We aim to create the first "inks" that can be used in additive manufacturing (vat based stereolithography) to produce complex architectures with stiffness and compositions gradients without any joins or internal interfaces. While this technology will have a wide range of applications, we will first use it to fulfil an unmet clinical need in orthopaedic surgery: devices that can heal damaged cartilage. Currently, there are very few, if any, materials that exist that have a true continuous composition or stiffness gradients. There are certainly none that have good mechanical properties. Sol-gel hybrid materials are assembled of intimately mixed co-networks of organic and inorganic components, but above the nanoscale they appear as single materials, distinguishing them from composite materials. Importantly, we have shown in our pilot studies that we can layer sol-gel materials as viscous liquids, just before they gel, so forming single materials with no internal joins or interfaces. We have 3D printed them, but only as grid-like architectures. Here, we will develop new hybrid inks that can be used to make complex pore architectures in vat based stereolithography (SLA), for the first time. Damage to articular cartilage due to sports injuries, trauma or age-related wear are increasingly likely as an active population ages. Current best practice for regeneration of small defects in knee cartialge is microfracture, which involves making small holes into the underlying bone to liberate the marrow, which fills the defect with weak fibrous cartilage. The cartilage only lasts 2-5 years before the procedure must be repeated. Eventually, total joint replacements are needed, which are major operations that involve removing a lot of tissue, and only last 15-25 years. Alternative medical devices are needed, e.g. using advanced materials with specifically designed chemistry and architecture. If successful, we can then apply the technology to help combat arthritis, something that effects everyone as they age. Our current 3D printed hybrid material shows great potential for regenerating cartilage because it provokes stem cells to produce articular cartilage-like matrix, rather than functionally inferior fibrocartilage. Importantly its mechanical properties can match that of the cartilage and transfer mechanical cues to the cells growing within it, which is critical for generation of high-quality cartilage. However, our previous 3D printing technique could only produce log-pile structures. The architecture of the device needs to be more complex. As cartilage is thin, most defects penetrate deep into the underlying bone, so we have designed a device that we hypothesise can regenerate the bone and the cartilage in appropriate locations. The part that goes into the bone will also be important for ensuring the implant stays in place during healing. Novelty of the research includes: the architectural design of the implant; the materials used to make it (new sol-gel hybrids that can be used in SLA) and the fact that sol-gel hybrids will be 3D printed in complex architectures (using SLA) for the first time. Following cell studies to show appropriate stimulus is provided to stem cells to send them down the required route (bone or cartilage), and ensuring potential for vascularized bone ingrowth, preclinical studies will be carried out. Our project partners will assist in technology transfer: Evonik and Makevale will produce the polymeric raw materials and Smith and Nephew will assess market potential, identify translation milestones and test our optimised device in their arthritis sheep model. This proposal will benefit medical device companies, patients, orthopaedic surgeons, and health services (e.g. the NHS) in a 10-20 year timeframe. As a third of workers are now over 50, it is critical that health services have access to technology that can allow patients to return to work quickly and reduce numbers of revision surgery.

Heating and cooling are essential to our lives. We rely on them for comfort in our homes and vehicles, and businesses need heating and cooling for productive workplaces and industrial processes. Taken together, space and process heating and cooling represent the biggest contribution to the UK's energy consumption, and the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Heating is primarily provided from burning natural gas, whereas cooling is primarily provided from compressing volatile fluorinated gases. However, these conventional technologies are neither efficient, not friendly to the environment. Barocaloric effects are reversible thermal changes that occur in mechanically responsive solids when subjected to changes in pressure. These effects are analogous to the pressure-induced thermal changes in gases that are exploited in current heat pumps, but they promise higher energy efficiencies and obviate the need for harmful greenhouse gases. We aim at developing an energy-efficient barocaloric heat pump based on novel barocaloric hybrid composite materials that combine the best properties of organic barocaloric materials, namely extremely large pressure-driven thermal changes, and the best of inorganic barocaloric materials, namely high thermal conductivity and low hysteresis. A technological transformation of this magnitude will require the development of bespoke economic and policy strategies for its successful deployment. Therefore, we aim at developing a fully integrated bespoke economic and policy strategy that will support the innovation of BC heat pumps through to commercialisation. The achievement of heat pumps that operate using barocaloric materials instead of gases will permit decarbonising heating and cooling, provide energy independence, and enable the UK to become the world leader on this emerging technology.

This proposal will deliver novel, integrated methodologies for the design and scalable manufacture of next generation resorbable polymer nanocomposites, linking the science and engineering principles which underpin successful processing of such materials. This will enable new smart health-care materials in applications from bone fracture fixation to drug delivery. The methodologies will be optimised on a system comprising novel nanoparticles, selected blends of medical-grade degradable polymer and specifically designed molecular dispersants. Optimised methodologies will be applied at scale on industrial equipment to produce demonstrator resorbable implants with specific structural attributes and degradation timescales. Wider applications include degradable food packaging and products requiring end-of-life disposal.

Chemical separations are critical to almost every aspect of our daily lives, from the energy we use to the medications we take, but consume 10-15% of the total energy used in the world. It has been estimated that highly selective membranes could make these separations 10-times more energy efficient and save 100 million tonnes/year of carbon dioxide emissions and £3.5 billion in energy costs annually (US DoE). More selective separation processes are essential to "maximise the advantages for UK industry from the global shift to clean growth", and will assist the move towards "low carbon technologies and the efficient use of resources" (HM Govt Clean Growth Strategy, 2017). In the healthcare sector there is growing concern over the cost of the latest pharmaceuticals, which are often biologicals, with an unmet need for highly selective separation of product-related impurities such as active from inactive viruses (HM Govt Industrial Strategy 2017). In the water sector, the challenges lie in the removal of ions and small molecules at very low concentrations, so-called micropollutants (Cave Review, 2008). Those developing sustainable approaches to chemicals manufacture require novel separation approaches to remove small amounts of potent inhibitors during feedstock preparation. Manufacturers of high-value products would benefit from higher recovery offered by more selective membranes. In all these instances, higher selectivity separation processes will provide a step-change in productivity, a critical need for the UK economy, as highlighted in the UK Government's Industrial Strategy and by our industrial partners. SynHiSel's vision is to create the high selectivity membranes needed to enable the adoption of a novel generation of emerging high-value/high-efficiency processes. Our ambition is to change the way the global community perceives performance, with a primary focus on improved selectivity and its process benefits - while maintaining gains already made in permeance and longevity.

Membranes offer exciting opportunities for more efficient, lower energy, more sustainable separations and even entirely new process options - and so are a valuable tool in an energy constrained world. However, high performance polymeric, inorganic and ceramic membranes all suffer from problems with decay in performance over time, through either membrane ageing (membrane material relaxation) and/or fouling (foreign material build-up in and/or on the membrane), and this seriously limits their impact. Our vision is to create membranes which do not suffer from ageing or fouling, and for which separation functionality is therefore maintained over time. We will achieve this through a combination of the synthesis of new membrane materials and fabrication of novel membrane composites (polymeric, ceramic and hybrids), supported by new characterisation techniques. Our ambition is to change the way the global membrane community perceives performance. Through the demonstration of membranes with immortal performance, we seek to shift attention away from a race to achieve ever higher initial permeability, to creation of membranes with long-term stable performance which are successful in industrial application.