Member Article

Supermaterials facility to be built in Oxford

The world’s largest and most sophisticated synthetic supermaterials R&D facility will be build in Harwell, Oxford.

Element Six, specialists in synthetic diamond supermaterials have announced they will invest £20m in the construction.

Due to be completed in Spring 2013, the new state-of-the-art innovation centre will create around 50 new science jobs, with the vast majority of positions available for highly qualified graduate scientists, engineers and physicists.

UK Trade & Investment supported the company by proposing and advising on potential locations, organising site visits, facilitating meetings with site owners and developers, preparing bespoke research and bringing in the expertise in the councils, LEPs and academic institutions and research partners.

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, said: “The investment by Element Six, that will bring a world class research and development facility to Harwell, shows that the UK is a great place for innovative and cutting edge industries to invest.

“Along with a real boost to the local economy, providing around 50 new highly skilled engineering jobs, the investment shows that the Oxford region is a world leading location for hi-tech research, and that the UK is open for business.”

Cyrus Jilla, Element Six CEO commented: “I am proud we selected the UK as the best location globally for our Innovation Centre.

“I am positive it will deliver higher performance products for our customers, disruptive technologies for new applications and markets, inspire and spur new related businesses in the UK, and provide an extremely rewarding environment for our scientists who are at the forefront of their field.”

Element Six synthetic diamond include optics to enable the highest power levels achievable in CO2 lasers for automotive engineering, as semiconductors in the Large Hadron Collider, as detectors in medical radiotherapy, as cutters for the fastest rates of penetration in oil and gas drilling, and to enable picks used during road re-surfacing and repair to last up to 40 times longer than standard picks.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .