Wyn forwarded me an e-mail notice about an upcoming meeting, politely asking why we weren’t involved. The meeting is in fact organised by Nanocentral (one of the 23 MNT centres), the Chemistry KTN (one of the 24 Knowledge Transfer Networks), Chemicals Northwest and the Northwest Aerospace Alliance. This is where I play my “I’m actually a chemist too” card. The truth is that nanotechnology, as currently configured spans the traditional areas of engineering, materials science and chemistry – and then relies heavily for its ethos on physics! As such, I often find myself discussing routes to nano-materials which are completely chemical, applications which borrow from the macro and micro world, and underlying principles which ought to be physics, but where I can usually only manage physical chemistry.

Part of the fun to be had in this area of science and technology is the overlap of learning, insight and even prejudice that each of the more established disciplines demonstrates in its everyday existence and the challenge each area gets by interacting with the others. So, my response to this meeting is that it sounds interesting and relevant and, although it’s a shame the Materials community isn’t helping make it happen, that’s our problem not the meetings!! The other point to make is that (given the confusion often caused by Governments obsession with starting new things) here are 4 very different organisations who have recognised a shared interest and acted on it.

David

I met with the Materials and Structures National Advisory Committee last Monday at 1 Carlton Terrace. This is an interesting group. If you “Google” the name or the acronym, you will discover that they have been meeting for almost a decade and have produced some interesting papers on aspects of the use of materials. However, despite their obvious ownership by their community, they (along with others, I suspect) are confused by the current landscape. I gave the standard presentation on Materials UK and they asked lots of questions about the relationship between Materials UK, the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network, the Defence and Aerospace Knowledge Transfer Network and the overall goals of the Technology Strategy Board.

I stayed to hear a series of presentations about the environment and projects, learning about the complexity of European funding, the new way the Ministry of Defence is accessing basic research through a consortium of universities and companies and a (quite the best) techno-commercial analysis of the materials needed for the next generation of civil aircraft. I left with a feeling that we, along with many of the newly formed organisations ought to look carefully at this sort of group and realise that their longevity is the best measure of relevance to the community.

David