Nanomaterials research

As part of a unique collaborative agreement, the Japanese government has located a new research satellite at the Nanoscience Centre at Cambridge University.

Cambridge is one of four institutes located outside of Japan that will host a satellite of the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) - the University of California, Los Angeles, the Georgia Institute of Technology and CNRS, France, will host the other three. Two branches will be located in Japan at Tsukuba University, Tokyo and Hokkaido University, Sapporo.

The operations of the centre will be supervised by a number of scientists from Japan's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). The 10 year, $150m (£86m) programme is aimed at developing innovative materials.

The Cambridge University satellite will be led jointly by Prof Mark Welland, who heads the Nanoscience Group in the Electrical Engineering Division of Cambridge's Engineering Department, and Dr David Bowler from the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London.