The Henry Royce Institute has today announced the publication of an Outline National Framework for Materials 4.0, setting out for the first time a shared definition, structure and language to guide the broad UK materials community through the transition to a fully digitally enabled materials ecosystem.
Developed through in-depth interviews with strategic stakeholders, a nationwide review of Materials 4.0 activity and a comprehensive international benchmarking exercise, this framework provides a vital foundation for consultation – aligning research, industry and Government around the future of materials innovation linked to the digital transformation.
Identified as a core cross-cutting theme in the Royce facilitated National Materials Innovation Strategy, Materials 4.0 describes the shift toward a digitally empowered materials sector. At its core is a materials informatics ecosystem that integrates:
- Advanced materials modelling
- Large-scale and high-quality data
- AI and machine learning
- In-silico experimentation
- Manufacturing informatics
- Life-cycle and circular-economy simulation
By enabling seamless data flow from discovery to end-of-life, Materials 4.0 promises to compress development timelines, optimise the use of scarce resources, reduce waste and strengthen national resilience through smarter manufacturing.
Towards Implementation
Although the potential of Materials 4.0 is widely recognised, the UK has lacked a common definition and cohesive structure until now. The new high-level framework organises Materials 4.0 into two interconnected components:
Materials Processes
Vertical elements representing the physical journey of materials across their lifecycle from discovery and design through manufacturing, deployment, service and re-use. These highlight where digitalisation can unlock value across the materials lifecycle.
Digital Elements
Horizontal, cross-cutting digital and data capabilities, including infrastructure, algorithms, modelling tools and simulation processes that underpin and connect each stage of the materials value chain. This flexible structure ensures that diverse materials classes from composites to metals and polymers can adapt the framework to their own unique pathways.
To illustrate the real-world potential of Materials 4.0, the report highlights five strategic applications which it proposes to evolve as exemplars:
- Composite materials for wind turbine blades
- Battery materials
- Sustainable packaging
- Functional polymers for coatings and paints
- Steels for nuclear applications
These use cases aim to demonstrate how coordinated digital innovation can accelerate UK leadership in clean energy, sustainable manufacturing, and advanced engineering.
The UK has already hosted 5,928 Materials 4.0-relevant projects since 2005, reflecting strong nascent capability. A coordinated national approach guided by this framework could unlock the full value of this activity, however, and position the UK as a global Materials 4.0 leader.
The framework strongly complements the UK Government’s recently published AI for Science Strategy, which highlights materials and calls for standardised, AI-ready data, investment in excellent digital research infrastructure and high-value demonstrator datasets. Together, these initiatives signal a coherent national direction toward data-driven science and innovation.
Professor David Knowles, Royce CEO said:
“Materials innovation underpins every major technological transition, yet the way we develop materials right through the manufacturing chain has changed little in over half a century. As society races toward net zero, clean energy, advanced transport and resilient infrastructure, the materials and processes required to enable these ambitions are often unavailable or arrive too late. Materials 4.0 is a digital revolution in materials science and engineering that matches the pace of modern industrial innovation.
“This important Framework shows that by tightly linking digital and physical worlds we can drastically reduce materials innovation and development times. This approach will enable faster prediction and validation of material performance, smarter manufacturing processes, longer-performing products and intelligent reuse across entire lifecycles.”
Next Steps
While current activity focuses heavily on algorithms, modelling and discovery tools, key enablers such as data ontology, materials data attributes, and digital infrastructure remain underdeveloped.
Two immediate priorities emerge:
- Develop and implement practical data standards and infrastructure to complement the UK’s ongoing investments in algorithms and digital tools.
- Enable cross-sector learning and interoperability, recognising that many Materials 4.0 challenges and solutions span materials classes and industrial sectors.
The next phase will develop roadmaps for implementation, including detailed data definitions and a series of the aforementioned test cases in real-world industrial contexts.
Calling the UK Materials Community
The publication of this Interim National Framework marks an important milestone. Realising the full potential of Materials 4.0 will require coordinated action across academia, industry, Government, and the broader materials and engineering community.
Royce welcomes contributions and insight into the implementation of this high-level Materials 4.0 Framework from active stakeholders across industry, academia and policy.
Our next stage will focus on the data attributes and exemplars to test the framework. If you wish to connect your activity into these developments, then please contact Royce by e-mailing info@royce.ac.uk
