The Henry Royce Institute (Royce) has launched the Digital Materials Foundry, a new initiative aimed at transforming the methods and rate for materials discovery, design, and deployment. This new programme is part of a wider effort to accelerate the digital transformation of materials science – supporting a new era of Materials 4.0.
Embracing artificial intelligence, machine learning and open-access materials data, the Foundry provides a digital infrastructure designed to support innovation across academia, industry and government. It brings together existing resources – from experimental data libraries to machine learning models and materials-specific language tools – under one open-access platform.
The Digital Materials Foundry reflects a major cross-cutting theme identified in the recently launched National Materials Innovation Strategy – the urgent need to embrace digital tools in materials research. By breaking down silos and encouraging collaboration, it is aimed at redefining how new materials are developed, making discovery faster, more predictive and more sustainable.
Currently the Foundry offers a growing suite of digital tools and datasets, including:
- Experimental Materials Data Library: Curated datasets from peer-reviewed literature, offering critical input for AI-driven research.
- Language Models for Materials: Domain-specific large language models designed to interpret, summarise, and generate knowledge about specific materials-science applications.
- Machine Learning for Property Prediction: State-of-the-art models that predict material properties from chemical compositions.
- Links to Large Computational Materials Databases: Direct access to global resources accelerating simulation and modelling work.
Professor Jacqueline Cole, Henry Royce Institute Challenge Lead in AI for Materials, Head of Molecular Engineering at the University of Cambridge, who has developed the Foundry said:
“There’s huge appetite in the materials community, particularly from those focussed on machine learning, for high-quality materials data and the Foundry has been launched to meet that need. It is both a repository and a launchpad for collaboration and accelerated discovery.”
Professor David Knowles, CEO of the Henry Royce Institute, added:
“The Digital Materials Foundry is an initiative which responds to the recently launched National Materials Innovation Strategy where materials digitisation, in its broadest sense, is identified as a major cross-cutting enabler. It embodies our commitment to stimulating collaborative, cross-sector innovation and is part of ensuring the UK is at the forefront of the Materials 4.0 revolution.”
With the Digital Materials Foundry now live, Royce invites researchers to explore its resources and contribute to its growth.
Find out more about the Digital Materials Foundry and how you can engage with the programme here.
