Academia-Industry Day

The event is free to attend and will be held at The Alliance Manchester Business School. The overall aim is to widen academic collaboration and innovation with industry, particularly in the Greater Manchester region. The event is fully catered and includes coffee / tea breaks, lunch and a drinks / mixer session in the evening.

On the day you will have the opportunity to meet numerous members of department, understand the range of departmental research interests and expertise, hear about the routes for collaboration with Manchester, and hear from the broader UK innovation ecosystem including on the support of scale up.

The departmental research themes are wide ranging, covering: Biomaterials, Coatings and Ceramics, Fashion Management and Marketing, Imaging and Characterisation, Metallurgy and Corrosion, Nano and Functional Materials, Polymers and Composites, Textiles and Apparel (https://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/research/themes/)

The day will involve talks and discussions with key people within industry, academia and funding bodies along with sessions around the following themes:

1. Why should we work together? : A panel session consisting of academics, industrialists, innovators and funders that have track records in successful collaboration with Universities to tell about some of the benefits of the interactions. The aim of this session is to demonstrate the added value that businesses can gain in collaboration with the University of Manchester from the many success stories that have arisen over the past decade.

Panel Session

Chair: Dr Richard Lydon – Chair of the Department of Materials External Advisory Board

Panellists

Dr Mark Bissett-University of Manchester / CSO Molymem Ltd

Dr Mandar Thakare – Director, bp-ICAM

Dr Mike Murray – CTO, Vita Group

Dr Graeme Cruickshank – Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, CPI

Prof Richard Jones – Vice-President for Regional Innovation, University of Manchester

Mr Simon Thorpe – Cambridge Angels / UMIF NED

2. How can we work together?: Talks from The University of Manchester Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Team / CPI / Innovate UK / Manchester Innovation Factory. The aim of this session is to give a broad overview of the support and funding opportunities available which can facilitate collaboration of business / industry with an academic partner.

Role of Catapults in the UK Innovation Ecosystem, Accelerating your Route to Impact

Dr Graeme Cruickshank – Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, CPI

Materials Innovation and Commercialisation and how Innovate UK KTN can Help to Deliver it

Dr Stephen Morris – Knowledge Transfer Manager, Smart Materials and Technical Textiles, Innovate UK – KTN

Business Engagement – How to Collaborate with the University of Manchester

Ms Elena Zelenkova – Business Engagement, University of Manchester

Knowledge Exchange Funding Opportunities

Dr Naomi Curati – Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange, University of Manchester

Introduction to the Innovation Factory and Commercialisation

Dr Jason Hui – University of Manchester Innovation Factory

3. What should we work on? : A session where our research theme leads present the research in brief going on at materials Manchester and the academic expertise of our staff and who they are currently collaborating with. The aim of this session is for business and industry to gain a snapshot of the exciting research happening at Manchester Materials. There will be a panel session with the research leads, where questions to them can be fielded, as well as a presentation on the forthcoming ID Manchester development.

In the final mixer session, there will be opportunity to initiate discussion directly with our academics on current challenges in industry and how academia can support business to overcome these.

Research themes

Biomaterials – Dr Christopher Blanford

Ceramics & Coatings -Prof Allan Matthews

Imaging & Characterisation -Prof Sarah Haigh

Metallurgy & Corrosion -Prof Dirk Engelberg

Nano & Functional Materials -Dr Andrey Kretinin

Polymers – Dr Cristina Valles

Fashion Business Technology / Textiles &Apparel-Dr Claudia Henninger

The Future of Innovation: ID Manchester

Ms Lou Cordwell – Director Innovation District Manchester