Advocacy & Policy
Shaping the Future of UK Materials Science
The EPSRC Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME) Programme Grant, and its members, contribute to supporting the wider research and policy ecosystem through a variety of routes. We engage with a wider range of stakeholders and partners in industry, academia and government providing supporting evidence for the impact of research in its broadest sense, including for example to the UK economy. Here are some example of where NAME and its members have contributed:
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Leading contributions and coordination has been provided by NAME investigators Prof Linfield, Prof Alford and Prof Curry to produce a series of five Materials for the Energy Transition Roadmaps. Specifically, Materials for Low-Loss Electronics is closely aligned to our work on spintronic and topological systems in NAME. The Materials for Low Loss Electronics roadmap sets out the priorities, targets and enablers which have been identified by UK research communities to help to achieve more efficient electronics in the context of power electronics and computing.
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The work of NAME and its leaders contributed to the development of the UK National Materials Innovation Strategy and specifically Next Generation Electronics, Telecommunications and Sensors theme. Many governments worldwide recognise the importance of quantum technologies (QTs) in advancing applications, from computing to communications, sensing, and timing. Countries that develop and use quantum technologies will gain advantages in productivity, economic growth, health, sustainability, and national security. The UK's National Quantum Strategy envisions the UK as a leading quantum-enabled economy, acknowledging the significance of QTs for the nation's prosperity and security. NAMEs work on Quantum Materials directly supports this strategy.
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The work of NAME and its leadership is strongly aligned with the UK Materials for Quantum Technologies Network (M4QN). Through this we have contributed to the Future Directions for Materials for Quantum Technologies report where NAME's work on impurity centre doping for quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communications is for example closely aligned with community-identified critical needs for future quantum technologies. Likewise our work on masers and topological insulator materials could play a key future role in meeting identified needs.
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Science 2040 is a Royal Society programme looking at what the UK science system could and should look like in the future. At the Science 2040 launch at the Houses of Parliament the development of the P-NAME tool within NAME and its commercialisation was used as an exemplar of how fundamental research can be successfully translated to deliver economic benefit to the UK, and also provide international competitiveness. Similarly, the maser work of NAME was used as an exemplar of how fundamental research can potentially address sovereign needs for robust communication methods.
