Today I met with the Materials Chemistry Forum. I have to declare an interest here. Having trained as a polymer scientist I can claim membership of both the Chemistry and Materials Communities – a fact that is useful when the Christmas parties come around. I have been involved with the Royal Society of Chemistry for many years now and spent some time as President of the Industry and Technology Forum. So, when I got an invitation from Professor Duncan Bruce, the current Chair of the Materials Chemistry Forum, I felt a strong drive to agree. The breadth of the Materials community means that you can understand the complex relationship between molecular structure and basic materials properties or you can know how to use materials to build structures – and everything in between. I described how Materials UK had come about and what we are trying to do and got nods of agreement that we were tackling the right areas, but not much recognition that we existed. Over the last few months, I have spoken to groups associated with the original Materials Innovation and Growth Team or the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network that was set up at the same time as Materials UK and, obviously, there has been recognition of our existence and a desire to work together. That there are still important groups out there in “materials world” who don’t know what we do or whether we exist is a new challenge for us to address. I am reminded of the wise words an ex-boss once told me, “you can tell somebody something, you can tell them again and again, but only when you are sick of telling them are they beginning to hear you!”. Communications is all about constancy and consistency and never about finishing!

David