Funds of £13 mill boost AIME to make Birmingham membrane research hub
13 Feb 2025
Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME) has received public and private funding of more than £13 million to fund its MEMetic project for water filtration.
The Department of Science, Industry and Technology (DSIT) has provided £6.1 million support, with another £7.1million in co-funding coming from partners led by Science Card and Bruntwood SciTech.
MEMetic is developing biomimetic polymer membranes for water filtration, with applications across sectors including blood dialysis and wastewater treatment.
The project is led by AIME training and industry lead professor Alan Goddard, of the institution’s school of biosciences and AIME marketing ands comms lead Dr Matt Derry (both pictured) from the department of chemical engineering and biotechnologies.
Their work will tackle the challenge of more effeciently separating molecules from water, imitating biological techniques that have developed proteins that sit within membranes and transport specific molecule across these.
MEMetic embeds biological transporters in sustainable plastic membranes to create ‘bioinspired’ membranes capable of removing antibiotics, heavy metals and nutrients, from water in a single step. The membranes can also recover resources including phosphate and lithium.
State funding was enabled by the Research Ventures Catalyst (RVC) programme –intended to enable novel ideas to convert to usable technology, but with a requirement for matching external investment.
A long-term investment period is intended to permit the project team to recruit the researchers including biologists, material scientists and engineers, to take the membrane technology from the lab to industrial scale. Over the next seven years, the team aims to make Birmingham a hub for membrane research in the UK, underpinned by AIME’s work.
Bruntwood SciTech will provide workspace and access to business and other networks. Science Card – an e-money current account that uses profits to fund scientific research – will help underwrite R&D and the technology platform.
Additionally, Midlands Mindforge, the capital investment company, co-founded by eight research-intensive universities in the Midlands, including Aston, will provide skills support and advice.
