Nano Carbon Enhanced Materials (NCEM) Consortium
Commercialisation of carbon nanotechnologies has the potential to drive innovative and competitive industry change by enabling key advances in many manufacturing sectors such as energy, automotive, aerospace, construction, electronics and biotechnology. The Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials (NCEM) consortium has been put forward by the Centre for Business Innovation Ltd (www.cfbi.com) in order to provide the consortium members a unique inside into carbon nanotechnologies and an opportunity to address commercialisation challenges. The consortium leader is Dr Bojan Boskovic from Cambridge Nanomaterials Technology Ltd.
Prof. Alan Windle from University of Cambridge addressing delegates at the NCEM-1 dinner in Cambridge.
The Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials (NCEM) consortium is an opportunity to engage with leading companies in the supply chain and leading world class experts in a commercialisation pathfinder programme for a small fraction of time and total costs of alternatives such as consultancy, meetings, workshops and conferences. The use of nano-carbon materials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene is a rapidly evolving field and this is an opportunity to influence where it goes and how fast. The mission of the consortium is to facilitate the commercial uptake of technologies based on nano-carbon materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes and it brings together potential users from defense, energy, electronics, structural materials, and metal industries with a shared interest in understanding the challenges and opportunities of nano-carbon disruptive technologies. The aim of the consortium is to provide discussion platform and a vehicle for action regarding collaborative R&D, supply chain building, H&S, regulatory and other issues related to commercialisation of carbon nanomaterials.
The 1st NCEM consortium (NCEM-1) launch was in April 2012 in Cambridge, UK. The consortium has been running for seven years (series) NCEM-1 to NCEM-7 .
The NCEM consortium members include: University of Cambridge (UK); Nokia Research Centre (UK); ST Microelectronics (Italy); International Copper Association (USA); Nexans (France); Bosch (Germany); Codelco (Chile), Thales UK (UK), National Grid (UK), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), Stattnet (Norway), Schneider Electric (France), Arup (UK), Rolls-Royce (UK), BOSE (US), Tecnalia (Spain), Jonson Matthey (UK), Prysmian (Italy), Arcelor Mittal (Spain), NISSAN (Japan), General Electric (US) .
NCEM-1 delegates at Downing College Cambridge.
The 1st NCEM-1 (NCEM-1.1) meeting was in Downing College Cambridge, UK on 19th April 2012 with an opening dinner at Trinity Hall, Cambridge on 18th April 2012. The NCEM-1 Cambridge meeting delegates and consortium members were addressed by leading academics from University of Cambridge and experts in the field of nano-carbon materials: Prof. Bill Milne from Department of Engineering who gave presentation about nano-carbon electronics and Prof. Alan Windle from Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy who presented scientific advances and commercialisation challenges related to carbon nanotube fibre technology.
Malcolm Burwell from International Copper Association commented after the 1st NCEM consortium meeting:
“We all felt that the value obtained from the single meeting that we just had justified the yearly fees on its own.”
NCEM-1 Cambridge meeting.
NCEM-1 Edinburgh meeting venue
Dr Kyle Kissell, Technology Development Director from NanoRidge Materials commented after the NCEM-1 meeting in Edinburgh:
“I believe that consortia like this are a critical step towards bridging the gap between extraordinary science and products commercialization. We feel privileged to be invited to speak to a group that is interested in DOING something as opposed to just TALKING about something. The connections we created during the two days of interactions will be crucial for the success of our products and our company.”
The consortium submitted EC FP7 UltraWire project proposals in December 2012 that includes 4 consortium members and 2 of the organisations that provided speakers. The UltraWire project has been awarded a grant of €3.3M by the EC and it started on 1st October 2013.
For further details and information how to join the consortium please contact Dr Bojan Boskovic who is a leader of the consortium: Bojan.Boskovic@cnt-ltd.co.uk or Bojan.Boskovic@cfbi.com.