BP Plans $100 Million Materials Center

BP plans to invest $100 million over the next 10 years to establish and operate the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM), a university-based organization that will conduct materials research. Much of BP-ICAM’s research is set to take place at the University of Manchester’s Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences, with research also to be undertaken at the University of Cambridge; Imperial College London; and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. BP-ICAM plans to work in the fields of structural materials, smart coatings, functional materials, catalysis, membranes, energy storage, and energy harvesting. The center is expected to support 25 new academic posts, along with 100 postgraduate researchers and 80 postdoctoral fellows.