M4QN, in partnership with the Henry Royce Institute, has published an important report on Materials for Quantum Technologies, prepared by IfM Engage.

Shoestring expands its international reach after UNSW Canberra becomes the latest collaborator to the Digital Shoestring programme.

The Sustainability Spotlight magazine, a curated collection of content showcasing the Institute for Manufacturing’s world-class sustainability research, tools, and approaches, is now available. 

Chris Tagnon, 2024/25 ISMM student, recieves scholarship from Mission 44 and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

A 2023/2024 ISMM student has been shortlisted for the 2024 James Dyson Award for his wearable biomedical device, Peter. 

IfM and CPI are collaborating in a unique UK-India initiative in critical minerals.

The IIPM lab are part of a consortium of international partners taking part in a new EU research project.

A successful knowledge sharing session on the ASEAN i-Teams programme paves the way for further collaboration.

A significant step towards bolstering industrial innovation policy cooperation between the UK and Japan took place on 9th October at the British Embassy in Tokyo. 

The IfM has hosted the second Women in Manufacturing: Changing Perceptions conference at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry. The event brought together over 160 delegates to discuss gender diversity and inclusion in the manufacturing sector.

The Women in UK Manufacturing 2024: Addressing Labour Shortages and Bridging the Gender Gap report presents an overview of the progress and challenges encountered by women participating in UK manufacturing over the past year. 

The Global Initiative for Industrial Safety has launched the world’s first Manifesto for Global Industrial Safety, pioneering a safer world through technology adoption. Authored by members of the IfM, the manifesto marks a significant step towards addressing safety risks affecting workers worldwide.

Meet Xinyan Li, a PhD student in the Centre for International Manufacturing whose IfM journey started as a student on the MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management.

The 2024 Paralympic Games are underway in Paris, and among the 4,400 athletes gathered to compete is Jan Helmich, a PhD student at the IfM. 

In a study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, doctoral researcher Lisa Arianna Rossi and Dr Jagjit Singh Srai from the Centre for International Manufacturing explore innovative and sustainable methods to valorise rice straw waste in India.

A new study led by Dr Chander Velu and colleagues explores the management strategy behind the remarkable success of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge.

IfM graduate and Robot Wars judge Dr Lucy Rogers has been awarded an MBE in recognition of her services to engineering.

IfM Engage has co-hosted its inaugural event for mental health innovation with The Foundation for Young People’s Mental Health (YPMH). Delegates came to seek better interventions for the prevention and treatment of mental illness.

The Institute for Manufacturing returned to Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week on 5 and 6 June with a varied programme of talks, masterclasses, demos, and the continuation of the Women in Manufacturing initiative. 

Third- and fourth-year MET students have showcased their new designs in the IfM's annual MET Design Show.

The decision to create a new independent UK Semiconductor Institute follows a key recommendation from an IfM Engage study. 

Issue 15 of the IfM Review is now available, highlighting the latest work from the Institute for Manufacturing, covering technology, management, and policy activities.

IfM Engage hosted its inaugural Rethinking Innovation event on 18 April with an international group of innovation and technology leaders in attendance.

The IfM will exhibit some of the latest research in digital, management and sustainability at this year’s Smart Manufacturing and Engineering Week on 5 and 6 June at the NEC in Birmingham.

The Postdoctoral Awards for 2023/2024 were announced by Professor Tim Minshall on 26 April. 

The IfM has collaborated with High Manufacturing Value Catapult and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to deliver the Future of UK Manufacturing Conference in Sheffield.

In a new report, Tomas Ulrichsen and Dr Nicky Athanassopoulou explore the key barriers, enablers and pathways to success for social science research commercialisation. 

Policy experts from the IfM's Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy have published the latest data on the UK’s innovation activity and industrial performance globally.

The Institute for Manufacturing opened its doors to members of the public on Saturday 16 March for a day of talks, demonstrations and engaging experiments. 

A new IfM study commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to provide expert advice on improving the impact and measurement of the Made Smarter Adoption (MSA) programme has been published.

IfM Engage and The William Templeton Foundation for Young People's Mental Health (YPMH) join forces on 19 June to deliver 'Collaborate to innovate: Working together to change mental health outcomes' - a mental health innovation event for the whole mental health ecosysten.

The Centre for Industrial Sustainability's retreat returned to the Peak District this January, offering a week of workshops, discussions and community-building for sustainability researchers and practitioners.

The IfM opens its doors for the Cambridge Festival on 16 March 2024. Come along to discover more about the exciting things that go on here! 

In a new Defra report, industrial IfM Engage experts offer recommendations to help controlled environment agriculture in the UK produce more sustainable, affordable fruit and vegetables for domestic consumption and the export market.

Researchers from the IfM and Aston University have produced an InterAct-funded report which examines the public perception of manufacturing, the factors influencing it, and how it has evolved in the past decade.

Over the course of the last four and a half years, Dr Diana Khripko and Dr Nicky Athanassopoulou from IfM Engage have participated in the ACCESS initiative, helping four European municipalities undertake sustainability and energy transition projects. 

Dr Jagjit Singh Srai and doctoral researcher Lisa Rossi, along with members of the World Economic Forum Circular Transformation of Industries initiative, have published a White Paper exploring the role of partnerships in circular transformation.

Dr Thomas Bohné and PhD student Jessica Horn have led the work on the World Economic Foruc report, 'Views from the Front Line: Workers' Insights on How to Introduce New Technology,' published today.

ISMM alumna Griselda Togobo is a successful entrepreneur and influential advocate for business diversity and inclusion. She discusses her passion for promoting female leadership and how attending the University of Cambridge gave her the courage to take risks and embrace failure.

The Shoestring Digital Manufacturing initiative has taken its first steps into commercialisation with a suite of starter solutions, helping more companies tackle the digital transformation.

The Open Innovation Forum met in Munich on 28-29 November and heard pitches from innovative companies seeking to change the food, drinks and FMCG sectors for the better.

Since early October, the Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovaiton (UCI) has grown from three to six members, and they continue their mission to support academia in driving innovation and economic growth.

The IfM recently partnered with The Manufacturer for their Manufacturing Leaders' Summit, delivering a keynote talk and a breakfast briefing at the event in Liverpool.

IfM Engage, Atos and Paderborn University celebrate the 10th anniversary of their collaboration in executive education this year, and Judith Shawcross reflects on the successes so far.

The Women in Manufacturing initiative marked its debut with a pioneering conference hosted by the IfM and Innovate UK's Made Smarter Programme. The event inspired delegates to break down boundaries within the industry.

The tour marks the end of a series of events during which the IfM Engage Consortium shared emerging insights from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology study that will help shape the future of the UK semiconductor landscape.

This year's Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium took place under the banner of 'Architecting New Design Rules for Global Supply Chains in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape' on 21-22 September.

Dr Jagjit Singh Srai reflects on takeaways from the session titled 'Trade in the Fourth Industrial Revolution' at the recent World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils.

An international team of researchers, including from the IfM, are calling on government agencies and national banks to support an effort to map the billions of connections in the global supply network which could reduce tax evasion. 

Joseph Mambwe completed the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) in 2015 and has gone on to build an impressive career in app creation. In our conversation, he reflects on his achievements so far and offers advice to budding entrepreneurs. 

The Centre for Industrial Sustainability launches the Regenerative Laboratory and seeks collaborators. 

Professor Bill O'Neill has been elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Shoestring Digital Mannufacturing is launching a scoping study in Egypt. 

IfM PhD student Ali Niazi was one of a number of science enthusiasts gathered at the Department of Engineering this summer to pitch their innovative ideas to an audience, including a panel of judges, in just three minutes. 

Led by IfM and Innovate UK's Made Smarter Innovation programme, the Women in Manufacturing initiative's Changing Perceptions conference aims to improve gender representation in the manufacturing sector.

Emerging findings from a government commissioned UK semiconductor study will be shared by IfM Engage consortium in six locations around the UK.

A grant of £1 million has been awarded to a team of researchers, including the IfM's NanoManufacturing group, to propel the advancement of carbon nanotube processing.

A new report from DM-ET explores the integration of human and digital decision-making processes.

Following on from an article featured in Nature, we speak to IfM's Professor Chander Velu about the potential impact of quantum computing on growth and productivity.

The IfM has hosted the EINST4INE summer school, bringing together leading academics, young scholars and industry professionals for a week-long event focused on digital innovation.

Lefan Wang, from the IfM's Computer Aided Manufacturing Group has been awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship for her research project on foot biomechanics.

The Open Innovation Forum met in Wageningen in early July and heard pitches from innovative companies seeking to change the food, drinks and FMCG sectors for the better.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, IfM researchers explain how food companies can better measure their sustainabiity. 

Douglas Brion from the Computer-Aided Manufacturing Group has been awarded two prestigious awards for his PhD research and startup, Matta.

In celebration of International Women in Engineering Day, 23 June, we present some of the inspiring women who work at the IfM.

A series of Women in Manufacturing events, led by IfM Engage, attracted much attention at M and E Week in Birmingham earlier this month.

The IfM were on hand at M and E Week 2023 to provide expertise on the latest research and insights into digital and sustainability challenges. 

This year’s MET Design Show on 7^th June saw an impressive array of creative student inventions on display. 

Issue 14 of the IfM Review is now available both in print and online. 

The annual first-year PhD conference took place this week at the IfM, where our newest researchers presented their research to their peers.

An IfM project to explore the application and potential benefits of a metaverse in manufacturing has received funding from InterAct. 

Experts from the IfM have contributed to a new paper in The Lancet Psychiatry which sets out concrete solutions to prevent premature mortality from mental illness and distress.

IfM Engage consortium has been commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) to undertake a study into infrastructure to grow the UK semiconductor industry.

IfM practitioners have contributed to the report Changing Minds, Changing Lives which proposes innovative, evidence-based approaches to prevent, diagnose and treat depression in young people.

The Supply Chain AI Lab (SCAIL) recently participated at AI UK 2023 in London with a demo of an innovative supply system which aims to significantly lower emissions from delivery vehicles.

A new study commissioned by the Government Office for Science (GOS) to map and characterise the UK non-human health life science sector, has been published by Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy. 

A new report highlights key trends across UK industry, explores the country's productivity and global industrial performance, and asks whether enough is being invested in R&D.

We received many imaginative entries to our competition during the Cambridge Festival at the IfM and the winners have now been announced.

On Saturday 18^th March, the IfM hosted its most well-attended Cambridge Festival event since Covid-19 and attracted at least 500 visitors of all ages to come learn about and play with engineering.

On Saturday 18th March, the IfM opens its doors for the 2023 Cambridge Festival. Among this year’s activities is a demonstration of research from the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing (FIAM) group, featuring a jelly brain in a box!

Three PhD students from the IfM Elisa Roth, Mirko Moencks, Jessica Horn along with their supervisor Thomas Bohné (Head of the Cyber-Human Lab at IfM) successfully facilitated a public live session at the recent World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

To encourage more diversity and inclusivity in the sector, a network of academics, practitioners, and professionals working in the field of manufacturing have come together to establish the Women in Manufacturing initiative.

The card game, developed by the Centre for Industrial Sustainability, helped the company’s leaders to drive a global program that is saving over 100,000,000 KWh every year.

The Worshipful Company of Engineers' recently paid a visit to the Department of Engineering including the IfM. 

The IfM Postdoctoral awards were established in 2019 in recognition of the vital role postdocs play in driving research and innovation, delivering teaching, and contributing to the academic community.

The IfM will contribute to a new project to improve indoor air quality and health, 

developing virtual sensors and combining physical models, 3D building models, and hardware sensor data to estimate pollutants.

Entrepreneurs from around the world took part in the 11th Open Innovation (OI) Forum’s annual Food, Drink and FMCG competition to pitch solutions to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A new series of films tell the story of how the IfM, Cambridge University Hospitals and Royal Papworth Hospital collaborated during the COVID-19 crisis – and how they built a foundation for the future.

Masterclasses, thought leadership and live demonstrations were all part of an extensive IfM contribution to the flagship Digital Manufacturing Week event.

The report finds that the UK is well placed to translate leading research on quantum science and engineering into increased productivity, and offers recommendations for driving adoption and economic growth.

Eighty per cent of mobile health apps fail to deliver their intended impact. Second year IfM PhD student Devmalya Sarkar tells us why he wants to help firms change this.

New PhD research focuses on blockchain and machine learning integrated methods for supply chain management. The project is looking for companies to complete short interviews to inform the first phase of the research. 

Dr. Sebastian Pattinson and Douglas Brion of the IfM’s Complex Additive Materials Group have developed a machine learning algorithm that can detect and correct a wide variety of different errors in real time.

Issue 13 of the IfM Review is now available. This edition explains just how much the IfM approach applies to healthcare, as well as including all the latest exciting work from across the institute, spanning our technology, management and policy activities.

In recognition of working with Addenbrooke’s and Papworth hospitals during the pandemic, Cambridge University Hospitals have awarded 31 ‘Covid stars’ to IfM staff and students. 

The IfM is collaborating with technology company Enspan, AML Sheffield and Manufacturing Technology Centre and industry partners to help UK manufacturers address the challenges of supply chain risk prediction.

Dr Veronica Martinez and Nicolai Huss map out the benefits of digital twin-based satellite services as well as the barriers that need to be overcome in a new executive briefing.

We would like to congratulate our 2021 IfM Postdoctoral Award winners for their excellent contributions to research, teaching and academic citizenship.

Dr Jagjit Singh Srai - along with members of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains - has published a new paper looking at business model innovation opportunities for manufacturing companies.

A White Paper authored by members of the IfM’s Cyber-Human Lab team on how the fourth industrial revolution is transforming the relationship between technology and human beings has been published by the World Economic Forum.

Entrepreneurs from around the world took part in the 10th Open Innovation (OI) Forum’s annual Food, Drink and FMCG competition to pitch solutions to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As official knowledge partner for Digital Manufacturing Week 2021, the IfM delivered a packed schedule of masterclasses, keynotes and live demonstrations – all designed to help delegates unpick the key business challenges of today.

A report prepared by the IfM and published by the European Commission looks at the extent to which Intellectual Property (IP) facilitates or hinders Open Innovation, particularly in relation to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The IfM’s Jag Srai and Duncan McFarlane have been recognised in the 2021 Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Research Impact and Engagement.

A new report forms part of a wider project by the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management to explore how innovation methods used by industry can be applied to complex healthcare applications.

The IfM has worked with global printing company Domino to help optimise ink designs for different production environments.

The institute is working across projects in connected factories and healthcare innovation, partnering with government, industry, catapults and academia.

The prize recognises Alan’s outstanding contribution to the IfM’s flagship educational ‘Robot Lab’, which has become one of the defining features of the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET).

The institute is part of a winning bid led by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust to host one of four new UK hubs supporting the adoption of innovations in healthcare.

Their achievements and commitment to positive social change impressed a panel of judges consisting of four stakeholders representing the community, the University of Cambridge and organisations dedicated to supporting student social action.

DIAL started out as the Manufacturing Automation & Control Systems Group (MACSG) in late 1995 with three people...

The Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring programme is focused on the development of simple, low cost digital devices and systems that improve the effectiveness of operations of small manufacturing companies.

The institute’s work on hospital logistics, PPE delivery and the development of a ventilator sharing device was recognised.

In the lead up to the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, the Government of Sweden together with EAT organised a Policy Boot Camp to address consumption patterns among vulnerable adolescents in Sweden.

The Resilience and Sustainable Development Programme (RSDP) is pleased to announce a new report on Industry 4.0 and National Skill Development Policy in Bangladesh.

Innovate UK have commissioned a study, conducted by the Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy and the Policy Links Unit, to inform the development of innovation hubs, a new support mechanism within the Manufacturing Made Smarter initiative.

The project is supported by the UK government and will test how 5G and the Industrial Internet of Things can enhance productivity, efficiency and safety at the port.

The IfM Postdoctoral Awards recognise the excellent contributions of postdocs to research, teaching and academic citizenship.

An innovative new technology to make bioplastics and other sustainable plant-based materials and a method to industrialise photosynthesis to expand the world’s food supply were the winning ideas at the Open Innovation (OI) Forum’s annual Food, Drink and FMCG pitching competition.

This term, the University has embarked on the weekly COVID-19 testing of all Cambridge students living in college accommodation. A group of IfM staff, students and alumni are handling the job.

On 21 September, the IfM-led project group Automated Licensing Payment Systems hosted a workshop with leading intellectual property (IP) experts and scholars to discuss use cases and challenges of the Bill-of-IP (BoIP) – a new concept for digital IP management.

The initial case study will explore an integrated approach to innovation for the identification, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of depression in young people.

The institute will contribute to the University of Cambridge’s role in the Productivity Institute, the largest economic and social research investment ever in the UK.

We are proud to announce that the IfM has received a President’s Special Award for Pandemic Service for our work in combating the coronavirus.

The team has been developing digital fabrication capabilities to support the production of face masks and face shields needed to address the COVID-19 outbreak.

The event focused on how to apply socio-economic systems thinking to address the systematic geopolitical challenges related to safely repatriating Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh.

We are proud to announce that the IfM has been awarded a Green Impact Platinum Award from the University’s environmental accreditation scheme.

The new device, which is being developed in collaboration with Cambridge Design Partnership, improves upon and addresses concerns about previous ‘ventilator splitter’ designs, allowing one ventilator to be used by two patients more safely.

The new unit will help to drive a step change in universities’ contributions to delivering increased R&D and innovation in the UK.

Innovate UK has commissioned the Policy Links Unit to conduct a study to better understand challenges and opportunities for international research and innovation (R&I) collaboration in the advanced manufacturing and materials sector.

Dr Michael De Volder, who leads the IfM's Nanomanufacturing group, has been awarded funding of two million euros from the European Research Council to manufacture Li-Ion batteries with enhanced energy and power density for use in electric vehicles.

Abjjad, an Arabic social network for readers, authors, and bloggers in the Middle East, completed an intensive business diagnostic workshop with the IfM to analyse their priorities and strategies and be mentored to automate their core operations.

This research seeks to explore and evaluate the contributions digital platform organisations offer evolving food supply chains during extreme disruption with relevance given to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jack Levy, Fathima Nisha Begum Samad and David Cordova, MPhil students in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management, received a Vice- Chancellor’s Social Impact Award for their efforts in supporting Addenbrooke’s Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using the IfM’s IP Strategy Roadmapping tool, Pratheeba Vimalnath and Graham Bell helped the winning organisations to think through their approach to their burgeoning intellectual property.

Two Wolfson College students from the Institute for Manufacturing are working with experts at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Baker Lab to help streamline testing for COVID-19.

A new project including IfM researchers Lucia Corsini and Dr James Moultrie will develop digital fabrication capabilities in Malawi to support the production of urgently needed face masks and face shields.

WE Lead Food, a programme for women driving change and sustainability in the food sector, is looking for participants for the 2020 programme, beginning in October in Cambridge.

The Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard grant is awarded to early career researchers to help launch their research careers, providing up to £100,000 over two years.

IfM researchers are working to help the hospital model patient flow, examine the hospital's oxygen supply, and better understand staffing challenges.

IfM spin-out Redbite Solutions have provided their object-tracking technology, itemit, to co-ordinate donations of PPE equipment in fight against COVID-19. The technology is ensuring that only NHS-approved items are forwarded on to the NHS. 

After its scheduled meeting was curtailed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the forum brought together over 50 participants from 20 member companies using virtual collaborative tools.

If you are an engineering or manufacturing company, read the ways you can get involved with tackling the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dr Jag Srai attended a meeting at Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, looking at state-level policy interventions to encourage the development of agri-tech and digital platform technologies for agri-business in Punjab.

IfM ECS recently hosted the ‘Advancing Communities towards low-Carbon Energy Smart Systems’, or ACCESS, project partners in Cambridge to discuss the latest developments of the pilot studies taking place in communities across Europe.

Industry trailblazers Andrea Thompson (BAE Systems), Andrea Hough (ATEC Engineering Solutions) and Donna Edwards (Made Smarter) say manufacturing SMEs can inspire a generation and close the gender gap.

Dr Diana Khripko recently spoke at E-World Energy and Water in Essen on digital transformation in the energy industry, highlighting IfM tools and approaches which can support organisation at different steps of the digital journey.

A recent pilot study, led by Dr Yuta Hirose in Japan as part of the IfM's STIM Consortium, saw a new application of roadmapping to support technology venture concept design and strategy visualisation. 

IfM researchers are leading a pioneering project to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in the food sector. A series of 'MAKEathon' events is drawing on the hackathon model to address food industry challenges.

A recent meeting of the Open Innovation Forum brought together companies from across the food sector to consider the potential impact of AI and Big Data. Watch the highlights in this short video.

Researchers from IfM Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing Group have created a miniature winter scene for this year's IfM Christmas Card. The scene has been created using lasers and inkjet printing and the trees are no bigger than 10mm high. 

Huge congratulations to Ying Wan Loh, a former IfM student, who has been recognised with this prestigious award by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Sharing our content and perspectives from the largest manufacturing event in the UK calendar: an opening keynote from Tim Minshall, a series of IfM workshops, and engagement across the manufacturing community. Catch up with what you missed.

Professor Steve Evans, Head of the IfM’s Centre for Industrial Sustainability, gave a keynote talk at the prestigious ‘How to change the world’ conference in London on 28^th November, as part of a stellar line up of speakers including Malcolm Gladwell, Noam Chomsky and Robert Winston.

The IfM Briefing on 'Strategic approaches to digitalisation', held in Liverpool on 12th November, explored how manufacturing companies can use new technologies to underpin their business strategy.

Dr Doroteya Vladimirova and Ian Bamford from the Centre for Industrial Sustainability led a two-day course on Sustainable Value Innovation at the Norwegian Centre of Expertise iKuben in Molde, Norway.

Professor Tim Minshall, Head of the IfM, features in the latest episode of ‘Create the Future’ podcast from The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, alongside materials scientist Dr Anna Ploszajski.

Issue 11 of IfM Review considers how digitalisation is changing manufacturing and how organisations can best develop strategies to respond.

The Innovate Irrigation Challenge, launched this year by AB Sugar in partnership with the IfM and WaterAid, has announced the competition winners.

On Wednesday 16 October, the Cambridge Service Alliance hosted its annual industry day at which keynote speakers from some of the world’s leading companies shared their insights into the challenges and opportunities of developing digitally-enabled service businesses.

The Centre for Industrial Sustainability has joined a partnership with Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and ISQ in Portugal under the umbrella of TRUST aiming to boost research excellence in the area of INDUSTRIAL SUSTAINABILITY.

The IfM were proud to run a pilot scheme for Postdoctoral Awards - the first place in the University to take forward such a scheme. Awards were presented in three categories; Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Research and Excellence in Academic Citizenship.

The IfM Briefing on ‘Developing Industrial Capabilities’ on 23^rd Sept drew a large audience to hear thought-provoking ideas from leading thinkers and practitioners.

The 'Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring' open workshop drew in a large audience of SME manufacturers, providers and industry associations to find out how to engage with this radical research project.

Carlos López-Gómez of the IfM's Policy Links Unit delivered a seminar at BEIS for UK government policy makers, on the recommendations of an IfM report into strengthening value chains for economic growth.

This episode explores 'augmented humans', the engineering and ethical challenges of how humans interact with technology, with Dr Thomas Bohné and Dr Karina Vold.

Researchers at the Institute for Manufacturing are working with the Environment Agency to explore the potential use of incentives within environmental regulation.

A recent event organised by the Centre for Industrial Sustainability brought together researchers and business leaders to explore how industrial activities could have a net-positive environmental impact.

Professor Steve Evans, Director of Research of the IfM’s Centre for Industrial Sustainability, has been elected to the prestigious Academia Europaea in its 2019 awards.  

Young leaders from across the UK and Latin America will gather in Cambridge in September to discuss science, policy and innovation for a changing world. IfM's Cristina Rodriguez-Rivero, on the organising committee, explains more.

Issue 10 of IfM Review features work across the IfM, including policy, sustainability, ecommerce, inkjet in advanced manufacturing, intellectual property, and more, with a connecting theme of 'capturing value'.

David Leal-Ayala of IfM's Policy Links Unit delivered a keynote talk at the Global Manufacturing Summit (9-11 July, Yekaterinburg, Russia) on a new report on the Safety and Security Dimensions of Industry 4.0.

An entrepreneurial producer of alternative protein, Protifarm, has been voted as the winner of the IfM’s Open Innovation Forum Spring pitching event, held in London on 26^th June.

The Institute for Manufacturing recently co-hosted an event 'A roadmap to create effective strategic and innovation plans' in Milan, Italy.

Problem Solvers: the IfM podcast. Episode 1: We explore sustainable innovation in the food industry, with Professor Steve Evans and Gary Punter.

The first in a new series of IfM Briefings provided a platform for leading research and industrial case studies on sustainability and security in the global food industry.

The IfM convened a roundtable event for researchers and policy analysts from leading international organisations (the OECD, UNIDO, UNCTAD and World Economic Forum) at Madingley Hall to consider issues for the future manufacturing workforce.

To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on 23^rd June we asked some of IfM’s brilliant females to tell us about their work and what inspires them about engineering.

New solutions for low-cost automation for SME manufacturers were demonstrated to project partners at the Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring meeting.

The economic value of manufacturing to the UK is being underestimated in official statistics, potentially by as much as half, according to a new report by Jostein Hauge and Eoin O'Sullivan.

This year’s MET Design Show on 5^th June once again saw an impressive array of creative student inventions on display. 

On 6^th June the IfM threw open its doors to over a hundred collaborators, friends and new connections, to showcase the diversity of work that takes place here.

IfM colleagues discuss how simple technologies are transforming millions of lives each day, how VR is being utilised to safely train staff in some of the most dangerous jobs, and how the latest lasers are being developed to build the cities of the future.

IfM Education and Consultancy Services is part of 'ACCESS', a European project which is bringing together experts and governments around joint challenges to support larger uptake of low carbon grid-related technologies in communities and ‘Smart Cities’.

HCL Technologies officially joined the Cambridge Service Alliance as a gold member during a recent signing ceremony held in Cambridge. 

April's meeting focused on the theme of delivering health and well-being, and was hosted by Walgreens Boots Alliance in Nottingham, with over 60 participants from Forum members. We welcomed three new member companies to the consortium.

Building on the growing momentum around our Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring initiative for SMEs, a recent workshop explored the possibilities for low-cost digitalisation options for larger companies.

‘Pulsar’ engine was designed and constructed from scratch by Cambridge University Spaceflight (CUSF) students from the Engineering department.

John Reddaway, who has died aged 92, was a Cambridge engineer who introduced what became known as the “Reddaway plan”, a pioneering approach that brought engineering students face-to-face with the practical demands of manufacturing industry and which remains the inspiration for much teaching and training at the IfM today.

In March 2019, a series of IfM-related events were held in Tokyo, Japan to develop mutual learning opportunities between Japan and the UK.

Dr Jag Srai has been appointed as the new Co-Chair of the Cambridge Global Food Security Interdisciplinary Research Centre, replacing Professor Chris Gilligan.

We threw open our doors once again this year for an exciting afternoon for families, with robots, lasers, microscopes and virtual reality.

Tim Minshall provided an enthusiastic keynote at the Business Weekly Awards, celebrating Cambridge's 3Cs - creativity, collaboration and change.

A tour of the IfM included a visit to our robot lab, photonics, and a chance to try out our virtual reality gear.

This well-deserved award for Kate Willsher, IfM ECS's Chief Operations Officer, recognises positive impact in leadership practice and leading teams.

The Future of Open Innovation Practices Day was hosted by the IfM in Cambridge on 13^th February, as the culmination of the EC-funded project Science2Society.

An exciting culmination to an innovation project in Thailand, using a creative approach to upcycling waste products, saw one of the local entrepreneurial teams win a design award.

Scientists Should Spend Time in Industries, Learn Their Problems

Professor Sam Turner from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult joined us at the IfM on 11^th February, in the fourth guest talk in our ‘Distinguished Speakers’ series.

IfM and IfM ECS support teams were proud to receive a 2018 University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor’s Professional Services Award; well-earned recognition of the amazing work that goes into making the IfM such a friendly, collaborative and innovative place at which to work and study.

Contribute to the latest research into the digitalisation of roadmapping by taking a survey on the customer perspectives. If you have used roadmapping in your organisation or taken part in roadmapping workshops, we would appreciate your feedback.

The Future of Engineering special report, published in The Times, addresses the concerns occupying the sector's leaders, featuring an opinion piece by Prof Steve Evans.

The Centre for Technology Management is offering the opportunity for an organisation to participate in their research programme – specifically helping to plan/enhance digital transformation initiatives through the use of roadmapping.

The Open Innovation Forum’s annual pitching competition, organised by IfM for start-ups in the food, drink and FMCG sectors, has been won this year by an ingenious, portable DNA test which can rapidly identify contamination risks in food.

IfM played a key role at the largest manufacturing event in the UK, Digital Manufacturing Week, with speakers, workshops, our exhibition stand, and plenty of engagement. Catch up with what you missed. 

The latest issue of IfM Review features outstanding examples of recent collaborative projects across the IfM.

We were lucky to be joined on 30 Oct by Dr Leo Christodoulou of The Boeing Company, who talked to an engaged IfM audience about the exciting engineering challenges of aerospace manufacturing.

The Cambridge Service Alliance Industry Day considered the question 'Disruptor or Disrupted?' as its theme, looking at the next generation of digital technologies and the impact on service delivery. 

A packed programme at the 22nd Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium featured keynote talks from senior executives and thought leaders.

IfM co-hosts roundtable for international experts on manufacturing foresight and policy analysis.

CSTI brings together policymakers and researchers to explore ‘place-based’ funding programmes.

We are pleased to announce a new partnership between IfM Education and Consultancy Services and EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation.

MET students displayed their original products, designed to have real business potential for an identified market. 2018 projects include Hexamill, Leaflogger, Soap for Life, the Hyperbot Pro, and several more creative inventions.

Leaders and senior executives from industry, government and academia gathered together for a lively and thought-provoking annual Briefing Day at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) on 17th May.

The IfM's Executive and Professional Education programme has won the prestigious EFMD Silver Award for its learning partnership with Atos and Paderborn University.

Children in local primary schools around Cambridge have been learning more about ‘How Stuff Gets Made’ thanks to a programme being delivered by engineering students and researchers and the Faculty of Education.

Research from the Institute for Manufacturing will be discussed at the Future Oil & Gas conference in Aberdeen on 12 June 2018.

The Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), part of the Department of Engineering, has been selected to help enhance the Internet of Things (IoT) as part of a new collaborative project.

Policy Links presented the results of a study on international approaches to innovation policy, commissioned by the Brazilian Industrial Board (CNI).

Budding young engineers and scientists were treated to a plethora of exhibits at the West Cambridge site on the last Saturday in March.

ReMediES partners meet at the IfM to report on progress as this phase of the project nears completion.

IfM Education and Consultancy Services are a delivery partner for the Sharing in Growth programme which has just won the Semta Innovation Award.

In an article for Pharma Horizon, Dr Ettore Settanni and Dr Jag Srai propose a groundbreaking new framework for modelling supply chains in the pharmaceutical sector.

Dr Jag Srai, Head of IfM's Centre for International Manufacturing, is taking part in a three-day workshop in Delhi to launch the TIGR2ESS project.

Dr Srai has written a blog, been interviewed for a podcast and guest edited the World Economic Forum's Agenda Weekly Expert Edition, sharing insights on digital supply chains with WEF's community of experts. 

Rapid advances in production technologies, particularly when allied with the digitalisation of manufacturing, promise a huge range of opportunities for national governments and individual firms.

Newton Director Andrew Hawes shares some of the secrets behind his life-business success and some fond memories from his time at Cambridge.

Katjana Lange is developing novel techniques for ultrafast machining of high temperature superconductor nanostructures at the Centre for Industrial Photonics. 

The UK Government has announced £5.4 million in funding for a new centre to champion the digital revolution in the built environment.

An innovative method that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and visual recognition technology to rapidly reveal insights into consumer food trends has won the 2017 Open Innovation Forum Food and FMCG Pitching Competition.

Professor Duncan McFarlane discusses the advances, challenges and questions that manufacturers need to think about when embarking on their IIoT journey.

In an article for The Manufacturer, Dr Jag Srai, Head of the IfM's Centre for International Manufacturing, considers how globalisation may be changing and what that means for global supply chains.

We are at the Smart Factory Expo in Liverpool tomorrow and Thursday, 15th and 16th November. Come and see us on Stand D12.

Dr Ajith Parlikad's project to develop Smart Manufacturing technologies in India has been shortlisted for the 2017 Newton Prize.

A paper co-authored by IfM and CSIC investigators has been awarded the Telford Premium prize from ICE Publishing.

Professor Tim Minshall, the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation, has become the new Head of the IfM, taking over from Professor Andy Neely.

The second annual IfM Digital Supply Chains Consortium meeting took place in Cambridge on 27th September, with representatives from organisations including ABB, Caterpillar, Grundfos, IKEA and Philips Lighting.

Senior industrialists, policymakers and academics came together for the annual Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium, to discuss emerging trends in global manufacturing.

Held at the British Embassy in Tokyo, the workshop set out to support the advanced manufacturing stream of the UK-Japan Industrial Policy Dialogue.

Should we automate? Professor Duncan McFarlane gave a sell-out talk on the future of automation to Cambridge alumni.

Dr Tim Minshall has been appointed as the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge.

MET student James Gard and fellow Cambridge Engineering student and LEGO enthusiast, Jamil Jami, are competing in a new Channel 4 series to win the title of ‘LEGO Masters’.

This workshop was aimed at providing key concepts about innovation management, discussing international experiences in manufacturing policy, and sharing experiences with colleagues with a common interest in RTOs.

Dr Mukesh Kumar talks about his work on food security as part of the Cambridge Global Food Security Strategic Research Initiative. 

The IfM's Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) part 2B students recently returned from a successful two-week overseas research project to Japan.

In this article in The Manufacturer, Dr Tim Minshall considers the UK 'skills' gap in additive manufacturing and what this means for the technology's expansion in Britain.

IfM's Deputy Head Dr Tim Minshall was interviewed on Cambridge TV about a new project to promote manufacturing career opportunities to young people.

The IfM’s Centre for International Manufacturing is part of the Cambridge team working with Indian scientists to bring about a second Green Revolution. This project is one of two Cambridge-led research collaborations that have been awarded almost £15 million in funding.

The decisions that the UK Government makes in response to Brexit could either add billions to the nation’s economy or risk decimating the country’s more than 264,000 manufacturing SMEs.

The IfM is a partner in a £5 million research collaboration that is set to revolutionise the UK's internet infrastructure.

Na Jiao won first runner-up and the best originality award for the international competition on Second Life for Retired Batteries from Electric Vehicles held in Hong Kong.

Dr Nicky Athanassopoulou discusses the key enablers and barriers to improving interfaces between universities and SMEs that boost innovation in the latest edition of The Manufacturer.

Steve Evans was a keynote speaker and Q&A moderator at the first WFSGI World Cycling Forum 2017 on 7-8 June 2017 in Porto, Portugal.

Two manufacturing engineering graduates, Susan Long and Abi Bush, are changing the face of humanitarian aid using innovative technology solutions to help people around the world that are affected by disaster or war.

Dr Jag Srai talks about the future of pharmaceutical supply chains in the latest issue of the University of Cambridge's research magazine, Research Horizons.

A team of University of Cambridge engineers who are hoping to fuel an electric bus revolution are a step closer to their goal after their next-generation nanotechnology battery was commended in the 2017 Emerging Technologies Competition.

Professor Steve Evans, Head of IfM's Centre for Industrial Sustainability, gives talk at Hay Festival.

Deputy Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, Dr Mohamed Zaki, discusses the pitfalls of relying on simplistic numerical values to measure customer loyalty in Marketing Week.

IfM's Professor Duncan McFarlane (Head of DIAL) and Ajith Parlikad (Head of Asset Management) have co-authored an ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) Guidance Paper on how new technologies will transform the infrastructures of the future.

Strategies for specific emerging technologies are being developed in the UK, USA, and Japan. A workshop exploring the ‘Lessons Learned and Emerging Practices’ from UK activities was hosted to inform future strategy development and the implications for policy makers.

The UK’s Institute of Physics has engaged the roadmapping expertise of IfM ECS to support IOP Members to deliver transformational changes for society.

Professor Steve Evans will talk about sustainable industrial initiatives such as factories that create new products from waste at this year's Hay Festival.

Advanced economies no longer have comfortably long 'windows of opportunity' to translate new knowledge from research into manufacturing.

The IfM has contributed to a recently published OECD book Next Production Revolution: Implications for Governments and Business. 

Industry experts at the forefront of software IP management presented at the latest Strategic Intellectual Property Forum.

Professor Andy Neely discusses five key issues manufacturing industry leaders should focus on if they want to survive in the age of digital disruption in the February issues of The Manufacturer.

On Thursday 11^th May, over 100 delegates from across industry, government and academia gathered at the IfM in Cambridge to consider the implications of the next production revolution.

Dr Mukesh Kumar leads research in supply chain resilience at the IfM. He describes how his work is helping to tackle one of this century’s most important challenges: food safety.

In an article written for The Conversation, Dr Frank Tietze, describes how open intellectual property (IP) can contribute to society by accelerating the uptake of sustainable technologies and systems.

IfM research is helping to contribute to global industrial sustainability - economic, environmental and societal - by addressing global "Grand Challenges". Read about some of the high-impact research being undertaken through IfM's research-meets-practice model.

A passion for technology innovation and entrepreneurship and a desire to contribute to Malaysia’s burgeoning ICT industry is the driving force behind Bang Ming Yong’s seemingly endless energy.

The IfM’s NanoManufacturing group, under the leadership of Dr Michaël De Volder, is developing nanotechnologies to supply clean water for developing nations and build better batteries for renewable energy. Dr De Volder explains some of the strategies his team is employing to realise these goals.

IfM Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS) has helped more than 300 public and private sector organisations with their strategic and technology innovation planning through the powerful technique of roadmapping.

Dr Maria Holgado from the IfM’s Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS) has been researching maintenance and particularly how it can make a vital contribution to a company’s long-term sustainability – when measured economically, socially and environmentally.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and droughts: when a natural disaster strikes, relief organisations react by providing medical treatment, food, water and shelter. However, in these difficult and chaotic circumstances mistakes are inevitably made and supply networks often prove to be insufficiently resilient.

University of Cambridge engineers and scientists from Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing and Cambridge Analytical Biotechnology groups have joined forces to develop an on-the-spot low-cost tool for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases.

The IfM's Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS) has been working closely with leading Sri Lankan garment manufacturing companies to transform waste streams into high value products through innovative remanufacturing processes and new business models.

IfM's Centre for Industrial Sustainability is focused on increasing our understanding of how to transform industrial behaviour to develop more sustainable environments, economies and societies. In this article, Centre Director, Professor Steve Evans, explains that increasing sustainability should not cost more.

Experts from across Europe gathered in Cambridge recently to examine what mobility in Europe might look like in 2040.

IfM Centre for Industrial Sustainability Director, Professor Steve Evans, and doctoral student Paulo Savaget Nascimento have teamed up with a Brazilian non-governmental organisation (NGO) to win a prestigious grant to help low-income entrepreneurs living in the slums of Belo Horizonte.

Young Design Engineer of the Year and MET alumnus Christopher Bellamy is using his innovative design skills to forge an exciting and diverse global career.

Dr Chandler Velu, head of the Business Model Innovation research programme, has been interviewed by The Economist Intelligent Unit for their report ‘Innovating at scale: Business model innovation in the UK’. 

Dr Jag Srai discusses how companies can take practical steps toward the digitalisation of their operations and supply chains in the latest issue of The Manufacturer.

An innovative outreach project to challenge outdated views of manufacturing and inspire primary school children to think about how we make things has won funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Governments need to take into account the increasing complexity of modern industries when developing new policies to support innovation, according to a new report on global advanced manufacturing.

IfM ECS's Policy Links team has been working with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to develop a strategic roadmap for productive development policy in Trinidad and Tobago.

Dr Imoh Ilevbare, Product Manager (Innovation and Technology Management) at IfM Education and Consultancy Services, provides some insights into staying on the front-foot in a complex and rapidly-shifting political and technological landscape.

IfM intellectual property (IP) expert Dr Frank Tietze discussed the strategy behind China's recent surge in patent filing in the Financial Times today.

Dr Mohamed Zaki has been appointed as Deputy Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance (CSA).

Dr James Moultrie has been awarded one of the University of Cambridge's Pilkington Prizes - awarded to individuals who have shown teaching of exceptional quality.

Global heavy industry manufacturer IHI Corporation is benefitting from better goal alignment and increased dialogue across departments within the company as a result of integrating roadmapping into its business planning strategy.

At IfM we run a programme of short courses designed to develop delegates' capabilities in a number of key areas of IfM expertise.

Professor Andy Neely, Head of IfM, has been appointed as the University of Cambridge's new Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Enterprise and Business Relations.

IfM has just published a report, commissioned by BSI (British Standards Institute), which looks at the challenges for UK manufacturers of ‘going digital’ – and how standards and good practice can help the UK benefit from the digital revolution.

Professor Andy Neely, Head of the IfM and the Cambridge Service Alliance, suggests that industry leaders should focus on five key areas if they want to survive the journey to a digital future.

Professor Andy Neely, Head of the IfM, introduces the IfM's take on digital manufacturing.

Eoin O’Sullivan, Head of the  Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, reflects on different policy perspectives, priorities and initiatives in key manufacturing economies (USA, Germany and Japan) and considers the implications for the UK.

The IfM is part of a new research hub to transform the way medicines and other high value materials are made.

IfM alumnus Keno Mario-Ghae has been named Young Engineer of the Year at the National Microelectronics Institute’s (NMI) 2016 Awards.

Start-up Nuritas, which uses artificial intelligence and DNA analysis to create health-benefiting ingredients has won the 5th Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event held in London on 23 November at Food Matters Live.

Stewart McTavish, Director of ideaSpace, Cambridge’s hub for early stage innovation and CTM Head Dr Tim Minshall reflect on how Stewart came to be running ideaSpace, how he has seen his vision for it become a reality, what he plans to do next – and how he invented crowdfunding.

Dr Jag Srai, Head of the IfM’s Centre for International Manufacturing (CIM), and his team have developed a new way to help companies embrace the challenges and opportunities of digitalising the extended supply chain. 

Dr Alexandra Brintrup, recently appointed to the new post of Lecturer in Digital Manufacturing, explains how the IfM’s Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory (DIAL) has been at the forefront of digital thinking for the last two decades with its research into intelligent processes, products and services.

Issue 6 of the Institute for Manufacturing Review is now online. Articles include the digitalisation of manufacturing economies, new ways to manage the digital end-to-end supply chain and the importance of standards and best practice in the digital era.

IfM Head, Andy Neely and Head of the IfM's new Policy Links unit, Carlos Lopez Gomez, have written an article on the post-Brexit challenges for UK manufacturers for Prospect Magazine. 

Former IfM MET student, Christopher Bellamy was named Young Design Engineer of the Year at the British Engineering Excellence Awards.

The IfM has won a Cambridge BID Customer Experience Special Recognition Award for its participation in the Cambridge Science Festival 2016.

Dr Hamid Mughal, Director of Manufacturing at Rolls-Royce, visited the IfM this week to share his thoughts on UK manufacturing.

Researchers from the IfM’s NanoManufacturing group have created an innovative carbon nanotube structure which allows them to create extremely flexible batteries with superior performance.

Professor Andy Neely has been invited to be a panellist at the Financial Times Future of Manufacturing Summit on Tuesday 4 October in London.

Senior leaders from major food and FMCG firms, part of the Open Innovation (OI) Forum, are holding a pitching event on 23 November at Food Matters Live, ExCel, London.

Professor Andy Neely, Head of the Institute of Manufacturing and Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, has been awarded an Achievement Medal for Manufacturing.

The IfM has published a new consultation paper looking at the UK’s High Value Manufacturing (HVM) landscape over the next 15 to 20 years.

A revolutionary continuous-flow waffle machine designed by undergraduate students at the IfM has been entered into the James Dyson Award 2016 competition.

Jag Srai, Head of CIM, gives Cambridge Business magazine an insight into what the IfM is doing to address the challenges involved in the modern supply chain.

The 2016 annual R&D Management Conference was hosted in Cambridge by CTM between 3 and 6 July, with more than 450 delegates from 35 countries.

A roadmapping workshop facilitated by IfM ECS brought academics and industrialists together to develop an industrially-relevant strategy for bulk superconductivity research.

September is just around the corner – and at the IfM this marks the start of a busy season packed with courses, conferences and events for our industrial and academic delegates.

Wenrong Lu, doctoral researcher, presented DIAL’s latest work on data mining for inventory management at the 8th IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control (MIM 2016).

The annual R&D Management Conference was held in Cambridge between 3 and 6 July, with more than 450 delegates from 30 countries.

Researchers from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory, Philip Woodall, Vaggelis Giannikas and Wenrong Lu, visited YH Global’s headquarters in June as part of the ITALI project.

Dr Jag Srai, Head of the IfM's Centre for International Manufacturing, was a panellist at The Economist's Manufacturing Forum.

Researchers from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory Raj Srinivasan and Ajith Parlikad had a new book, Decision-Making in Asset Management, published by the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE).

Two IfM graduate students reap the rewards of their entrepreneurial approach to agri-tech.

Researchers?from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory?won the best paper award at the 2016 International Conference on Information Quality.?

Alena Puchkova, research associate in DIAL, participated in the AGIFORS Airline Operations Conference that was held on the 16-19 May 2016 in Seattle, USA.

The report follows a workshop which explored effective practices for building and nurturing effective international collaborations in manufacturing research which was hosted for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

Professor Duncan McFarlane talked about how we should be thinking about automation at a summit on collaborative innovation at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Our new White Paper looks at the theoretical challenges underpinning business model innovation and makes recommendations for academia, business, funding councils and government.

The Business Model Innovation White Paper (developed jointly by the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter) looks at the challenges and opportunities presented by the unifying concept of the business model.

Intellectual property (IP) is clearly fundamental to technology-based companies but Dr Frank Tietze from the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management thinks that many firms can benefit from taking a more strategic approach to IP management.

Dr Imoh Ilevbare, Product Manager for IfM Education and Consultancy Services, describes the IfM’s approach to developing business tools and processes from cutting-edge research.

Alan Thorne of the Cambridge Auto ID Centre at the IfM considers the latest developments in RFID ID and its benefits.

On 12 May, the IfM held its annual Briefing Day – attended by more than 150 senior industrialists and policymakers who heard about the IfM’s latest research and the work it is doing with industry and government.

The third Strategic Intellectual Property Forum, a half-day seminar designed to help companies better understand innovation and IP management, will take place on 24 May at the IfM.

Jag Srai, Head of the IfM’s Centre for International Manufacturing, took part in The Forum, a recent BBC World Service programme discussing the history of the wheel and its twenty-first century uses in modern logistics and performance art.

Friction is immensely important to us – without it, for example, we could not walk or even crawl – yet it is only 50 years since a special word –  ‘tribology’ – was first coined to describe its study.

Dr Chander Velu, head of the IfM’s Business Model Innovation research programme, explains why the time has come to put business model innovation under the microscope.

IfM’s Head, Andy Neely explains how a focus on offering services can capture added value for manufacturing businesses.

The IfM’s Design Management Group uses experience-based and academically-underpinned tools to transform a company’s product range, deliver sustainable growth and produce improvements to productivity.

James Moultrie looks for universal appeal when beauty in is the eye of the beholder.

James Moultrie, Head the IfM’s Design Management Group, argues that good design is just as important for industrial products as it is for consumer goods such as cars and electronics. 

The Cambridge Value Mapping Tool has been developed and refined over the last five years. It uses a structured and visual approach to identify ‘value uncaptured’ in the form of failed value exchanges: value missed, destroyed, surplus, and absence.

Dr Vaggelis Giannikas, research associate in the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory, has been awarded a Cambridge-PSL-French Embassy Fund to establish a new collaboration with Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University (PSL).

Researchers from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory, Dr Vaggelis Giannikas and Dr Alexandra Brintrup represented the Cambridge Auto-ID lab at the GS1 Global Forum in Brussels in February.

Tariq Masood and Brian Robertson from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory attended quarterly meeting of Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) - Advanced Manufacturing of Homes, Buildings and Infrastructure (AMHBI) which was held at Grundfos Pumps Ltd, Sunderland on 15th April 2016.

Dr Ajith Parlikad, Head of the IfM’s Asset Management Group, explains how effective asset management can deliver significant value both for manufacturers and for infrastructure owners and operators – and how his team is developing a ‘social network of things’ which has the potential to revolutionise the way in which organisations manage their assets.

Frank Tietze knows more than most about IP and hopes to help Cambridge and the UK do a lot better in the global IP charts.

The Cambridge Service Alliance have launched a new white paper 'Supplying Innovation - Unlocking Innovative Behaviours in the Supply Chain'.

How BASF’s experiences are shared by many of the companies taking part in a research project run by the IfM’s Strategic Technology and Innovation Management Consortium.

Professor Bill O’Neill from the Centre for Industrial Photonics at the IfM shows how new techniques are pointing the way to new processes at the nanoscale. 

Dr Steve Hoath, Senior Research Associate at the Inkjet Research Centre of the IfM explains how his and colleagues’ work is focused on understanding the underlying science of inkjet printing.

Zhenglin Liang participated in The System Engineering and Management Science Conference which took place in Beijing from the 1st – 2nd April 2016.

Roger Connor is President, Global Manufacturing & Supply at GSK. He met Judith Shawcross, Head of Professional and Executive Development at the IfM, to talk about the time he spent in Cambridge on the Manufacturing Leaders’ Programme (MLP) – and how it remains relevant to the challenges he faces today.

Issue 5 of the Institute for Manufacturing Review is now available online. Articles include the importance of business model innovation, advances in inkjet printing and fluid engineering, the 'social network of things' and the benefits and challenges of embedding roadmapping.

Understanding fluids and their behaviour is key to developing new manufacturing processes and a wide range of applications. Professor Ian Hutchings, Head of the Inkjet Research Centre, and Dr Ronan Daly, Head of the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing Group, explain how the IfM’s research in this area has evolved over the last ten years – and where they see it heading.

Read the March issue of the Centre for Technology Management Newsletter.

Jon Parkins has been announced as the EPSRC Science Photo Competition entry winner for the Innovation category.

IfM ECS has recently worked with Colour Marketing Services, a manufacturer of colour systems and samples.

More than 1000 visitors of all ages visited the IfM on Saturday 19 March for the annual Cambridge Science Festival.

A new book Circular Business: Collaborate and Circulate has been published today.

The People, Projects and Activities 2016 report provides an insight into the range of work we do in all areas of manufacturing, from carbon nanotubes to global supply chains, from supporting national R&D strategies to understanding the impact of the ‘digital revolution’.

From wind farms to data storage, from deodorants to floor tiles, tribology is involved in many aspects of modern life – yet most people have never heard of the word, let alone know what it means.

The IfM’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) and its knowledge exchange unit, Policy Links, held a ‘smart specialisation’ workshop this week bringing together the agri-tech community in the East of England. The workshop was designed to identify the distinctive strengths of the region as one of Europe’s leading agri-tech clusters. 

On Thursday 25 February the Centre for International Manufacturing took part in the launch of Leeds University's Cities themed Design and Production Group.

Dr Alena Puchkova, research associate in the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory, presented a paper called "Balancing push and pull strategies within the production system" at the 7th IFAC Conference on Management and Control of Production and Logistics.

Preparations are in full swing for a record attendance at this year’s R&D Management Conference, hosted by the Centre for Technology Management at Churchill College.

This new Practice Guide examines the front end of innovation and considers how this can be organised using formal processes to avoid such failures in innovation processes, and to improve the success of the innovation pipeline.

In this interview podcast, Andy Neely discusses his views on how the manufacturing landscape wouldn't be the same without academia.

Today sees the launch of the Manufacturing metrics review report lead by Professor Sir Mike Gregory prepared for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox and his wife Marta Sahagún de Fox visited the IfM last week. They were in Cambridge to understand more about the future trends in manufacturing and their implications for Mexico’s economy.

The Liverpool City Region (LCR) has a vision to become a global manufacturing hotspot with the smartest networks, talent, technology and investment.

Dr Jag Srai, Head of the IfM’s Centre for International Manufacturing, was interviewed for ITV’s Anglia News last week about the prospects for manufacturing in the region.

In January 2016 the IfM’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) brought together a high profile group of policymakers and practitioners from UK and German institutions to share experiences and identify best practices in implementing innovation policies.

The new Alconbury Enterprise Campus in Cambridgeshire needed a clear vision to develop the economic potential of the exciting new facility. It required a better understanding of the sector strengths of the region, and to identify any gaps that could be used to inform decisions on training provision for its technical and vocational training centre.

Dr Tim Minshall who leads the bit-by-bit project at the IfM explains why Additive Manufacturing (or 3D Printing) could have huge application in sectors from cars to space stations.

More than 50 manufacturing companies visited the IfM last week. A mix of SMEs and multinationals, they were all there to learn how automation can help grow their businesses, improve their productivity and create better working environments for their staff.

A new Executive Briefing from the Cambridge Service Alliance, 'Seven Critical Success Factors in the Shift to Services’, sets out a roadmap for making the shift to services journey.

What more can universities and companies do to develop effective and mutually beneficial strategic partnerships? A report by Tomas Coates Ulrichsen and Eoin O’Sullivan at the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) at the IfM focuses on this important question.

Dr Veronica Martinez explains that UK manufacturing companies often cannot compete on price alone, while product differentiation is getting more difficult and expensive. Services are the key to creating a more diversified business and to building stronger customer relationships, she argues.

On 28th January DIAL hosted the Smart Products Through-Life workshop which was second in the series of three, which aims to establish collaboration and outline the research roadmap required to support smart products through-life.

Dr Rob Phaal from the Centre for Technology Management at the IfM in this short video makes the case for lean and agile strategy as a source of competitive advantage.

A quarterly meeting of Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) – Advanced Manufacturing of Homes, Buildings and Infrastructure (AMHBI) was held at BRE, Watford on 22 January 2016 with a consortium dinner the night before. The meeting was jointly organised by Laing O’Rourke, BRE and University of Cambridge - DIAL and Engineering Design Centre (EDC).

DIAL's research associate Vaggelis Giannikas and PhD student Wernong Lu visited China during the Singles' Day festival in November as part of an ongoing research project between DIAL and YH Global.

I've been struck recently by the range of people talking about new digital and data developments in manufacturing. Of particular interest has been the apparent explosion of discussion about industrie 4.0, internet plus and the industrial internet.

Cambridge Auto-ID lab will be presented at the GS1 Global Forum by DIAL's researchers Vaggelis Giannikas and Alexandra Brintrup.

Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory group is currently engaged in scoping a research project to look at Enhanced Repair of Domestic Appliances.

DIAL's Torben Jess had a unique opportunity to work as an intern with Boeing Research and Technology in St Louis for three months.

Andy Neely, Head of the at the IfM, explains why he thinks this is a wonderful time to be involved with manufacturing.

In this webinar Andy Neely revisits original research conducted by the Cambridge Service Alliance which set out to answer the question - 'what capabilities do firms need to successfully innovate their business model for services and solutions'.

2016 promises to be an exciting year for everyone involved in manufacturing as we continue to embrace new technologies, new business models and changing customer expectations - as well as the increasingly pressing need to run businesses in a way which will preserve our planet for future generations.

Congratulations to Tadas Kartanas, who was selected as the 2nd best short oral presentation at the recent 2nd Vita Scientia conference at the Joint Centre for Life Sciences in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Judith Shawcross, Head of Professional and Executive Development at the IfM, explains why manufacturing and technology companies need scientists, engineers and technologists who can operate at a strategic business level, work across functional divides and integrate their technical knowledge into business planning.

Governments around the world have high hopes for Additive Manufacturing (AM) – also widely referred to as ‘3D printing’. But if it is to have the economic impact they are looking for, there needs to be a better understanding of both the huge opportunities AM presents as well as the barriers that may prevent it realising its potential.

At the Cambridge Service Alliance we are exploring new service-based business models and, in particular, what the business to business (B2B) world needs to learn from consumer-focused companies.

The Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory (DIAL) at the IfM are working with companies to develop smart ways of using data to improve performance and increase resilience.

Yoanna Shams from the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing (FIAM) group and the CDT in Ultra Precision attended the MRS meeting in Boston for a five-day conference covering a wide range of Materials Science and Engineering topics. Yoanna presented her work on combining inkjet printing with ultra-fast laser ablation to manufacture nanomaterial-based sensors.

The preliminary results of IfM Education and Consultancy Services’ (IfM ECS) three-year work helping SMEs through the PrISMS programme have just been released. 

These are interesting times for global manufacturers. At our recent annual Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium, we learnt first-hand from companies such as Cisco, Jaguar Land Rover and Schneider Electric about the radical transformations they are undergoing as they move towards increasingly connected, smarter, digitally-enabled supply chains.

Four PhD students at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) participated in the 2015 Carl Zeiss Photography competition, with one winning second prize.

The Overseas Research Project is a two-week project organised by the final-year Manufacturing Engineering students.

The IfM has joined forces with Cambridge-based intellectual property firm Avidity IP to start the Strategic Intellectual Property Forum.

Watch the video with Dr Jag Srai from the panel session at Pharma Integrates 2015 on the topoc of Advanced Manufacturing – Moving the Contracting Relationships On?

On Tuesday 17 November, 18 innovators pitched their new ideas for food-related products and services to members of the Open Innovation Forum – a group of senior executives from major food and FMCG firms, such as Mars, Unilever, General Mills, Tate & Lyle, Tesco and Crown Packaging.

IfM Education and Consultancy Services has helped EU-funded project Road4FAME to create a roadmap to align future information and communication technology research with the needs of European manufacturing businesses.

Imagine a world where factories clean the water they use, where the air is higher quality leaving the factory than it is coming in, where locally available materials are used in advanced processes to create personalised versions of global products, and where everyone wants to work in factories because they offer the highest value jobs.

Report from the UK Manufacturing Commission Inquiry into Industrial Sustainability in which vital measures are outlined that government and industry should take to ensure that British manufacturing is here to stay.

The Manufacturing Industry Education Research Group at the IfM has hosted the 3rd Annual Symposium of the UK & Ireland Engineering Education Research Network.

Dr Jag Srai from the Centre for International Manufacturing at the IfM has recently taken part in an interview for Cambridge TV.

Jonathan Duck took the Production Engineering Tripos (PET) 1981-1983, when it was only in its third year. It was renamed the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) soon after.

Stainless Metalcraft is a high specification fabrication and machining company planning to triple its turnover helped by expert facilitation from IfM ECS through the Civil Nuclear Sharing in Growth programme.

Offering basic tips for researchers preparing grant applications including advice on how to communicate the novelty, strengths and importance of your research ideas, as well as how to convey your abilities to plan, manage and deliver on your project.

Head of NanoManufacturing at the IfM, Dr Michaël de Volder explains why manufacturing carbon nanotubes is so difficult – and so important.

Read the November issue of the Centre for Technology Management Newsletter.

As the annual Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium marks its twentieth year Dr Tomás Harrington, Dr Jag Srai and Paul Christodoulou from the IfM’s Centre for International Manufacturing (CIM) reflect on the new supply chain thinking that is emerging from companies such as Cisco, Coca-Cola, Jaguar Land Rover, Johnson Matthey, Cambridge University Press and Schneider Electric.

IfM Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS) has developed a bespoke executive education programme for IT experts at the global technology company, Atos.

This issue includes articles on: 50 years of manufacturing at Cambridge – research, education and practice; The IfM’s distinctive approach to science, technology & innovation policy; The manufacturing challenges of nanotechnology; New thinking about next generation supply chains; Executive and professional development: how experts at Atos are becoming ‘trusted advisors'; And an alumni interview with Jonathan Duck - MET over Lunch.

We are pleased to report that a quarterly meeting of Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) Consortium was held at Thorn Lighting, Spennymoor, Durham on 16th October 2015.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory (DIAL) – having started in 1995 as the Manufacturing Automation and Control Systems Group and briefly morphing into the Centre for Distributed Automation and Control or CDAC.

The EPSRC Centre for Industrial Sustainability has published its fourth Annual Review.

2015 is an important year for the IfM. This October sees the 50th annual intake of students on its MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management. This was a pioneering course when it was first conceived and its twenty-first century graduates are more sought after than ever. October 2015 is also when Professor Sir Mike Gregory retires after 20 years leading manufacturing research, education and practice at the University of Cambridge and we welcome his successor, Professor Andy Neely.

The reliability engineering community has been battling with the difficulty of modelling the complex behaviour of asset deterioration. One of the key research areas receiving increasing attention is to use mathematical models to capture the phenomenon of dependences among components within multi-component assets.

The IfM’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy aims to give policymakers the information they need to provide effective support for emerging technologies and industries.

In a world of data enabled ecosystems - Podcasts, presentations and posters.

Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction held an industrial workshop on Asset Management at the Institute for Manufacturing on the 28th of September. The workshop brought together practitioners across different infrastructure sectors to discuss the emerging challenges in asset management, and to help the Centre set directions for future research.

IfM ECS has delivered a roadmapping project for the UK’s marine industries on behalf of Innovate UK. 

In this age of rapid and escalating change, what can businesses do to flourish? Take a look at their supply chains, say researchers in the Centre for International Manufacturing, part of the IfM, based on their research in the UK and India.

Today is my first day as the Head of the IfM. My predecessor, Mike Gregory, leaves us in great shape to carry on doing what we do best - developing new insights into manufacturing and sharing them as widely as possible to help build successful businesses and industries.

David Wolffe, who graduated from the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos in 1986, has been awarded 2015 Good Design Award.

The 2016 programme launch meeting will be hosted in Cambridge on Wednesday 18 November, providing interested companies with an opportunity to shape the programme for next year.

The latest in a series of CSIC Future Technologies Workshops, Big Data – the Art of the Possible, attracted 50 leading professionals and academics from more than 30 organisations keen to discuss big data in the context of smart infrastructure and construction.

Innovation is key to growth – but how do you manage it efficiently and how do you go about deciding what new product or process to invest in?

Following the recent release of capital spend and funds for recruitment, a full Remedies consortium partner meeting was held at the IfM Cambridge to review progress on individual project workstreams and agree forward plans.

Nearly 300 of the UK’s top academics, industrialists and government representatives were in Cambridge last week discussing how to support innovation and world-class manufacturing in the UK.

75 Polish scientists have spent their summer in Cambridge, learning how to manage collaborative research projects and bring high-technology products to market. 

The Centre for International Manufacturing is now hiring for Research Assistants/Associates.

Qingxin Zhang from the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing (FIAM) group attended the Deans’ Forum at the University of Tokyo for a five-day intensive lecture programme about microfluidics and its biomedical applications.

Big data has been touted as the 'new oil for business', representing incredible potential financial rewards. How should they go about using it, asks Professor Andy Neely.

Big data has been touted as the 'new oil for business', representing incredible potential financial rewards. How should they go about using it, asks Professor Andy Neely.

What would it take to enable a piece of infrastructure to take care of itself, asks Duncan McFarlane of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure?

£11.2m of government funding for the REMEDIES (RE-configuring MEDIcines End-to-end Supply) project has been approved, meaning work on the project can accelerate into its next phase.

Podcast Interview with Dr Veronica Martinez on 'Making the Shift to Services in the Animal Health Industry'.

A new report discussing key lessons and effective practices from UK and US experiences for building and nurturing effective and mutually beneficial strategic university-industry partnerships.

Dr Mohamed Zaki describes recent research from the Cambridge Service Alliance into data-driven business models.

Most of you have probably heard the Internet of Things, or the IoT, mentioned but have you ever wondered what it means and where it all began?

Keno Mario-Ghai, who graduated last year, was filmed at the IfM for a television programme to go out on the Discovery Channel next year.

The Centre for Technology Management have launched a research study to better understand strategic decisions that need to be taken in the different stages of technology development projects.

In July, researchers from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory were actively involved in the IEEE INDIN 2015 conference on Industrial Informatics.

We are pleased to report that a quarterly meeting of Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) was held at the Institute for Manufacturing on 17th July 2015.

Dr Ronan Daly describes new research into sensors and smart surfaces can be designed and deployed to extend the operating life of machinery and manufactured products.

In 2014 IfM helped Linde Gases develop its technologically advanced gas cylinder valve, EVOS™ Ci. On 29 June Linde received the 2015 ‘Red Dot’ award for Product Design, seeing off competition from nearly 5,000 other entries.

Leading UK academics, industrialists and senior government representatives will gather at the fourth EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference at the University of Cambridge on 17 and 18 September 2015.

The EPSRC Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS) held its Fourth Annual Conference on 6-7 July at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. 

Dr Alena Puchkova presented a paper titled "Towards Lean and Resilient Production" at the Symposium on Information Control in Manufacturing (INCOM 2015).

Listen now to the podcast of Dr Mukesh Kumar Podcast from the UK-India food supply chains: sustainability and food security conference.

Pitch your ideas and products to senior leaders from major food and FMCG firms at the 4th Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event on 17 November at Food Matters Live, ExCel, London.

Researchers from the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory visited YH Global in China for a two-week field trip in June as part of the ITALI project.

Happy Academy is one of more than 100 smaller manufacturers that IfM ECS is working with as part of the PrISMS programme – and this case study highlights the difference it has made.

The Institute for Manufacturing is launching the Strategic Intellectual Property Forum (SIPF) to support companies in using their IP when making strategic decisions. The Forum's first event will be held on Tuesday 7 July.

The latest edition of the SMe-bulletin contains information on a 'Make it Here' event, two new case studies, and reports on recent events.

dB Broadcast is one of more than 100 smaller manufacturers that IfM ECS is working with as part of the PrISMS programme – and this case study highlights the difference it has made.

CSIC’s Asset Management team based at the Institute for Manufacturing has won a prize for the Best Poster and Presentation at the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) Annual Conference 2015.

PhD student Karen Yu explains how George Lucas' Star Wars novel has influenced her work in the field of photonic lasers as part of the University of Cambridge's 'Novel Thoughts' project.

Teams of MET students completed a major design project to develop a new product with real business potential, which they then presented at the Design Show on 3 June.

Expecting the Unexpected article by CSIC's Duncan McFarlane and Tariq Masood published in Infrastructure Intelligence.

Professor Andy Neely has been appointed as the new head of the Institute for Manufacturing and Professor of Manufacturing on the retirement of Professor Sir Mike Gregory on 30 September. 

Researchers from the Institute for Manufacturing are helping to run a nationwide Call for Evidence to support the development of a UK national strategy for additive manufacturing/3D printing (AM-3DP). 

IfM Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS) is taking part in a project to advise the European Commission on priorities for research to help boost manufacturing productivity and competitiveness across Europe. 

A ten-member delegation comprising senior civil servants from various administrative sections of the Government of Pakistan paid a visit to the IfM on 25 May. 

Ecotile is one of more than 100 smaller manufacturers that IfM ECS is working with as part of the PrISMS programme – and this case study highlights the difference it has made.

The 2014 Annual Report from the Cambridge Service Alliance has been published - The Alliance is a unique global partnership between businesses and universities.

Since leaving the Department of Engineering, where she pursued the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET), alumna Lily Cheng has had a whirlwind career that now boasts President, APAC, at TripAdvisor.

IfM ECS has been working with Swindon and Wiltshire LEP and the Liverpool City Region LEP to help them develop their own vision for high value manufacturing in their regions, and to do so in a way that supports national initiatives.

Industry experts and researchers shared their insights on smart packaging and its applications in the food and drink industry in a thought leadership event held at the IfM.