The University of Liverpool has secured €4.4M Horizon Europe funding to drive innovation from materials research to products that enhance society and the environment.
The funding will support the International Doctoral Training Centre, bridging Advanced Materials Discovery and Advanced Processing Technologies to develop the Materials Innovators of the Future (iDTC-MIF).
Materials research drives innovation in industries like manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and energy. Advancing high‑performance materials needs new methods that combine computation and experiments across all scales, from atoms to finished products. However, there is a shortage of experts with skills in materials chemistry, data science, automation, and advanced manufacturing.
iDTC-MIF will assemble a diverse group of the best international post-graduate students from backgrounds bridging the physical and computer sciences with materials engineering. The 5-year programme will see 2 cohorts working with a cross-sector group of industrial partners and accessing a multi-methodology training environment. Here they will develop core skills in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence.
The state-of-the-art Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) will be home to iDTC-MIF fellows, providing a world-leading robotic materials synthesis suite and fostering an industrial mindset within an inter-sectoral collaborative research environment that nurtures leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Dr Esther Garcia-Tunon Blanca, coordinator of the initiative, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Liverpool said: "This funding offers us an exciting and crucial opportunity to develop the innovators of the future whose work will drive innovation from materials research to products that enhance society and the environment. iDTC-MIF provides a unique opportunity for some of the brightest minds in Europe to join us in Liverpool where they will have access to a unique inter-disciplinary training program and internationally recognised academic supervisors leading pioneering research worldwide."
This latest funding exemplifies the ambition of the University's Materials Discovery frontier to tackle net zero challenges through pioneering digital materials design and automation. iDTC-MIF also builds on the pioneering EPRSC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Digital and Automated Materials Chemistry introducing an international dimension to the portfolio of activities led by Liverpool.
