​A new research hub based at the University of Manchester has been opened with over £105 million of investment as part of a public and private partnership. It will carry out advanced research into materials and renewable solutions for sustainable materials, digital fabrication and more.

The plan is that it will help to stimulate innovation in these areas, particularly in the development of more sustainable material choices as well as biomedical materials research for an industry that has historically produced vast amounts of landfill waste.

The Hub will host state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, allowing the commercialisation of these innovative new advanced materials to occur far faster and with far more rapid industry engagement.

The CEO of UK Research and Innovation, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said that the Henry Royce Institute Hub would provide a fantastic new facility and hub for these vital development areas, housing 400 researchers on the process.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, has also welcomed the new facility, saying that the UK is already a leader in advanced materials development and manufacturing and that the new hub will help the UK to take its Innovation Strategy further and capitalise on the country's existing advantage in this exciting growth area.

The Hub has been government-backed and developed in partnership with the university and a host of private investors. Now fully operational, it will help to create exciting new technologies that will transform the renewables industry, life sciences and others.

Universities play a vital role in taking the global renewables industry forward, with a new Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland being granted £20 million of public funding to take industrial carbonization solutions forward to commercial reality, tackling the issues of business emissions and waste head-on.