About
Rapid Client Survey: Strategic Review of £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC)
Graphene is a new wonder material with superlative properties of strength and conductivity among many others.
So there is much interest by industry and academia in how it works and where it can be applied.
Assignment
The National Graphene Institute opened in Manchester in 2015 – its role is to develop the knowledge base required to exploit the potential of Graphene. But in order to fully exploit new innovations, you need to scale up.
The GEIC is a new £60m centre destined to open in Manchester in 2017 to engineer and innovate new processes and products containing Graphene and other 2-Dimensional materials.
The Growth Engine was asked by NGI Business Director, James Baker, to review the strategic and operational design of the GEIC by drawing on decades of experience in commercialising innovative industrial products.
Time was of the essence.
Process
Key potential users of GEIC will be industrial companies and to conduct the study a number were selected from across the supply chain: from large to SME, from electronics to composites and beyond.
Interviews with senior innovation and business leaders were held to understand the wants and needs of the GEIC.
The results were quickly analysed and presented back to the project sponsor to be incorporated into the design and approach to attract users to the centre.
Outcomes: A study was rapidly completed that gave detailed evidence around a number of specified questions.
This allowed new thinking to emerge and develop that optimised the centre’s value to industry, and go some way to enabling the promise of Graphene.