Major £95m investment supports future of UK materials research in Leeds and beyond
The University of Leeds is set to benefit from a national £95 million fund for the Henry Royce Institute, supporting the next generation of advanced materials research.
The five-year investment from UK Research and Innovation will enable Royce to build on its national programme of research, facilities and industry collaboration. It will support the National Materials Strategy, launched in February 2026 to accelerate the development and commercial use of advanced materials.
These materials underpin technologies across modern life. The Institute’s work includes research to develop components for next-generation electronics, medical devices and treatments and clean energy technologies that protect natural resources.
Leeds is a founding partner of Royce, the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation. The University’s contribution is centred on the Bragg Centre for Materials Research, where scientists and engineers work across disciplines to discover, create and understand new materials.
Based in the Sir William Henry Bragg Building, the Centre provides advanced facilities for the characterisation and fabrication of materials. Researchers and businesses can access these facilities, connecting fundamental science with the development of products, devices and applications.
Among them is the Royce Deposition System, a multi-chamber platform for growing thin films that is unique to the UK and Europe. Its connected chambers allow different classes of materials and growth techniques to be combined without removing a sample from ultra-high vacuum.
An experimental officer uses the FEI Titan3 Themis 300 kV scanning transmission electron microscope in the Bragg LEMAS facility.
The system has already enabled researchers to create composite quantum materials that can currently only be made at Leeds. These were used in a study examining how advanced materials interact at the atomic level, with potential applications in quantum sensors and low-energy technologies.
Leeds also leads Royce’s Atoms to Devices research area, working with partner universities to speed up the discovery and development of materials for electronic and optical devices. The University contributes to national facilities-access schemes and delivers specialist training using equipment including the Deposition System.
Professor Giles Davies, Partner Lead for Royce at the University of Leeds, said: “This renewed investment is excellent news for the Royce partnership and for materials research at Leeds.
“Through the Bragg Centre, we contribute distinctive expertise and facilities to a genuinely national effort. The funding will support further high-quality research, while strengthening collaboration between universities and industry.”
The wider funding package is worth more than £162 million. It also includes £67.7 million for the Rosalind Franklin Institute, which develops technologies to address health challenges and counts Leeds among its university partners.
