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<p>The UK Government currently invests well over £100 million in graphene research,
training and innovation. This includes £50m Government capital investment to build
national capability to support the commercialisation of applications for graphene
(pledged by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in October 2011), £34m
for graphene innovation capability and over £24m in EPSRC research and training grants
across UK universities.</p><p>The National Graphene Institute (NGI) at the University
of Manchester is a key element of the UK’s global research and technology graphene
hub to build national capability to support the commercialisation of applications
for graphene. The NGI is a resource for research groups and businesses across the
UK to facilitate collaborative work where appropriate. It has received funding of
£38 million of the £50m capital funds from the UK Government via the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), alongside £23 million of funds from the
European Regional Development Fund to help accelerate the commercialisation of graphene.
The NGI was officially opened by the Chancellor, the Rt Hon George Osborne, on 20
March 2015.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>UK Government funding for the NGI</p></td><td><p>
</p><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p> </p><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p> </p><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>
</p><p>2014/15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Capital</p></td><td><p>£1.35m</p></td><td><p>£2.33m</p></td><td><p>£22.64m</p></td><td><p>£11.68m</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>More than 35 companies from across the world have already chosen to partner
with The University of Manchester working on graphene-related projects. University
of Manchester researchers have also secured £9.5 million from EPSRC for ‘Graphene
Engineering’ research projects and a Centre for Doctoral Training focussed on developing
world-leading expertise in the science and technology of graphene.</p><p>In 2014,
Innovate UK and EPSRC invested £2.5m in feasibility studies to accelerate commercial
applications of graphene. The competition invested in projects that explored the potential
of graphene to yield new products that could disrupt markets.</p><p>To build UK capacity
in this area, £34m has been invested into graphene innovation capability. In 2014,
£20m funding was announced (including £15m from HEFCE UK Research Partnership Investment
Fund and £5m from Innovate UK) towards a £60m investment in Manchester called the
Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), which is co-funded by the Abu Dhabi-based
renewable energy company Masdar. UK Trade and Investment worked alongside Manchester
City Council and the University of Manchester to secure this investment. Set to open
in Manchester in 2017, the GEIC will complement the NGI and initiate further industry-led
development in graphene applications with academic collaboration. The GEIC will contain
substantial pilot production facilities and will be a leading test-bed for graphene
process engineering and scale-up. It will link with international programmes for research
project support, such as the €1 billion European Union Graphene Flagship.</p><p> </p><p>Also
in 2014, the Chancellor announced a £14 million investment for a “Graphene Applications
Innovation Centre” to be based at the Centre for Process Innovation in the north-east
of England (part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult).</p><p>Subject to the availability
of funding following the Spending Review, Innovate UK intends to further support business-led
innovation in graphene by running competitions to accelerate the commercial applications
of graphene. An efficient, longer-lasting ‘graphene lightbulb’, developed by a University
of Manchester spin-out company, is believed to be the first commercial application
of graphene to emerge from the UK.</p><p>In 2014, Innovate UK set up a Graphene Special
Interest Group (SIG) to provide leadership and a focal point for the exploitation
of graphene by UK industry and to help connect and align the developing UK graphene
value chain. A scoping document produced for the Graphene SIG examined time to market
for key graphene-enabled technologies, it can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://connect.innovateuk.org/documents/10660253/14368155/Graphene%20Think%20Piece_Oct2013"
target="_blank">https://connect.innovateuk.org/documents/10660253/14368155/Graphene%20Think%20Piece_Oct2013</a></p><p>The
table below shows the number of published patent applications in the UK (filed by
applicants based anywhere in the world) and the total number worldwide.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td>
</td><td><p>UK publications</p></td><td><p>Total Worldwide publications</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>13</p></td><td><p>2209</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>36</p></td><td><p>4573</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>62</p></td><td><p>7361</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>59</p></td><td><p>9203</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) does not hold worldwide patent data
so this has been extracted from an external database, as used in the IPO’s 2015 graphene
patent landscape report available from</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419651/Graphene_-_the_worldwide_patent_landscape_in_2015_-_accessible.pdf"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419651/Graphene_-_the_worldwide_patent_landscape_in_2015_-_accessible.pdf</a></p>
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