Industry partners are invited to attend the sandpit and develop projects as a partner, but are not eligible for EPSRC funding through this opportunity.

To receive grant funding, you must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding.  We expect between three and eight projects, up to 33 months, will be funded, sharing up to £7.12 million. EPSRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost.

We welcome expressions of interest from industry to attend the sandpit and develop projects as a partner at the sandpit. The post sandpit submissions should accurately represent projects and teams assembled at the sandpit. Where skills gaps were identified and discussed at the sandpit, researchers or other parties, including non-academic project partners, can be added to successful projects with approval from the mentors at the sandpit.

We will provide accommodation during the sandpit, however, you must make your own travel arrangements.

This sandpit is residential. Where employers cannot help, EPSRC, in line with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) policy, will cover the costs of any additional childcare or caring responsibilities, which is deemed necessary during this period.

This funding forms part of the National Materials Innovation Programme (NMIP) announced as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. The NMIP aims to establish a nationally coordinated approach to the UK advanced materials sector, driving the translation and adoption of materials across key industrial sectors.

The National Materials Innovation Strategy identified the transition to a digital enabled materials sector as a core-cross cutting theme, Materials 4.0. This is synergistic with the digital materials research area that applies digital technologies to the design, development, characterisation and lifecycle management of materials. It integrates computational tools, automation and data-driven approaches to accelerate innovation and lower costs associated with bringing materials to market and improve sustainability across the sector. The objective of Materials 4.0 is to enable information to flow effectively across the entire materials lifecycle creating a connected digital ecosystem supporting innovation from initial discovery through to end-of-life recovery and end-use.

In recent years there has been extensive investment in development of digital approaches focused on materials research activity. However, materials data remain fragmented across organisations and stages of the lifecycle, often lacking common metadata, clear provenance, agreed quality metrics and the interoperability needed to support digital threads, advanced analytics and AI-driven decision-making.

EPSRC are inviting applicants to attend a four-day sandpit to deliver innovative, multidisciplinary and transformative approaches to the challenges and opportunities of integrating digital methods to accelerate the translation of materials research.

The sandpit will be a residential, interactive and intensive workshop that brings together a multidisciplinary cohort of participants, including researchers and potential users of research outcomes. Working collaboratively, participants will develop innovative approaches to address the complex research challenges towards Materials 4.0.

The sandpit will be overseen by a director, supported by a team of mentors. The director and mentors will participate throughout the workshop but will not be eligible to receive research funding. Their role is to guide participants, challenge assumptions, and support the identification and exploration of key research opportunities and challenges.

By the end of the sandpit, you are expected to have developed a number of collaborative project proposals. The director and mentors will act as independent reviewers, assessing the emerging projects and making recommendations for funding.

Following the sandpit, project leads and project co-leads of proposals recommended for funding will be invited to submit a full application. These applications will undergo assessment by the sandpit panel, comprising the director and mentors, to ensure that the submitted applications remain aligned with the vision, scope and objectives of the projects presented during the sandpit.

The sandpit process can be broken down into several stages, these are:

• defining the scope of any research to address the challenges and opportunities from applying digital approaches to materials innovation
• cultivating a common language and terminologies amongst people from a diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines
• sharing understandings of the challenges, and the expertise brought by the participants to the sandpit, and perspectives from relevant stakeholders
• immersing participants in collaborative thinking processes and ideas sharing to construct innovative approaches
• capturing the outputs in the form of highly innovative research projects
• a funding decision on those projects at the sandpit using ‘real-time’ peer review

A sandpit has been identified as an effective mechanism for shaping and building consensus around the delivery of the Materials 4.0 agenda and identifying the highest-impact interventions for investment. Through intensive multidisciplinary collaboration, the sandpit will develop a shared understanding of key challenges and opportunities, build consensus on priority actions and generate a portfolio of innovative research projects for rapid implementation through associated funding.

The sandpit will provide an opportunity to explore the real-world challenges and opportunities associated with adopting digital approaches across the materials innovation pipeline. It will bring together expertise spanning areas such as data stewardship and curation, digital twins, automation, artificial intelligence, advanced characterisation, manufacturing and systems integration. Activities will focus on addressing challenges and opportunities aligned with the six opportunity themes identified in the National Materials Innovation Strategy, while strengthening connections between discovery, development, scale-up and deployment.

Objectives

The Materials 4.0 challenge-led scoping sandpit aims to:

• bring together expertise from industry, academia, government, infrastructure organisations and other stakeholders to stimulate innovative and cross-disciplinary thinking around Materials 4.0 priorities
• develop a shared understanding of the key challenges, opportunities and barriers associated with the adoption and implementation of Materials 4.0 approaches
• identify and prioritise interventions that have the greatest potential to accelerate impact across the materials innovation landscape
• develop ambitious, fundable research projects that can rapidly progress from concept to implementation
• reduce fragmentation and duplication of effort by promoting coordination and alignment across the community

Participation

We intend to achieve these objectives by bringing together researchers, innovators, technology developers, end users and problem owners from a broad range of disciplines to form new collaborations focused on challenge-driven research and innovation. Applications are welcomed from individuals with expertise including, but not limited to:

• materials science
• engineering
• physical sciences
• mathematical sciences
• computer science, data science and artificial intelligence
• social sciences
• advanced manufacturing and industrial digitalisation
• responsible research and innovation
• robotics

The sandpit particularly encourages participation from individuals who can bring perspectives from across the materials innovation pipeline and who are committed to developing collaborative solutions with the potential to transform the UK materials research and innovation landscape.