The Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials (NCEM) consortium provides an opportunity to engage with leading companies in the supply chain and leading world class experts in a commercialisation pathfinder programme for a small fraction of time and total costs of alternatives such as consultancy, meetings, workshops and conferences. The use of nano-carbon materials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene is a rapidly evolving field and this is an opportunity to influence where it goes and how fast. The mission of the consortium is to facilitate the commercial uptake of technologies based on nano-carbon materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes and it brings together potential users from defense, energy, electronics, structural materials, and metal industries with a shared interest in understanding the challenges and opportunities of nano-carbon disruptive technologies. The aim of the consortium is to provide discussion platform and a vehicle for action regarding collaborative R&D, supply chain building, H&S, regulatory and other issues related to commercialisation of carbon nanomaterials.
The 1st NCEM-1 Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials Consortium (NCEM-1) has been launched in Downing College Cambridge, UK on 19th April 2012 with an opening dinner at Trinity Hall, Cambridge on 18th April 2012. The NCEM-1 Cambridge meeting delegates and consortium members were addressed by leading academics from University of Cambridge and experts in the field of nano-carbon materials: Prof. Bill Milne from Department of Engineering who gave presentation about nano-carbon electronics and Prof. Alan Windle and Dr. Krzysztof Koziol from Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy who presented scientific advances and commercialisation challenges related to carbon nanotube fibre technology. The NCEM-1 consortium members form Nokia Research Centre (UK) and International Copper Association also gave presentation about their vision and challenges related to commercialisation of nano-carbon technologies in mobile electronics and copper metal composite applications.
Malcolm Burwell from International Copper Association commented after the 1st NCEM consortium meeting “We all felt that the value obtained from the single meeting that we just had justified the yearly fees on its own.”
The 2nd meeting of the 1st Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials (NCEM-1) consortium has taken place in Dalmahoy Marriott Hotel and Country Club in Edinburgh. The morning session started with the "Masterclass in NanoSafety: The health, safety & business risks in nanotechnology innovation and how they can be addressed" delivered by Dr Steve Hankin and Dr Craig Poland from the Institute of Occupational Medicine from Edinburg in Scotland. This has been followed by the panel discussion. After the lunch the meeting delegates would have an opportunity to hear Dr Kyle Kissell, Director of Technology Development from NanoRidge, USA who presented recent development to incorporate highly conductive carbon nanotubes into copper metal that resulted in a composite material with superior properties, higher electrical conductivity and increased current carrying capacity, as compared to conventional copper. His presentation has be followed by presentation from Dr Francesco Bonaccorso from University of Cambridge about graphene applications in electronics and an update about European FP7 NMP 2013 call for collaborative R&D proposals.
Dr Kyle Kissell, Technology Development Director from NanoRidge Materials commented after the 2nd NCEM meeting “I believe that consortia like this are a critical step towards bridging the gap between extraordinary science and products commercialization. We feel privileged to be invited to speak to a group that is interested in DOING something as opposed to just TALKING about something. The connections we created during the two days of interactions will be crucial for the success of our products and our company.”
Dr Anna Gergely from Steptoe & Johnson LLP co-hosted the 3rd NCEM-1 meeting in Brussels. She also presented an insight into nanomaterials related regulations in the EU at the meeting. The guest speakers were Dr David Arthur CEO of the SWeNT in the US one of the leading SWNT producers and Dr Peter Krueger, Head of Working Group Nanotechnology, Bayer MaterialScience, Germany. Peter is also leading Inno.CNT €90M German Government supported programme about carbon nanotube commercialisation. Christos Tokamanis who is Head of Nano Sciences and Technologies at the European Commission in Brussels gave a presentation about FP7 NMP Theme and an insight into nanotechnologies and nanomaterials within a new Horizont2020.
The NCEM-1 consortium members are: University of Cambridge (UK); Nokia Research Centre (UK); ST Microelectronics (Italy); International Copper Association (USA); Nexans (France); Bosch (Germany); Codelco (Chile), Thales UK (UK), National Grid (UK), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Arup (UK).
After the Brussels meeting the consortium
prepared and submitted EC FP7 UltraWire project proposals in December 2012
that includes 4 consortium members and 2 of the organisations that provided
speakers. The UltraWire project has been awarded a grant of €3.3M by the EC
and it started on 1st October 2013.
Ivica Kolaric and his team from Fraunhofer IPA in
Stuttgart were co-hosting the 4th NCEM-1 (NCEM-1.4) meeting
on 27th and 28thFebruary 2013 and also provided us with an insight into
carbon nanomaterials related research activities at Fraunhofer IPA including
carbon nanotube metal composites and graphene supercapacitors. The NCEM-1.4
meeting delegates were given a tour of the Fraunhofer IPA laboratories. Dr
Andre Zimmermann from Bosch in Stuttgart introduced Bosch Group and give
presentation about potential and challenges of polymers in electronics.
Jesus de la Fuente, CEO of Graphenea from San Sebastian in Spain presented
graphene manufacturing activities at Graphenea. Stefano Borini from Nokia
Resercah Centre in Cambridge gave a presentation of graphene technology for
future portable devices and give an update of Nokia'a activities regarding
graphene including Graphene Flagship programme. Dr Bojan Boskovic, NCEM
Programme Director, gave an update of consortium activities including
success with the EC FP7 UltraWire project proposal entering the EC
negotiation stage.
Dr Chris Keely and his team and the CRANN, Trinity
College Dublin were co-hosting the 5th NCEM-1 (NCEM-1.5)
meeting on 15th and 16th April 2013 in Dublin and providing delegates with
an insight into nano-carbon enhanced materials related research activities
at the CRANN. Dr Georg Duesberg from CRANN talked about latest research in
carbon based nano-structures for electronic and energy devices. Dr Ryan
Enright from Alcatel Lucent Bell labs Ireland talked about role of
nanoscience in advanced thermal management from ICT/Telecom perspective. Dr
Andy Goodwin gave an overview of carbon nanomaterial production and research
activities at Thomas Swan & Co. Mark Bowers from Arup talked about
carbon nanomaterial applications in construction industry and role of Arup.
Malcolm Burwell from Copper Industry Association gave an update on
development of ultraconductive copper-carbon nanotube composites.
The 2nd NCEM
consortium (NCEM-2)
started with the first meeting (NCEM-2.1) in Nokia Research
Centre in Cambridge on 10th July 2013 and an opening dinner at the Trinity
Hall College on 9th July. The NCEM-2.1 Cambridge meeting co-organisers from
Nokia gave presentation about Nokia Research Centre and nano-carbon related
research activities including Graphene Flagship Programme. Dr Karl
Coleman, CTO and Claudio Marinelli, Business Development Director from
Durham Graphene Science (DGS) presented graphene manufacturing capacities,
and discussed plans and opportunities for collaboration with DGS. Dr Krystof
Koziol from Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University
of Cambridge gave an update on his research activities including information
about the FP7 UltraWire project. Dr Haider Butt from Department of
Engineering at the University of Cambridge gave a presentation about optical
holograms based on carbon nanotubes. Adam Green from the National Grid gave
an overview about National Grid and opportunities for use of nano-carbon
materials in electrical energy transmission applications.
@C4BI