What’s new at University of Cambridge's IfM

It is with great pleasure that I introduce both this latest issue of the IfM Review and, to those of you who don’t yet know me, myself as the new head of the IfM. 2015 is a rather momentous year for us.
 
We say goodbye to Mike Gregory, whose vision and indefatigability have achieved great things both here in Cambridge and for the manufacturing community as a whole. We are also celebrating the 50th intake of students on our taught MPhil course, which took a pioneering approach to postgraduate education and in many ways exemplifies what the IfM is about today: doing new things that are genuinely useful for industry. So it seemed like a good idea to look back and see how we’ve got here and what we have achieved on the way (page 12).
 
And today we are busier than ever developing new insights and working with businesses and policymakers to put those insights into practice. This year, for example, we have hosted the EPSRC Manufacturing the Future conference and convened a policy forum with UK and US government officials in the White House. We are working on a major government and industry-funded project to redesign the UK’s pharmaceutical supply chains, we are contributing to the UK National Strategy on Additive Manufacturing and we are in the middle of landscaping high value manufacturing in the UK on behalf of Innovate UK. And these are just a few of the things we are involved in! In this issue of the Review you can read about some of our other activities whether it’s tackling the challenge of manufacturing carbon nanotubes en masse or helping a multinational company turn its IT experts into ‘trusted advisors’.
 
So there is much going on and much more to do. But we can’t do it without our partners in industry and government. If our research is to have value it needs to address real needs, so we are always looking for people who want to work with us. If that could be you, please do get in touch.
 
Best wishes
 
Professor Andy Neely
Head, Institute for Manufacturing