Manchester Metropolitan University and TWI have launched an initiative focused on advanced materials and coatings, circular economy, additive manufacturing and digitalisation with the establishment of the Advanced Materials and Digitalisation Innovation Centre (AMDIC).

Manchester Metropolitan University has a driving ambition to discover and disseminate knowledge, and make higher education accessible and beneficial to all those with the passion and ability to succeed.  It works closely with the city of Manchester, business, the community and academic peers, locally, nationally and internationally, to be inventive, creative, generate great opportunities, and enable students, colleagues and everyone whose lives it touches to make an impact.

TWI is a leading, independent, engineering research and technology organisation supporting both companies and individuals alike with expert advice, knowhow and safety assurance through engineering, materials and joining technologies, helping industry internationally to design, create and operate the best products and systems possible.

“With the establishment of the Advanced Materials and Digitalisation Innovation Centre, our aim is to offer a holistic approach to the development of sustainable and novel technologies for a broad spectrum of areas including advanced materials and coatings, hydrogen technologies, surface engineering, additive manufacturing and digitalisation, to deliver relevant solutions towards a more sustainable future for industry,” said Andra Stancu, Programme Manager for AMDIC at TWI.

The collaboration between the two partners will bring together a multidisciplinary group of world-leading experts to undertake research and development (R&D) projects that incorporate disruptive technologies with market and commercial potential.

Technological and industrial areas, and challenges, the Centre will specifically address include:

• Generating a greater understanding of materials and processes in order to develop new applications, components and devices with novel or enhanced properties
• Developing surface engineering solutions to provide functional films for competitive advantage
• Designing and engineering novel concepts and materials to make hydrogen technologies cost competitive with other energy conversion and storage options
• Applying Industry 4.0 technologies by undertaking digitalisation of the physical aspects of infrastructure and industry
• Creating innovations in product design, digital manufacturing and the development of new materials for additive manufacturing with a circular economy approach in a sustainable way
• Generating and transferring new knowledge to implement a clean growth strategy for the decarbonisation of transport
• Researching the life cycle of data science to support the development of next generation, ethical and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) including the development and application of innovative technologies for machine / deep learning, natural language processing, data governance and security, adaptive psychological profiling and human-computer interaction
• Applying and further developing mathematical modelling and flow analysis tools for evaluating emerging, offshore, renewable technologies.

AMDIC complements and draws on the multidisciplinary research taking place at Manchester Metropolitan University, which is addressing challenges in sustainable development, AI, cyber security, digital twins, digital manufacturing, physical vapour deposition processes, hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers, and several other technologies.

“Sustainability is core to our University.  We are already working with businesses to shape the capabilities and technologies needed to deliver a net zero economy as well as helping those businesses reach their sustainability goals.  The Advanced Materials and Digitalisation Innovation Centre will enable our impactful research to identify innovative ways to protect the environment and contribute to both economic growth and sustainable industries,” concluded Prof. Andy Gibson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Science and Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University.

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