Maximising the Impact of Graphene Research on Innovation through Materials Science, Chemistry and Engineering

石墨烯是一个孤立的原子平面，可以被看作是由碳原子制成的一个原子厚的铁丝网。这种新材料于2004年在曼彻斯特发现，迅速成为材料科学和凝聚态物理学领域最耀眼的明星之一。在基础科学方面，石墨烯是第一种真正的二维材料，一种以前未知且被认为不存在的新物质。自发现以来的几年里，研究工作一直集中在这种材料的电子特性上，这些特性已被证明是如此不寻常和令人兴奋，以至于世界各地的数百名学术和工业科学家已经进入这个新的研究领域。尽管人们对石墨烯作为一种性质不同的电子系统的兴趣预计将在几十年内保持强劲，但石墨烯的化学、机械、光学、磁性和其他性质仍然是一个实际上未开发的领域。所有迹象都表明，石墨烯的这些特性同样令人着迷。此外，在应用方面，石墨烯被证明提供了非常广泛的可能性，因此很有可能产生各种各样的新型商业产品。快-石墨烯研究即将进入的一个不可避免的阶段将是利用石墨烯的巨大创新潜力，并将目前在全球范围内由基础物理主导的活动扩展到包括材料科学在内的邻近学科，化学和工程学目前，英国在这些战略重要方向上没有明显的活动，但去年在其他国家出现了一些新生的活动，包括美国、德国、日本、法国、中国和俄罗斯。我们的目标是从根本上改变这种状况。曼彻斯特大学和兰开斯特大学将利用其在石墨烯物理学方面的现有优势，支持和促进邻近学科国际领先的石墨烯研究的发展，并形成一个多学科中心，将石墨烯的成功基础研究直接与其应用联系起来。曼彻斯特中尺度科学和纳米技术中心是石墨烯被发现的地方，是这种扩张的自然载体，因为来自不同部门的研究人员已经成功地围绕使用该中心的设施进行了合作。这将使新的投资具有极高的成本效益，并导致快速的科学和创新产出，这要归功于该中心已经开发和实施的广泛的专业知识和石墨烯目标技术。通过临界质量和反馈机制，再加上各种设施和知识的增加，由该奖项发起和激励的设想中的多学科石墨烯研究中心应该成为一支强大的全球力量和创新的重要工具。科学与创新奖将通过创建一个专注于石墨烯研究的全球公认的多学科卓越中心来产生持久的影响。这一申请的失败将对大学和英国石墨烯研究产生不利影响，并可能导致关键的学术和研究人员流失到外国机构。

Graphene is an isolated atomic plane that can be viewed as a one-atom-thick chicken wire made from carbon atoms. Discovered in Manchester in 2004, this new material has rapidly become one of the brightest stars on the horizon of materials science and condensed matter physics. In terms of fundamental science, graphene is the first truly two-dimensional material, a new kind of matter previously unknown and believed not to exist. During the few years since its discovery, research efforts have been focused on electronic properties of this material, which have proved to be so unusual and exciting that hundreds of academic and industrial scientists around the world have moved into this new research area. Whereas the interest in graphene as a qualitatively different electronic system is expected to remain strong for decades, graphene's chemical, mechanical, optical, magnetic and other properties remain a practically unexplored territory. All indications are that these properties of graphene are equally fascinating. Also, in terms of applications, graphene is proving to offer such an exceptionally wide range of possibilities that it is highly likely to generate a wide range of novel commercial products.The next, fast-approaching and inevitable stage of graphene research will be the exploitation of graphene's huge innovation potential and the expansion of the current activities dominated worldwide by fundamental physics into neighbouring disciplines including materials science, chemistry and engineering. Currently, there is no noticeable activity in any of these strategically important directions in the UK but during the last year some nascent activities have emerged in other countries including the US, Germany, Japan, France, China and Russia. Our goal is to radically change the situation. Manchester and Lancaster Universities will use their existing strength in graphene physics to underpin and facilitate the development of internationally leading graphene research in neighbouring disciplines and to form a multidisciplinary centre linking the successful fundamental research on graphene directly to its applications. Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, the place where graphene was discovered, is a natural vehicle for this expansion as researchers from different departments have already been collaborating successfully around the use of the Centre's facilities. This will make the new investment extremely cost effective and result in a rapid science and innovation output, thanks to the extensive expertise and graphene-targeted technologies already developed and in place at the Centre. Through the critical mass and feedback mechanisms combined with an increased pool of various facilities and knowledge, the envisaged multidisciplinary graphene research centre initiated and stimulated by the Award should become a formidable global force and a vital vehicle for innovation. The Science & Innovation Award will result in a long-lasting impact by creating a globally-recognized multidisciplinary centre of excellence focused on graphene research. Failure of this application will be detrimental for both Universities and the UK graphene research in general, and will likely result in the loss of key academic and research staff to foreign institutions.