A major research centre to position the UK as a global leader in clean technology has been launched by the universities of Newcastle, Sheffield and Nottingham.
Great British (GB) Chemicals will help replace fossil petrochemicals and recycling industrial waste using sustainable chemistry.
In alignment with the UK government’s recent Industrial Strategy, GB Chemicals brings together researchers from 10 universities who will work with stakeholders in the chemical industry to produce cleaner versions of widely used chemicals.
The centre is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Centre (NERC).
Led by Professor Libby Gibson from Newcastle University, and Professors Peter Styring from the University of Sheffield and Mike George from the University of Nottingham, GB Chemicals aims to accelerate world-leading laboratory research, promoting UK investment, job creation and potential chemical export markets.
Driving a sustainable future
Kedar Pandya, Executive Director for Strategy at EPSRC, said: “ Working closely with industry partners, this will be a systems approach that optimises the interdependencies between environmental net gain, decarbonisation, and resource efficiency.”
NERC spokesman Rupert Lewis added: “This investment highlights the innovation opportunities in securing improved competitiveness and growth for UK businesses in the net zero transition.”
The UK’s chemical sector has an annual turnover of £65.5 billion – equivalent to the aerospace, automotive and life sciences industries combined.
The industry is looking to create new revenue streams by turning waste into products.
GB Chemicals will work to make this a reality using smarter chemical and biological conversion technologies to create value-added, cleaner chemicals and non-fossil feedstocks guided by social, environmental and economic analysis. It will also focus on technical and entrepreneurship skills.
Professor Libby Gibson, Professor of Energy Materials at Newcastle University, and co-director of GB Chemicals, said: “I’m delighted that we have been awarded the opportunity to lead Great British Chemicals. Carbon from the petrochemical industry is embedded in almost every manufactured product.
“If we want to cut pollution, improve health outcomes, become more resilient, grow the economy, provide jobs and keep products affordable, we need to urgently accelerate the deployment of smarter technology that keeps carbon in use rather than digging it up and then discarding it.
“This award enables us to unlock that opportunity, by driving innovation from the lab bench to the industrial backbone through our partnerships, pilots, data, and training. Ultimately, this will enable the community to secure investment, strengthen policy and create a lasting benefit for the planet.”
“There will be challenges: technical, economic and social, however we have the right team to deliver that to where there are currently gaps, and we have the flexibility in funding to bring in new partners and stakeholders.
“We already have combined experience in developing technologies to pre-commercial systems and we have shown that working as teams on a consolidated whole systems approach can deliver results at an accelerated pace. Co-creation with our stakeholders can drive that even more when we work together as a focused team.”
Great British Chemicals is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), both part of UKRI.
The centre will be funded at a full economic cost of £22.5 million for seven years and includes investment for Moonshot projects in novel catalysis, core funding for development to scale and flexible funding to provide an agile response to technology as it develops.
There will also be an initial wave of funding for the first three years to allow the team to concentrate on emerging themes that could show quick benefits.
GB Chemicals will organise conferences, networking events, training and consultations across the initial lifespan of the centre with important themes addressed as research and development progresses.
These will include Technician, Early Career and Mid-Career Researcher development, and a novel workstream on entrepreneurship. In the latter, GB Chemicals aims to educate and develop university spinout companies to move research ideas up the technology readiness ladder.
GB Chemicals officially launched on 1 August 2025, although work began prior to ensure the consortium hit the ground running.
