)

A Midlands advanced-ceramics growth programme is being guided by the Midlands-Industrial-Ceramics-Group (MICG), a new consortium chaired by Rolls-Royce. It includes global multinationals to SMEs, a private-sector R&D market leader and three Russell-Group universities. As part of their holistic programme for sector growth, SIPF funding will be used to tackle critical technical challenges facing Midlands companies.

Developing new advanced ceramics technologies is currently based on a variety of experimental approaches with much reworking and high rejection rates, resulting in expensive and time consuming work. Using cutting-edge digital modelling and investing in leading edge pilot-lines and digital twins, the MICG consortium of researchers, will develop streamlined processes for proving and bringing new advanced ceramics technologies to market faster, with less energy usage and lower carbon emissions. This will remove many of the current communication and technology transfer barriers to developing new ceramic technologies. It will enable effective problem solving and faster commercialisation of new products, so unlocking improved performance for next generation products including fuel cells and batteries, 5G communications, CMC (Ceramic matrix composites) for aero engines, and medical devices.

The industry-led R&D detailed above will be complemented by wider efforts to grow the sector that will include: an Advanced-Ceramics Campus (120,000 sqft+ of R&D and commercial space for the sector in North Staffordshire), proactive promotion of the Midlands for foreign direct investment, coordinating support and finance for the sectors businesses in the Midlands and the development of skills for the sector's future workforce.

The impact will be the immediate safeguarding and growth in high-value-added jobs in the Midlands, a step-change in the Midlands innovation capacity in this sector and over the longer-term ensuring the Midlands leads the world in advanced ceramics technology and production, building on its historical reputation of excellence in ceramics.