NCC and CPI have entered a new formal partnership, committing the two High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres to jointly develop critical innovation capabilities for materials.
Materials underpin UK competitiveness across advanced manufacturing and represent a £45bn industry. Composites, in particular, are key to delivering higher performing, lower cost, and more sustainable products.
But while the UK is a world leader in fundamental materials science, it continues to face challenges in scale-up – transitioning promising academic and pilot innovation into commercial manufacturing environments.
This new partnership aims to change that.
Joining the dots: from material to manufacture
Building on a long-standing strategic relationship, NCC and CPI will work together to strengthen innovation capabilities that are essential to the UK’s supply and manufacture of advanced products.
The partnership formally aligns scale-up expertise and capability across the full materials lifecycle, from polymer and process chemistry at CPI, to materials manufacturing and product development at NCC.
It will provide UK manufacturers with a more connected route from lab to production line, accelerating the development and adoption of critical new materials.
Initial focus: carbon fibre development
Next generation aerospace, energy, and defence products all rely on carbon fibre, but the UK has no domestic end-to-end production capability to produce this material, relying entirely on imports.
To address this, the partnership’s initial focus will be to develop sovereign innovation capability in this strategically important material, generating new intellectual property, strengthening the UK supply base, and reducing reliance on oversea sources.
Recognised in the Government’s Industrial Strategy and Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, the work will also support advances in product performance, cost, and sustainability.
NCC’s new Carbon Fibre Development Facility, opening later this year, will provide the UK with a unique fibre research and innovation capability. The facility will house two manufacturing development lines to enable industry to test, de-risk, and scale new carbon fibre formulations and processing techniques.
In parallel, CPI will establish two complementary development capabilities focused on optimising the building blocks of carbon fibre: the process chemistry and associated formulation of its key ingredients. These outputs will feed directly into NCC’s new facility.
Commenting on the partnership, the CEOs of NCC and CPI said:
Richard Oldfield, CEO at NCC:
“Advanced materials are a critical enabler for sectors driving the UK’s growth agenda, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and defence. Together with CPI, we’re acting now to develop the strategic materials capabilities needed to enhance the UK’s global competitiveness and build long-term industrial resilience.”
Frank Millar, CEO at CPI:
“In order to deliver greater value to the UK economy from our material science research, we must develop the intellectual property and commercial routes to global markets. Our partnership with NCC strengthens the UK supply chain, reduces reliance on imports, and ensures critical materials innovation scales here, which will support our aerospace, defence, and clean energy industries for the long term.”