1,500 delegates attend 10th anniversary event
Published: 17 June, 2024
Over 1500 innovators, academics and industry representatives attended this year’s Materials Research Exchange (MRE), marking the event’s 10th anniversary.
Organised and hosted by Innovate UK, alongside its partners, the event showcased the latest developments in the world of materials through four flagship events:
• Circular Critical Materials Conference
• Reimagining Materials and Manufacturing Showcase
• GRIPS Conference
• Investor Showcase
Covering a range of material innovations, the key events featured presentations and panel discussions across biomaterials, nanotechnology, textiles, polymers, metal and glass, including the challenges facing these industries and the initiatives looking to revolutionise these sectors.
Robert Quarshie, Director of Technologies & Healthy Living and Materials lead at Innovate UK Business Connect, says, “Our ambition for MRE has always been to provide a platform that catalyses change. This year’s event marked an important milestone, having facilitated this change across ten successful events, resulting in our biggest and most successful event to date.
“With so much innovation across the UK’s foundational industries, these events play a critical role in linking R&D projects with UK product manufacturers and investors, a relationship that is crucial to the successful adoption of new industry innovations.
“I would like to thank both the Innovate UK team and our excellent partners for making MRE 2024 such a great success and look forward to organising these events for years to come.”
Professor Dave Knowles, CEO of the Royce Institute, also reflects on this year’s event, “Once again, the Materials Research Exchange provided the platform to come together as a materials community to exchange knowledge, explore problem-solving and importantly, meet-face to-face to have the conversations that spur new opportunities.
“We were delighted to present the entire Royce Partnership through what has become known as the “Royce Village”, and through our session on the first day, to demonstrate how Royce is accelerating the development and take-up of new materials systems that meet societal challenges – from clean energy generation to combating plastics pollution.
“I was also pleased to have the opportunity to present a keynote on the progress of the National Materials Innovation Strategy – using the event as a platform to highlight the economic impact which materials innovation has in the UK, and the need to accelerate the innovations which will have a major impact on national productivity.”
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