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Created by the University of Manchester in 2004, this Graphene substance has huge potential – but it seems that its country of birth might not have that large a role in its future development. KitGuru checked on how long the British government takes to make decisions – and what cost any delays might have.
Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim of the University Of Manchester have won a Nobel for their creation of Graphene back in 2004. You canread yourself silly about the subject with this download.
By the end of 2011, its potential importance was finally realised by the government (Conservative – the Labour chaps seem to have missed the boat) to the tune of £50m.
But even with an investment of £50 million seven years after we launched the market for Graphene, is it enough? An independent report from CambridgeIP (January 2013) on the number of ‘Graphene related patents' that have been applied for in 2012 suggests that maybe we have missed the boat with our latest drive:-
KitGuru says: After delivering steam, computers, jet engines, the phone and the internet – you would have thought we would have learned.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
We have a coalition Government, not Conservative, and as this falls under Business & Innovation, it was Liberal Vince that was behind the investment – which ties in with standard Orange Book thinking on development.
Sadly, as recently as the early 80s, the UK lodged more patents than every other country in the world combined (true – 54%). But successive assaults and New Conservatives (as Labour were in all but name) on research at Unis, manufacturing, and hard science by Conservatives, have decimated R&D over here.
When I was at Uni in the 80s the Tories cut the funding to the university by 33% overnight (scarcely reported as a cut in those less news intensive days) – so the uni responded by closing its Maths, Physics and Chemistry departments, then building a new Marketing centre to attract investment from paper-shufflers. And if you do sneak through with a useful qualification, when you can start as a junior on $65k in the US for a job that pays £35k after a decade in the UK… who’s going to stay here? Income tax has nothing to do with it, when we pay our best brains so little, there’s nothing to tax.
I don’t think it has as much to do with a lack of investment from the government as it does with the lack of a large hi-tech company that is willing to do graphene research in the UK. An alternative approach would be for the government to subsidize patent costs for researchers. Check my website for regular posts about graphene patents and companies.
Meh Typical of us in the UK. We invent and the rest of the world cashes in. Penicillin anyone? To name but one.