It is common knowledge that much of mass production has moved to the Far East, and to China in particular. The press has highlighted increasing dangers of out-sourcing of materials and components through complex and time-critical supply-chains. This is arising in a fast-changing world, due to factors such as shifting global-politics, Brexit, skills-shortages, and COVID-19 (with mutations and possible future pandemics). Prominent organisations, such as NatWest and the long established trade-association - GTMA - Gauge and Toolmakers Association, have called for 're-shoring' of manufacture - bringing back "making things" to the UK, with the prosperity and jobs that implies. Indeed, GTMA has established an organisation to promote precisely this - Reshoring-UK with some thirty trade association partners. Interestingly, one commentator observed, 'reshoring manufacture must start with the mould and die sector', and that is precisely the sector on which this project is focussed. Moulds and dies are so important because they are the essential tooling needed to mass-produce a host of typically plastic components that surround us on every side - from car parts and household items, to medical components and mobile phones. These moulds and dies are usually thick, heavy, metal blocks, often of steel, which are machined into the complex 3D contours needed to mould the plastic components. The remarkable fact is that, in the 21st century, most of these machined blocks are still hand-finished by highly-skilled artisans with decades of experience - and they are retiring! Using hand tools and abrasives, they meticulously work surfaces, removing burrs and other defects, control contours in inaccessible nooks and crannies, and create what may be a requirement for uniformly-dull surfaces (to be imprinted on the plastic) or often, a highly polished finish. In the latter case, the detailed surface can be extremely critical, as tiny ripples or residual scratches or pits will imprint into the plastic, and can spoil the aesthetic appeal of the final component, or in the case of the medical sector, provide crevices to harbour germs. Working with GTMA and Reshoring UK, this project aims to transfer a wealth of University expertise in the manufacture of lenses and mirrors for astronomy, into automating mould and die finishing. The lead partner is the Laboratory for Ultra-Precision Surfaces, which the University of Huddersfield has established at STFC's Daresbury Science and Innovation campus near Warrington. Dr Guoyu Yu, who leads the project, has extensive experience of automated polishing using CNC polishing machines from Zeeko Ltd, and robots from Fanuc robot. Dr Yu's team will use both types of machine to develop processes optimised for mould steels. Zeeko is joining the project as an industry partner, because it has a special interest in improving mould-polishing for its customers. Wayland Additive produces advanced electron-beam machines for 3D-printing of complex components, providing an attractive alternative to classical machining. Wayland is interested in diversifying into the mould and die sector. The consortium is rounded up by Arthur Jackson and Co, who is a mould manufacturer who wants to automate their manual processes. The three industry partners will provide samples to be used for process development in the lab at Daresbury, and will help in assessing the results for their respective applications. We hope that what will emerge from the project is a joined-up automated manufacturing process for moulds and dies, starting with conventional milling or 3D-printing, and then proceeding through finishing process-steps to deliver defect-free and highly-polished components. This promises to bring new business to the partners, and we hope will help to stimulate a wider re-shoring - and indeed renaissance - in UK manufacturing.

In a consortium led by Heriot-Watt with St Andrews, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Dundee, Huddersfield and NPL, the "EPSRC CDT in Use-Inspired Photonic Sensing and Metrology" responds to the focus area of "Meeting a User-Need and/or Supporting Civic Priorities" and aligns to EPSRC's Frontiers in Engineering & Technology priority and its aim to produce "tools and technologies that form the foundation of future UK prosperity". Our theme recognises the key role that photonic sensing and metrology has in addressing 21st century challenges in transport (LiDAR), energy (wind-turbine monitoring), manufacturing (precision measurement), medicine (disease sensors), agri-food (spectroscopy), security (chemical sensing) and net-zero (hydrocarbon and H2 metrology). Building on the success of our earlier centres, the addition of NPL and Huddersfield to our team reflects their international leadership in optical metrology and creates a consortium whose REF standing, UKRI income and industrial connectivity makes us uniquely able to deliver this CDT. Photonics contributes £15.2bn annually to the UK economy and employs 80,000 people--equal to automotive production and 3x more than pharmaceutical manufacturing. By 2035, more than 60% of the UK economy will rely on photonics to stay competitive. UK companies addressing the photonic sensing and metrology market are therefore vital to our economy but are threatened by a lack of doctoral-level researchers with a breadth of knowledge and understanding of photonic sensing and metrology, coupled with high-level business, management and communication skills. By ensuring a supply of these individuals, our CDT will consolidate the UK industrial knowledge base, driving this high-growth, export-led sector whose products and services have far-reaching impacts on our society. The proposed CDT will train 55 students. These will comprise at least 40 EngD students, characterised by a research project originated by a company and hosted on their site. A complementary stream of up to 15 PhD students will pursue industrially relevant research in university labs, with more flexibility and technical risk than in an EngD project. In preparing this bid, we invited companies to indicate their support, resulting in £5.5M cash commitments for 102 new students, considerably exceeding our target of 55 students, and highlighting industry's appetite for a CDT in photonic sensing and metrology. Our request to EPSRC for £6.13M will support 35 students, with the remaining students funded by industrial (£2.43M) and university (£1.02M) cash contributions, translating to an exceptional 56% cash leverage of studentship costs. The university partners provide 166 named supervisors, giving the flexibility to identify the most appropriate expertise for industry-led EngD projects. These academics' links to >120 named companies also ensure that the networks exist to co-create university-led PhD projects with industry partners. Our team combines established researchers with considerable supervisory experience (>50 full professors) with many dynamic early-career researchers, including a number of prestigious research fellowship holders. A 9-month frontloaded residential phase in St Andrews and Edinburgh will ensure the cohort gels strongly, equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need before starting their research projects. These core taught courses, augmented with electives from the other universities, will total 120 credits and will be supplemented by accredited MBA courses and training in outreach, IP, communication skills, RRI, EDI, sustainability and trusted-research. Collectively, these training episodes will bring students back to Heriot-Watt a few times each year, consolidating their intra- and inter-cohort networks. Governance will follow our current model, with a mixed academic-industry Management Committee and an International Advisory Committee of world-leading experts.

The project aims to create a new Hub that will act as a national gateway for Advanced Metrology, engaging with UK industry to co-create and co-deliver frontier and innovative research and technologies, and with policy makers and scientific leaders, to drive future UK manufacturing excellence with a clear emphasis on sustainability. The Hub will have environmental and economic sustainability embedded throughout its programme, both in terms of prioritising industry challenges that the research will address, and within the operational delivery. One of the largest challenges in improving sustainability in manufacturing is the availability of the actionable information that is essential to both improve existing processes to reduce waste, and to enable new processes and methods that significantly enhance resource efficiency through reduced energy usage, material reuse and recycling, and reduced transportation (as a result of supply-chain efficiency). By delivering a future where pervasive metrology systems sense, monitor and control manufacturing systems to self-optimise, we will realise the connected and autonomous systems critical for achieving net zero. Delivering these advances requires the development of manufacturing systems that cannot be realised without a new integrated paradigm in metrology, embracing ultra-fast and compact sensors, distributed artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and autonomous prognostics control systems far beyond the current state-of-the-art. Hence, the Hub's research programme will be structured around three underpinning research themes to address three Key Research Objectives: Create and apply new sensor technologies incorporating nanophotonics/quantum sensing principles combined with photonic edge computing to realise high-precision ultra-fast, ultra-compact, and low-cost sensors/instruments within smart manufacturing processes and systems. Create and apply new resilient and interpretable metrology aimed at capturing actionable information for sustainable manufacturing. Unify whole system autonomous control for sustainability in manufacturing machinery systems, which optimises process, energy use and resource efficiency in complex systems at the design state and through life. When combined, these objectives will deliver universal 'measurement/analysis/control' solutions for early adoption to address sustainable manufacturing challenges. Five priority areas have been identified to demonstrate new metrology technologies and methods; sustainable and connected machinery, zero carbon transport, clean energy systems, semiconductors, and manufacturing reuse. The programme will develop and demonstrate new metrology technologies and methods with clear applications in these sectors. This will be achieved working closely with metrology equipment/software/service providers, manufacturing systems providers, and with manufacturing end-users, supported closely by partners across the UK Catapult network and national and international standardisation bodies. The Hub comprises a substantial consortium, led by the Centre for Precision Technologies at Huddersfield. Initial research spokes will be based at Heriot-Watt, Oxford, Queens (Belfast) and Southampton universities, with Innovation Spokes at The Manufacturing Technologies Centre (MTC) and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), and a hybrid Research/Innovation Spoke at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Over 25 industrial partners were involved in co-creating the Hub and will be working with the research team to support, delivery and accelerate commercialisation of research outcomes via sponsored research projects, knowledge exchange, technology transfer (IP licensing and spin-out), and training/skills development.