Connecting industry with new polymer technology

The Polymer Centre offers a range of opportunities designed to fit in with your business needs:

Short term solutions

Undergraduate and MSc projects: are very cost effective, and allow you to probe new territory without having to change company policy, but these projects are tied to the academic calendar.

Bespoke R&D projects: offer cover for more immediate issues, and can be undertaken as part of consultancy, or through the medium of small research or testing contracts.

Grant for R&D (ex-'SMART'): fully funded grants are available for SME's (and larger industries through YFIRD) to support research and development of technologically innovative products. Typically these projects are £20k and run for 12 months.

FaraPack Polymers Ltd: undertakes short to medium term proof-of-concept and trouble-shooting work supported by the expertise and facilities of the Polymer Centre. Having its own staff, FaraPack can offer very fast response times for a range of smaller projects.

FaraPack Polymers Ltd

Demonstrator projects

Testing and analysis

Longer term partnerships

Undergraduate 'Year in Industry', sponsoring an undergraduate student offers access to facilities and expertise, while assisting the University in its training duties. This makes this a very cost effective option for gaining access to services.

PhD Project - three years, but may be joint funded with a research council.

Funded Postdoctoral researcher - typically six months to 2 years. Funding a contract research officer can give you a highly competent interface with the Centre's facilities and expertise.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (was 'TCS')

Collaborative projects share costs and risks between partners (such as the DTI or EC, as well as commercial partners) giving an opportunity for greater innovation.

Contact us if you would like to discuss the possibilites of a longer term pertnership:

Contact page

Summary of our strengths

As part of the Polymer IRC, our focus and direction is driven by our Industrial Club members.

Since 2001 the Polymer Centre has handled hundreds of specific enquiries on aspects of polymer science and technology for industry. We have established revenue streams for consultancy and testing (>£100k in 2005), as well as major project successes (totalling in excess of £400k in 2005). There have been a number of spin out companies, with 20 further technologies 'in the pipeline' to be commercialised.

Commercial assessment system

We have considerable experience dealing harmoniously with Intellectual Property Rights issues.

We are a primary training and information source for the Polymer Industry, with a database of over 1300 contacts in the area, tens of established short courses which have attracted hundreds of delegates in the last few years.