Tata Steel and the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering have launched a three-year research and innovation partnership aimed at increasing the use of sustainable and recycled materials in construction and manufacturing, with funding of nearly £2.9 million from the UK Government and Tata Steel.
The programme will receive almost £1.9 million from the UK Government and a further £1 million from Tata Steel. Winning projects will also receive funding equivalent to at least half the value of their grant, creating an additional route for research teams to develop and scale technologies that are close to industrial application.
The partnership will support grant holders in the UK and India from next April for three years. It is expected to fund up to 15 research and innovation projects, with individual grants ranging between £100,000 and £150,000. Each project will run for up to three years and will be co-led by a UK academic or research partner and an Indian counterpart.
The projects will be required to demonstrate a clear pathway towards industrial, entrepreneurial or wider practical impact. In addition to financial support, Tata Steel will provide industrial insight, mentorship from senior industry staff and access to laboratories and other facilities. The structure is intended to connect research more closely with the operational requirements of construction and manufacturing.
Subodh Pandey, Vice-President, Technology, R&D, NMB and Graphene at Tata Steel, said the UK Government’s support and the partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering would help move promising research towards industrial application. He said the collaboration would also build relationships to accelerate the adoption of more circular approaches to construction and manufacturing.
Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey and Chair of the Academy’s Transforming Systems through Partnership programme, said the initiative would support the development and deployment of solutions that could be scaled and applied in the real world. He said the programme was supported by relationships extending beyond individual projects.
The partnership will be delivered through the Academy’s Transforming Systems through Partnership programme. According to the information released, the programme has supported more than 300 collaborative projects over more than a decade, connecting universities and industry across the world and creating a network of more than 800 awardees.
The new collaboration brings together UK and Indian research, innovation and industrial capabilities around recycled materials. Its grant model combines public funding, corporate investment and industrial access, while requiring participating teams to work across the two countries. The next formal milestone will be the launch of support for grant holders from April, followed by the selection and implementation of projects over the three-year programme.
