Our aims and remit

Our EPSRC network aims to make the UK an international beacon for multiscale porous materials research, where we'll form new collaborations, find new research directions, offer expert advice, and commercialise innovations.

Porous materials research is extremely diverse and includes:

• inorganic materials
• organic polymers
• synthetic frameworks
• biological tissues
• composite systems

The variety of applications is equally wide ranging including:

• renewable energy
• separation processes
• carbon capture
• catalysis
• water purification
• electronic materials
• medicine

A multidisciplinary collaborative approach

With such diverse areas and applications, we need combined expertise across multiple science and engineering disciplines, and access to specialist characterisation facilities to study both pore sizes and phenomena that can span multiple scales. A single institution cannot cover the full range of expertise, facilities and applications; only a combined effort will see success.

Our EPoMM network aims to foster multiscale and applications-led collaboration between scientists and engineers that spans the entire engineering and physical sciences portfolio. These collaborations will inspire new research directions and new applications to achieve globally significant outcomes with academic, commercial and societal benefits.

Multidisciplinary collaboration is at the heart of what we do and by the end of the grant, we will have created a self-sustaining network of porous media experts. We'll be able to work collaboratively to respond to industry needs, provide dissemination and horizon scanning for new and emerging applications.

Network deliverables

• a series of focused group discussions to solidify the strengths and national priorities, to define research challenges and facilitate large- and small-scale collaborative research projects
• host three industry-focused themed workshops to explore the most challenging areas of research facing the relevant sectors and facilitate collaboration with industrial pull
• host an EPoMM annual conference with particular emphasis on pulling together multidisciplinary approaches that combine research areas that traditionally do not interact to provoke and stimulate innovative thinking across new research boundaries
• develop reviews and a technology roadmap for future research needs and strategies to address them
• provide website, social-media presence, and newsletters to disseminate network activities/output for outreach and attract new active researchers in porous materials

Team

• Professor Chris Bowen, Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Dr Alexander O'Malley, Department of Chemistry