?3.3 million EPSRC Grant Award to Southampton Univ

RNS Number : 5762J

Ilika plc

18 July 2013

 



Ilika plc

("Ilika" or the "Company")

Ilika's Industrial Partnership Supports £3.3 million EPSRC Grant Award

to University of Southampton for Solid-state Battery Scale-up Facility

Ilika plc (AIM: IKA), the advanced cleantech materials discovery company, announces that as a result of its recent Advanced Materials competition, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has confirmed the award of a £3.3 million grant to the University of Southampton for the development and manufacture of advanced composite materials.

The grant will be managed by the Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University, Professor Brian Hayden, who is a founder of Ilika and its Chief Scientific Officer.

The grant covers investment in capital equipment designed for the fabrication of pre-production quantities of devices including solid-state batteries. The equipment will allow the novel battery chemistries identified by Ilika's high throughput methods to be applied on a larger scale suitable for technology transfer into full-scale manufacturing processes. The facility will be unique in the UK, and perhaps worldwide, and will represent an important advance in establishing an effective manufacturing process for solid-state devices.

Ilika is supporting the implementation of the grant at the University with the secondment of expert personnel to assist with the design and fabrication of the equipment. Once the equipment has been successfully commissioned, Ilika will support the definition and execution of the programmes to maximize the commercial impact of the investment.

Since its spin-out in 2004, Ilika has retained a close working relationship with the University through the secondment of key staff and a facilities agreement providing Ilika access to specialist equipment complementing Ilika's in-house capabilities. This recent grant from the EPSRC will reinforce that close working relationship. The University retains a ca. 8% shareholding in the Company.

Further information can be found on the EPSRC website: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk

Commenting on the contract, Graeme Purdy, CEO of Ilika, said: "The award of this grant provides the University, Ilika and the UK with a unique scale-up facility with the ability to translate lab-scale innovation into prototype devices capable of generating significant commercial impact."

For more information contact:

Ilika plc	www.ilika.com
Graeme Purdy, Chief Executive	Tel: [phone]
Steve Boydell, Finance Director
Numis Securities Limited	Tel: [phone]
Oliver Cardigan, Nominated Adviser
James Black, Corporate Broking
Walbrook PR Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Paul McManus	Mob: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul Cornelius	Mob: [phone] or [e-mail]

 

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