The 3rd Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event, held on 19 November at Food Matters Live in London, saw some very innovative ideas presented.

Dr Mukesh Kumar from the Centre for International Manufacturing suggests that multinational manufacturers are taking unnecessary risks with their industrial investments – and he offers a solution.

Three doctoral students and a lecturer from the IfM entered images of carbon nanotube shapes, laser metal depositions and crystals into the annual Carl Zeiss Photo Competition.

Molecular Dimensions 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.

A team of researchers led by Dr Michael de Volder, Lecturer at the IfM, has created a new way of manufacturing microstructured surfaces that have novel three-dimensional textures.

Duncan McFarlane, Professor of Industrial Information Engineering and head of the IfM’s Distributed Information & Automation Laboratory (DIAL), and members of his research team have been working with Boeing since 2005, finding intelligent solutions to some challenging industrial problems.

The Institute for Manufacturing has added a new cutting-edge facility to its offering – its very own 3D printing laboratory, created to support Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) Design modules.

Featuring articles on intelligent supply and resilience, servitization, managing risk in industrial investment and new business models for sustainability as well as a case study on Linde Gases, and much more.

The Institute for Manufacturing took part in a workshop aimed at building closer links between industrialists, officials and academics involved with manufacturing in the UK and Japan.

Photofabrication is one of around 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’s dissemination arm, IfM Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS), has issued two new documents which show some of the key services it can provide for industry and government.

The Open Innovation Forum, whose members are major Food and FMCG firms, is holding the 3rd Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event on Wednesday 19 November at Food Matters Live, ExCel centre, London.

With news of 3D printed cars, houses and even food, is this the future of manufacturing? The Naked Scientists take a closer look at the workings of 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, and what this might mean for our collective futures. Tim Minshall took Kat Arney through the basics.

Dr Karen Smith has joined IfM Education and Consultancy Services to lead its work helping SMEs to develop and grow their businesses.

Throughout the month of September, a range of exciting courses and conferences is being organised across the Institute for Manufacturing, aimed at a wide range of audiences from industry, academia and government.

The UK-India Manufacturing Policy Roundtable, organised by the IfM and UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN), was held in April in New Delhi, India.

IfM Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS) is helping the government of the state of Yucatan, Mexico develop their industrial strategy.

A group of students from Chelmer Valley High School have visited the IfM to learn more about what engineers do.

More than 30 innovation leaders from major companies were hosted by Mars in Veghel, Netherlands for the June 2014 meeting of the Open Innovation Forum in the Food and FMCG Value Chain.

The Institute for Manufacturing’s research skills will be a key component of a new specialist centre dedicated to finding ways to help businesses improve efficiency in manufacturing.

Students showcased their project work at the annual Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) Design Show at the IfM.

The Centre for International Manufacturing (CIM) is leading the research programme in REMEDIES, a £23m sector-wide initiative to understand how pharmaceutical supply chains in the UK are set to change.

John Saiz, a NASA executive and formerly Chief Technology Officer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, has joined IfM Education and Consultancy Services. 

More than 80 people from 50 companies and Cambridge University met to discuss lessons and insights on how best to manage collaborative research between academia and industry. 

The Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) has released a summary of the key findings from a recent workshop on building strategic university-industry partnerships.

The importance of advanced materials as one of the UK's “eight great technologies” for future growth is discussed by Professor Bill O’Neill in a series which focuses on research into advanced materials across the University of Cambridge.

The 1st year PhD Students’ Conference, organised and run by the students at the IfM, showcased the work of 19 researchers. 

Failing to jump aboard the Big Data train will leave businesses in the dust of newer, smarter start-ups, says Andy Neely in a blog article in The Telegraph.

Are you happy with your smartphone? Bill O’Neill, Professor of Laser Engineering and Director of the IfM’s Centre for Industrial Photonics isn’t.

The Open Innovation Forum in Health was launched with a full-day workshop at the IfM looking at open innovation (OI) skills and trends and drivers in the health sector.

A new study by Chander Velu, from the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing and Mahima Kanna from the International Finance Corporation, aims to shed light on business model innovation in India over the last decade.

An article by IfM authors on manufacturing start-ups in emerging industries has been chosen as the 2014 Outstanding Paper winner by the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.

Barack Obama’s former Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing, Thomas R Kurfess, delivered the Babbage Lecture on 13 May: The Digital Future of Manufacturing, Policy and Technology Opportunities for American Innovation.

More than 150 senior representatives from industry and government as well as UK and multinational companies attended the annual IfM Briefing Day.

Strategy and priorities needed to achieve the industry’s vision.

Two highly commended papers by IfM authors have been made freely available for a month by the publishers of the journals in which they feature.

Dr Dai Morgan from the IfM’s Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS) reflects on the UK government’s recent Foresight report on the future of manufacturing.

A Government Minister visited the IfM today (Tuesday 29 April) to meet some of the 100 firms currently benefitting from a programme to create and safeguard jobs across the East of England.

A workshop around the theme of Infrastructure Futureproofing was held at the IfM as part of a collaboration with Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC).

IfM held a successful webinar outlining a new approach to quantifying the business value of high quality data and the risk to businesses of poor quality data.

In October 2013, Mars and the University of Cambridge announced a formal collaboration. Its dual aim: to help Mars tackle global sustainability challenges that both its business and society share through first-class academic research, and to involve the University and its students in the development of new commercial applications.

Capturing value from global networks, published on April 14 by the IfM, describes a set of approaches developed by IfM researchers and put into practice with a range of leading manufacturers to help them effectively design and manage their global networks.

What does it mean to be an engineer, and how might we all draw on our inner-engineer to change the world we live in?

Research partners from the UK and India came together in Delhi on April 9 to launch a programme aimed at developing sustainable global supply networks.

Using moss to power fairy lights and allowing pigs to reach their food through a catflap were some of the bright ideas for scientific inventions in the What would you use THAT for? competition.

Manufacturing is an essential step in capturing value from ideas, says Professor Sir Mike Gregory, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing.

Dr Simon Ford, from IfM’s Centre for Technology Management, explains why we need to take a clear-eyed view of this much hyped technology if it is to realise its potential.

The Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (CSTI) hosted a two-day workshop exploring ways of building long-term strategic university-industry partnerships.

The IfM will lead research into a £23m collaborative project on reconfiguring UK pharmaceutical supply chains.

John Ginger, a recent Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) graduate, is one half of a team developing a small robot to help children learn programming and robotics while they play.

We hope you will enjoy this new publication from the IfM which is designed to provide something for everyone – a glimpse of our current activities as well as a deeper look at some of our major lines of research and engagement with industry.

Inside IfM gave around 150 representatives from government, industry and academia the opportunity to discover more about the latest research and projects and meet the experts who make that possible.

Researchers at the Cambridge Service Alliance have suggested new ways of increasing the uptake of electric car usage.

Mike Sharman, a pioneering course director in manufacturing at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, has died, aged 80.