Advanced Materials: Highlight Notice

The Advanced Materials: Highlight Notice is a strategic funding opportunity from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), designed to encourage high-quality research proposals in priority areas of advanced materials science and engineering. Applications are submitted through the EPSRC Standard Research Grant (Responsive Mode) process but must explicitly address the themes identified in this notice to be considered under its focus.

Advanced materials underpin many of the UK’s strategic industrial and societal challenges from clean energy technologies and advanced manufacturing to digital systems and critical supply chains. The development of novel materials and enhanced capabilities for characterising material behaviour is essential to deliver sustainable and resilient technologies for the future.

This highlight notice directs researchers towards two specific areas of strategic interest:

1. Advanced materials solutions for critical minerals: research that develops new materials or material systems that reduce reliance on critical minerals or use them more efficiently, responding to global supply risks and national materials security priorities.
2. In-situ and in-operando materials metrology and characterisation: research into real-time measurement techniques that enable better understanding of material properties and performance during processing or use, accelerating materials development and deployment.

There is no fixed deadline, and proposals are assessed through EPSRC’s standard peer-review process, with funding typically provided at 80% of full economic cost. By highlighting these themes, EPSRC aims to strengthen UK leadership in materials innovation and accelerate the development of technologies critical to future industrial and societal needs.