From Discovery to Impact: How Graphene is Transforming Innovation
About this Event
Most breakthrough science never leaves the building it was discovered in.
Graphene did.
In Manchester, a discovery that began in a university lab now has an industrial address - cleanrooms, pilot lines, formulation labs and prototype rigs and companies putting advanced-materials products into the real world.
That didn't happen by accident. It happened because Manchester built an entire ecosystem around the science to carry it from discovery, through development and scale-up, into commercial products.
On Tuesday 6 October, we're opening it up.
This isn't a lecture about what graphene is
It's a morning about what happens after a discovery - the part almost nobody gets to see.
How does a promising material become a manufacturable product? Who de-risks it? Who funds it? What breaks along the way? And what does a university actually have to build for that journey to be possible at all?
You don't need to be a materials scientist to get value from this. If you're responsible for R&D, product, innovation, investment or growth, the story is about the route - and the route is the same whatever technology you're trying to commercialise.
What you'll see
The ecosystem, end to end. The National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) sit at either end of the same pipeline - fundamental research at one, technology development and industrial scale-up at the other. You'll hear how the two connect, from the people who run them.
Three companies who've made the journey. Hollowgraf, PhovIR and Ardhann each take fifteen minutes to tell it straight: what they set out to do, what it took, and where they are now. No abstracts, no theory - three working case studies of advanced materials solving commercial problems.
The commercialisation conversation, honestly. A panel bringing together the GEIC, the NGI, the University of Manchester Innovation Factory and the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, with an industry and investor perspective in the room. Between them they cover the parts that usually stay behind closed doors: IP, funding, partnership models, and why good technology stalls.
The facilities themselves. The morning closes with technology demonstrations and guided tours - a genuine look inside the infrastructure that turns 2D materials research into industry-ready products, alongside an hour of networking with the researchers, engineers, founders and investors who work in it every day.
Why this matters now
Manchester's graphene story is one of the clearest examples anywhere of a university-born discovery becoming a working innovation economy - research, translation, scale-up, spinouts, investment and industrial adoption, built deliberately over two decades on one campus.
For any organisation trying to bring an emerging technology to market, or looking for a partner who can help them do it, that's not a case study to read about. It's one to walk through.
Register
Places are limited by the capacity of the facilities, and the tours and demonstrations are only possible in small groups.
Register now to secure your place.
Agenda
🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:30 AM
Registration, Coffee & Technology Showcase
Host: NGI & GEIC
Info: The showcase gives you a first look at graphene and 2D materials technologies in application, with the teams behind them on hand.
🕑: 09:30 AM - 09:40 AM
Welcome to the Innovation Festival
Host: UoM & Unit M
Info: How this morning fits into Manchester's wider innovation ambition and the University's Innovation Festival.
🕑: 09:40 AM - 10:00 AM
Why Manchester? From Graphene Discovery to a Global Innovation Ecosystem
Host: John Whittaker
Info: The deliberate decisions, investment and infrastructure that turned a single discovery into a global centre for advanced materials innovation.
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM
From Research to Reality: Connecting Discovery, Development and Scale-Up
Host: NGI & GEIC
Info: How research, technology development and industrial scale-up actually hand off to one another - and what that pipeline offers a business with a problem to solve.
🕑: 10:20 AM - 11:05 AM
From Technology to Impact: Industry Success Stories
Info: Three 15-minute case studies The heart of the morning: three companies on what it takes to get an advanced-materials product into the real world.
- Hollowgraf
- PhovIR
- Ardhann
🕑: 11:05 AM - 11:35 AM
From Innovation to Commercialisation: Making the Journey Happen Panel
Info: GEIC, NGI, University of Manchester Innovation Factory and the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, with an industry and investor perspective IP, funding, partnership and investment - the practical mechanics of commercialisation, and the honest version of what makes it work.
🕑: 11:35 AM - 12:30 PM
Networking, Technology Demonstrations & Facility Tours
Host: NGI / GEIC
Info: See the technology working, walk the facilities, and meet the researchers, engineers, founders and investors who make the ecosystem run.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
