Imperial College London and Rio Tinto launch US$150mln materials hub

The British university and international miner are partnering on the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials.

The programme is aimed to develop new sustainable techniques and technologies to deliver the materials necessary for the energy transition.

The British Government welcomes it as a 'major vote of confidence in the UK.'

Rio Tinto will invest the capital into the Centre over the next 10 years, to connect top researchers with industry to transform materials sourcing, processing, use and recycling to be more sustainable in every way.

The UK Government’s recent Industrial Strategy Green Paper identifies clean energy industries as a key growth-driving sector and sketches its ambitions to make the UK 'a clean energy superpower'.

The Centre will act as a hub for collaboration with other leading global institutions, bringing together four new academic partners: the University of British Columbia in Canada, the University of California in the US, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the Australian National University.

Professor Mary Ryan FIMMM, Vice Provost (Research and Enterprise) at Imperial, says, 'The scale up of electrification needed for the energy transition requires a step-change in the production, supply and utilisation of a whole host of critical materials. It will require us to think about both the technology and the economics around the materials supply chain in new ways.

'The Centre will drive cutting-edge, industry-facing research that enables new systems-level and blue sky thinking. This approach is at the heart of Imperial’s strategy.'