New UK graphene centre to focus on application development

Announced yesterday in chancellor George Osborne’s Spring Budget, the new £14m Graphene Applications Innovation Centre will be based at north east England’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), which is part of the government’s network of Catapult technology centres.

The new centre – part of a new £74m commitment to UK science from Osborne - will open later this year to provide facilities and expertise to help companies to develop, prove, prototype and scale up graphene-based products and processes.

’If Britain isn’t leading the world in science and technology and engineering, then we are condemning our country to fall behind…[Graphene is] a great British discovery that we should break the habit of a lifetime with and commercially develop in Britain,’ Osborne said in his speech to parliament yesterday.

In a statement, Nigel Perry, CEO of CPI said: ’The new centre will work alongside academic organisations such as the National Graphene Institute, graphene manufacturers and end users, to develop and prove commercial applications for a range of major industries. The new centre will integrate with existing development facilities at CPI’s printable electronics and formulation centres based at Sedgefield, Co. Durham.