Pollard, A; Castro, F; Edwards, G; Gee, M; Giannis, S; Kitchen, S; Williams, J (2024) Advanced Materials Metrology Strategy. Other.

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Abstract

Advanced materials are a cross-cutting technology that impacts all aspects of our lives, such as green energy, advanced medicines, quantum technologies and the future of telecommunications. The manufacturing of raw advanced materials contributes approximately £14.4 billion in GVA to the UK economy and is critical for innovation in all manufacturing sectors. Despite the increasing global investment in advanced materials, the pace of innovation across a supply chain is often limited by confidence in a material’s technology readiness level. For instance, this may be in the reproducibility of the enhanced performance of an advanced material measured in an academic research environment, or in the measurement data that demonstrates safety to consumers and to the environment. Robust metrology provides that confidence, reducing investment risk and enabling innovation and commercialisation of advanced materials. As the pace of innovation accelerates and new and more complex materials become available, there is a growing need to develop the materials metrology capability required to accelerate the uptake of advanced materials and provide competitive advantage to UK companies in the global market.

This Advanced Materials Metrology Strategy has been developed through in-depth review of UK and international strategies for advanced materials and metrology, and a comprehensive series of stakeholder interviews. It identifies how critical drivers of change, including the energy and the digital transitions, require innovation in measurement capability and a new approach to delivering the UK materials metrology infrastructure.
Major trends in materials metrology have been identified and categorised under two broad themes:
• Measurements at the Frontiers: As materials become more complex and are used in different and challenging conditions, metrology needs to adapt to allow measurements at multiple scales (from the very small to the very large, from ultra-fast processes to long term changes) and under complex conditions that mimic those in real-world applications
• Smart and Interconnected Metrology: Single measurement methods are often insufficient to fully characterise advanced materials. Measurements will need to become smarter and more interconnected through the concept of hybrid metrology, combining multiple measurement techniques and advanced data fusion to extract more information and with higher confidence than can be currently achieved using individual methods.
These trends will allow efficient implementation of digital and virtual testing, fast materials informatics innovation and robust selection of advanced materials. All of this will support disruptive innovation across multiple industries, all the while reducing environmental impact.

This document also provides three key recommendations to enable UK competitiveness in this important area and to both underpin the UK’s science superpower status and enable economic growth in a sector requiring a highly skilled workforce. These are that the UK should establish:
• a national centre for materials verification and assurance, bringing together materials metrology, materials science, and industry expertise
• a nationwide materials database to empower innovation through materials informatics and the digitally driven design-make-test-use cycle
• a strategy and funding framework to maintain UK leadership in international materials metrology with the aim to target and influence the development of standards, codes and regulation of emerging technologies based on advanced materials.

Item Type:	Report/Guide (Other)
Subjects:	Advanced Materials
Divisions:	Chemical & Biological Sciences
Identification number/DOI:	10.47120/npl.9944
Last Modified:	28 Jun 2024 09:21
URI:	http://eprintspublications.npl.co.uk/id/eprint/9944

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