Synergy is our flagship enabling platform for businesses seeking to solve complex chemistry challenges through collaboration
We know that early in the innovation process companies often face very risky and uncertain challenges that need to be overcome.
We also know that many chemistry-based problems exist across industries and sectors.
By bringing together companies who face similar issues, we can create new opportunities for collaboration to solve them:
- Reducing the R&D risks for individual businesses
- Accelerating innovation and bringing new solutions to market
- Helping companies access our network of chemistry experts and knowledge bank
How does it work?
For each topic that we explore through the programme, we will:
- Create a safe environment for businesses to explore collaboration
- Use rigorous processes to define common goals and objectives
- Bring in experts from our chemistry community to create new solutions
Through collaboration, we can create a strong voice for informing, influencing and engaging the wider community to generate action.
Current topics that we are working on are:
Do you have an idea of what to explore next?
We are looking for new topics to explore in 2020 that:
- Are relevant to multiple industries and sectors
- Are complex chemical-science based challenges
- Businesses are able to collaborate on
Email us your topic ideas.
Current topics and work in-progress
Corrosion
Corrosion is a natural phenomenon fundamentally caused by a chemical reaction between a material surface and its environment.
“The annual global cost of corrosion was estimated at $2.5 trillion – that’s about 3.4% GDP (2013).”
Industry have well established research and development programmes in place to understand corrosion processes and as a whole, our capability to predict, control and mitigate corrosion is improving. However, environmental and health and safety risks remain high when failures occur due to corrosion.
Materials that industry use and the environments that they are used in are changing and diversifying as businesses innovate. Therefore reducing the impact of corrosion remains a strategic importance at every scale: from the performance of nano-devices to optimum use of natural resources.
Key dates for 2019
- In April, we will identify the cross-sector focus area with businesses
- In October, we will explore the challenge with experts and identify new opportunities for collaboration.
Email us to find out more.
A Circular Economy for polymers in liquid formulations
Polymers are widely used in liquid formulations as thickeners, emulsifiers and coatings. However industry often source these materials from fossil-derived feedstocks, and they enter waste streams at the end of their life. In light of the growing sustainability agenda, there is growing interest in the environmental footprint of these materials.
In 2018, we built a cohort of experts from industry and academia to identify new opportunities for collaboration.
We identified four clear opportunities to investigate further:
- Modification and development of new monomers and polymers
- Models and methods to design sustainable materials
- Scale up of sustainable monomers
- Recovery and reuse of polymers
Download a copy of our report here: