Partners

Centre for Process Innovation (“CPI”)

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is a UK-based technology innovation centre and the process arm of the government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult. Established to support the UK process manufacturing industry, CPI collaborates with universities, SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and large corporates to help overcome innovation challenges and develop next-generation products and processes.

CPI has helped over 2,000 companies develop new products and processes, 53% of these companies are SMEs. CPI has over £73m of open access development and prototyping facilities and over 290 staff at four facilities in North East England; it has completed over 500 projects with a value in excess of £300m.

The CPI’s Graphene Applications Innovation Centre (“GAIC”) opened for business in Spring 2016 at NETPark in Sedgefield, County Durham. Created by the UK government and funded by Innovate UK, GAIC helps companies to develop, prove and commercialise products using graphene technologies. It offers access to scale-up capability in the development of graphene, printable and formulation-based products, and provides a joined-up approach in materials development, technology, scale-up and applications integration, bringing together the entire value chain for innovative graphene-based technologies. GAIC has an experienced team of scientists and dedicated facilities for functionalising, mixing and processing graphene, with an emphasis on volume scale-up and safe working practices. GAIC integrates with CPI’s existing printable electronics and formulation centre in NETPark, which focuses on developing nano-scale devices and testing nano-membranes/sensors for energy and electronics applications.

Co-development partner

GCL and CPI have signed joint development agreements to develop graphene/aerogel nano-composites. Collaborations and contracts with other third-party organisations (e.g. mechanical testers to validate the technology, roll manufacturers and composite assemblers for further product development) are also being jointly discussed.

Intellectual Property Rights (IP)

With the exception of some government-funded contracts where CPI can have access to the intellectual property (IP) developed, all of the IP developed in these joint development projects will be owned by GCL. All commercial rights are owned by GCL.

Use of CPI facilities/equipment crucial to GCL’s development and profitability

The fact that GCL can, with the proper agreements in place, gain access to state of the art equipment, facilities and personnel is crucial to both GCL’s product development strategy and its future profitability. GCL can leverage not only CPI’s £14m budget in graphene development and the overall £73m+ in facilities and equipment (which would otherwise need to be funded by GCL), it can also gain access to the expertise of 290+ scientists and other personnel with directly relevant technical and commercial experience. Indeed, helping small UK companies develop their ideas into commercially viable products is a key part of the CPI’s charter.