EPSRC Manufacturing Research Hub for a Sustainable Future in Engineering Plastics

Be Part of the Solution - A Collaborative Research Opportunity in Sustainable and Circular Plastics in Your Products

We seek partners to co-create a Manufacturing Research Hub in Engineering Plastics for a Sustainable Future. This £13M research bid to UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) tackles the challenges of creating a Sustainable & Circular Economy for Engineering Plastics. Over a period of 7 years (2025-2032), the project – if awarded – will fund and support research equivalent to 60-70 years of post-doctoral research in close collaboration with industrial industrial partners.

The Hub will initially bring together researchers from the Universities of Warwick, Manchester, and UCL, focusing on polymer processing, chemistry, engineering, manufacturing, recycling, design, data science, and sustainability. Other leading UK research groups will be invited to join at a later stage, expanding the Hub's expertise, impact, geographies and scope.

The manufacturing industry urgently needs to adopt circular economy principles, yet our focus on packaging has masked challenges in managing the widespread and diverse use of plastic components. These polymers are vital in meeting performance, economic and low carbon targets across sectors including automotive, construction and electrical goods, but pose significant, and conflicting, challenges for sustainability and circularity. Legislation is increasingly demanding product reuse and material recycling, with targets for minimum recycled content in new products. This Manufacturing Research Hub in Engineering Plastics, in collaboration with you as a partner, will overcome these obstacles in five key Research Challenges and three Scale-up & Integration themes.

By co-developing manufacturing solutions, we ensure research stays innovative and impactful, driving supply chains towards a more sustainable future. Our five Research Challenges will focus on:

(1) developing authentically sustainable circular materials;

(2) advancing digital technologies to improve recovery and recycling quality;

(3) optimizing circular design for reuse and recycling;
(4) pioneering innovative mechanical recycling and chemical deconstruction methods; and

(5) promoting systems innovation and quantifying impact through material flow analysis, life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis. Scaleup activities will concentrate on sustainable engineering plastic solutions across three sectors and their supply chains: automotive, electronics & electrical, and construction, with active involvement from you as a partner. 

Are you facing challenges in defining sustainability goals, designing eco-friendly polymers, incorporating recycled content into your products, or recovering value from materials post-use? Do you need better insight into the flow of polymers and multi-materials throughout your supply chains? Join us. We seek partners willing to invest time and resources in our projects (in-kind), co-invest by helping define and tackle challenges (cash investment), or embed your team in our worldclass research environment (secondments). 

To download the Manufacturing Research Hub in Engineering Plastics Flyer - CLICK HERE 

To download the Manufacturing Research Hub in Engineering Plastics One Pager -  CLICK HERE