Maintaining momentum
Implementing the National Materials Innovation Strategy.
As a national institute for advanced materials research, Henry Royce has long championed the essential role that materials play in driving productivity, clean energy, national security, and a healthy and resilient society. Today, with the National Materials Innovation Strategy (NMIS) gaining real traction across government, industry and academia, we have a unique opportunity to convert words into transformative action.
Materials innovation is pervasive across all key strategic sectors – it creates jobs, boosts economic growth and drives impact across the UK’s regions. The NMIS recognises this, positioning materials as a critical enabler for these strategic sectors – including energy, healthcare, construction, transport, electronics, consumer products and telecommunications.
Each of these innovation themes is central to our future industrial competitiveness, whether enabling the transition to electrification, unlocking next-generation medical solutions, strengthening our infrastructure, or accelerating sustainable manufacturing.
Complementing these sector opportunities are the NMIS cross-cutting themes – sustainability, Materials 4.0, skills, regulation/policy and translation – the former two acting as the glue that will draw our community closer together as the interdependencies play out.
Importantly, the NMIS now sits within a broader policy context. Earlier this year, Royce responded positively to the publication of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, noting that for the first time since 2017, the UK Government’s long-term industrial plan explicitly flags advanced materials as a core part of advanced manufacturing, highlighting current activities and initiatives across the sector and explicitly referring to the NMIS and the community effort that established it.
Indeed, according to our own analysis, the UK is home to around 2,700 materials-innovation companies employing over 630,000 people and contributing roughly £45bln annually to the economy – about 2% of the national total. Most of these companies (90%) are small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and the majority (over 70%) are based outside London and the South East, indicating strong potential for regional growth across the UK.
For the new Industrial Strategy, the work that has gone into NMIS has also provided the evidence and direction to ensure advanced materials are designated one of six “frontier advanced manufacturing industries” with the greatest growth potential, underpinned by an initial £50mln+ commitment to launch the first phase of a National Materials Innovation Programme (NMIP).
At the helm
A Materials Innovation Leadership Group (MILG) is now firmly established, working with the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and supported by eight industry-led steering groups focused on identifying, refining and fast-tracking priority interventions.
These groups are already shaping an ambitious pipeline of activity, with outline cases for a growing programme expected by April 2026. The aforementioned NMIP, which is largely under UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) stewardship, aligns into this, with work packages likely to span collaboration networks, strategic materials and data-driven innovation, international partnerships and materials verification.
At Royce, we remain deeply embedded in these efforts, and our role is to keep momentum high, connect the community and ensure the UK’s materials landscape becomes more integrated, visible and internationally competitive.
Genesis of the National Materials Innovation Strategy
The National Materials Innovation Strategy emerged from the UK’s recognition that advanced materials underpin every major industrial sector, from clean energy and defence to life sciences, digital technologies and the foundational industries.
Developed through close collaboration between government, industry and the research community, the strategy has been shaped to coordinate a national approach to advanced materials, accelerate the development and adoption of strategically important technologies, and maintain the UK’s world-class research and innovation environment. Its implementation reflects a shared commitment to establishing a cohesive National Materials Innovation Programme and leadership structures capable of translating scientific excellence into economic impact, resilience and global competitiveness.
Materials 4.0
One of the highest priority areas of progress arising from the NMIS is the development of a National Framework for Materials 4.0. This six-month sprint project has already mapped the UK’s capabilities, defining a national architecture for digital materials innovation and identifying high-value opportunities across the entire value chain. The early findings highlight both exceptional strengths and areas requiring targeted investment.
The outline National Framework for Materials 4.0 provides the UK’s first shared definition and structure for a fully digitally enabled materials ecosystem. Developed through stakeholder interviews, a nationwide review and international benchmarking, the framework aims to align research, industry and government around the future of materials innovation.
Materials 4.0 describes the shift to a data-driven materials sector, integrating advanced modelling, high-quality data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, in silico experimentation, manufacturing informatics, and lifecycle simulation. By enabling seamless data flow from discovery to end-of-life, it promises faster development, more efficient use of resources and smarter, more resilient manufacturing.
The framework is organised around two connected elements – materials processes across the full lifecycle and cross-cutting digital capabilities that support them. Five case studies, from wind-turbine composites to nuclear steels, will illustrate its potential. With nearly 6,000 relevant UK projects already identified, the framework sets out a pathway to coordinated national efforts in Materials 4.0.
Nearly £2bln has been invested in Materials 4.0-related R&D since 2005, but only 30% has flowed into innovation activity with considerable focus on materials discovery and less on process, through-life performance and resource recovery. A more balanced portfolio will be essential if the UK is to accelerate translation and capture value from AI-driven design, automation, digital twins and advanced verification technologies.
Accelerating innovation
Royce is taking action on a number of other fronts to accelerate translation.
Our Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP) is directing resources where they are most needed, supporting high-growth opportunity areas identified through the NMIS, such as materials for energy, healthcare and electronics, alongside support for emerging areas and topics such as metamaterials. The response to our funding call has been exceptional and subsequent rounds will continue to align closely with NMIS priorities.
ICP is important because it helps accelerate world-leading materials research into real industrial and economic impact through direct collaboration. Materials innovation often struggles to move from laboratory discovery to commercial application, and ICP is specifically designed to bridge one element of this gap by aligning academic research with genuine industry needs.
The programme gives companies access to Royce’s unique combination of advanced facilities, specialist equipment, and leading academic and technical expertise across the UK. This is particularly valuable for SMEs, which might not otherwise have the resources to explore or de-risk new materials technologies.
By involving industry partners early in project design, the programme ensures research focuses on practical issues, such as manufacturability, scaleability and performance in real-world environments.
By sharing costs and reducing technical risk through Royce funding, the programme makes innovation more achievable for businesses. The impact has been clear – we’ve seen the development of exciting, new, usable technologies, enhanced skills, and increased investment into promising innovations.
Royce’s targeted Accelerator Programmes are a further clear demonstration of how the translation ambition set out in the NMIS is being delivered in practice.
The Royce Hydrogen Accelerator (RHA) and MATcelerate Zero are designed to move through and beyond proof-of-concept research and actively de-risk the innovation journey to commercialisation.
The RHA is designed to tackle materials challenges that are constraining the hydrogen supply chain. It bridges the gap in the existing innovation landscape between lab-based materials research and proven technologies executed at scale.
MATcelerate Zero applies a similar model to broad net-zero challenges, positioned slightly earlier in the commercialisation pathway, supporting groundbreaking innovations being developed within UK universities to progress to investable solutions.
Together, these accelerators address one of the central challenges highlighted in the NMIS, ensuring that the UK not only generates world-leading materials research, but captures its economic and societal value through effective translation into real-world impact.
A strategic approach to national resilience
The recent global context has made one thing abundantly clear – materials supply chains and technological capabilities are now central to national economic resilience. The NMIS directly addresses this by promoting:
- Stronger international partnerships to support strategic initiatives, set standards and secure global competitiveness.
- Enhanced visibility of UK capability, enabling better collaboration and alignment of government, academia and industry activities.
- Acceleration of commercialisation, ensuring UK breakthroughs are captured domestically rather than offshored.
- Increased private investment through coordinated national platforms.
These actions will help solidify the UK’s leadership in strategically vital technologies, from semiconductor materials to clean energy systems, while bolstering supply-chain security for decades to come. Although progress has been significant, there is more to do. Several priorities are already taking shape:
- Sustaining momentum and visibility – we must continue engaging politicians, regional authorities and industry partners to ensure materials remain at the forefront of UK innovation policy given its key role in the Industrial Strategy. This visibility is vital to secure long-term, coherent investment.
- Coordinating funding across government and UKRI – considerable materials funding exists across government departments, but we need a clearer national picture on our investment. Better alignment will maximise impact and help position materials as a strategic asset across the economy.
- Scaling industrial engagement – we are already seeing growing participation from SMEs and larger companies alike, with demonstrable economic benefits including revenue increases and job creation. But there is huge potential to expand industrial involvement, particularly among high-growth innovators. A key part of this will involve making better use of the fantastic assets across universities, institutes, catapults/research technology organisations and industry, and we must manage these in a more integrated manner to support our materials innovation community.
- Placing bigger bets – the UK must be prepared to make bold, coordinated investments in frontier materials technologies. The groundwork has been laid, now is the moment to step up ambition.
The NMIS represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The foundations are in place, the partnerships are strengthening, and the national momentum is real. But delivery will require coordinated effort and shared leadership across the entire materials community.
At Royce, we will continue to champion this agenda, driving research excellence and accelerating innovation with purpose. Together, we can ensure the UK remains a global leader in advanced materials and harness this capability to shape a cleaner, healthier and more resilient future.
