Henry Royce Institute

Equipment Access Schemes

Through our facility access schemes, Royce provides funding to utilise our extensive portfolio of state-of-the-art materials science and engineering equipment. Royce funded access schemes are open to researchers and students based at UK academic institutions, Research Technology Organisations, and UK-based SMEs. As the national institute for advanced materials, we have an extensive catalogue of equipment including facilities to make, test and characterise materials.

Industrial Collaboration Programme

The Henry Royce Institute’s Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP) provides grant funding for research, development, and innovation sprint projects that support technology translation. This competition is Royce’s flagship funding initiative and is designed to catalyse impactful partnerships between industry, academia, and Research Technology Organisations (RTOs). Through the Industrial Collaboration Programme, Royce funds projects that respond to major national challenges and accelerate the progression of advanced materials from breakthrough discovery to real-world application. ICP supports innovation across the entire economic value chain, from agile start-ups to global corporations and from early-stage research to fully manufactured products. Since its launch, ICP has awarded more than £18.8 million in funding to over 300 partner organisations. This investment has delivered significant economic value for the UK. Project stakeholders who took part in a 2025 survey reported a five-to-one return on investment and more than £60 million in follow-on funding. One fifth of surveyed businesses reported creating new jobs as a result of ICP support, and a growing pipeline of new products and intellectual property has emerged from funded projects. By enabling collaboration between leading UK universities and industry, ICP is harnessing the UK’s world-class expertise in materials science to address critical challenges in areas such as sustainability, energy efficiency, and healthcare. The Industrial Collaboration Programme is accelerating the journey from research to commercialisation and is helping to advance the objectives of the National Materials Innovation Strategy, including increased productivity, enhanced national resilience, and the creation of highly skilled employment opportunities.

Training & Skills

To drive innovation, we recognise we must put the development of people at the heart of our mission. Our initiatives are directed at developing research and technical expertise across materials science, and in raising awareness of the fantastic array of career pathways in the discipline. We achieve this through: The delivery of a wide-ranging technical upskilling programme for industry and academia which embraces both detailed materials science techniques and broader awareness courses The development of a new generation of future researchers in materials science with a balance of skills across techniques, innovation, commercial awareness, project management, team-working and problem-solving A wide-ranging outreach programme driven by widening participation and stimulating awareness and uptake of materials science Our training events are of relevance to a wide range of scientists and engineers. We deliver skills and training for PhD students, early-career researchers, technicians, as well as experimental and application scientists Our content is relevant across academia, as well as in SMEs and industry, and partnership-style delivery helps drive collaboration, networking and innovation in advanced materials.

Chemical Materials Design

Biomedical Materials

Modelling & AI

Imaging & Characterisation

Electrochemical Systems

Atoms to Devices

Materials Systems for Demanding Environments

Advanced Metals Processing

Nuclear Materials

2D Materials

Flexible Plastic Packaging Assembly

Flexible Plastic Packaging Assembly Identifies Key Recycling Challenges

National Materials Innovation Strategy

Unlocking UK Economic Growth Through Materials Innovation

Royce launches National Framework to Accelerate the Materials 4.0 Revolution

The Henry Royce Institute has announced the publication of an Outline National Framework for Materials 4.0, to guide the UK materials community through the transition to a fully digitally enabled ecosystem.