Henry Royce Institute – Access Schemes

Funding for academic-industry collaborative projects to explore innovative ideas with a focus on technology translation.

The UK National Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation – known as the Henry Royce Institute (Royce) – is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and supports world-leading excellence in UK materials research, accelerating commercial exploitation of innovations and delivering positive economic and societal impact for the UK.

Royce provides funding to enable SMEs and academics to access its portfolio of state-of-the-art materials science and engineering equipment. Royce funded access schemes are open to researchers and students based at UK academic institutions, Research Technology Organisations, and UK-based SMEs.

Proposed work packages should meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Development of new materials, systems or processes.
• Improving understanding of the performance or failure of materials or materials systems.
• A materials issue which is impacting the study in some way.
• Method development which would widen the scope of Royce’s capabilities.
• Alignment with any of the Royce Core Research Areas.

The following two routes are available:

• SME Equipment Access Scheme, to overcome cost barriers and de-risk experimental materials-based R&D; and complete proof of concept studies to help pave the way for future collaborations with Royce.
• Researcher and Student Equipment Access Schemes, to open up Royce facilities to the UK academic materials community, build relationships and develop future collaboration opportunities.