Smart Competition Workshop - Rotherham

Creating smart products from smart materials

Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will invest up to £6m in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects to encourage the development of smart products that use a combination of functional, hybrid and multiple materials.

A smart product is one that responds autonomously to stimuli in the environment to produce a beneficial action, which is usually reversible. To be in scope, projects must involve the development of a smart product, or the enhancement of an existing product with the addition of smart properties. Projects should last between 1 and 3 years, with project costs in the range £500,000 to £1m.

As a minimum, projects must include three organisations, including a material supplier and at least one end-user. We hope businesses will seek to work with material specialists within research organisations to address some of the manufacturing challenges we have outlined.