Exeter University has been selected as the home for a new research hub that will focus on the development of engineered nano-scale metamaterials. The new MetaHub is supported by £19.6 million in public and private funding, with partners including defence and security companies QinetiQ and Leonardo, as well as drinks company PepsiCo.
Nano-scale metamaterials, designed at the molecular level, have useful properties that are not found naturally. This will allow for the creation of components on a much smaller scale that are able to perform functions not possible with existing materials.
The materials could be used to produce next generation computer components and radio transmitters for defence systems, diagnostic tools for healthcare, as well as healthier food colourings for soft drinks. Green energy and environmental remediation - like advancing detection and clean-up of forever chemicals, polluted soils, and carbon capture - are also set to benefit from metamaterial developments.
Speaking at the University of Exeter, as the MetaHub was launched, Science Minister, Lord Vallance, said the work happening here in Exeter is a prime example of how cutting-edge research can attract private investment. “Our backing for the MetaHub is an investment, for both today and for tomorrow. We are securing the UK’s leadership in the high-potential field of metamaterials, a new class of materials specially engineered to have new and useful properties. This work is paving the way for future products and innovations that will deliver jobs and growth, in the years ahead,” Vallance said.
MetaHub will also focus on sustainability and circularity with the team working closely with the communities in these areas to ensure outcomes are practical, ethical, and scalable.
MetaHub, brings together a multi-disciplinary team of scientists from the Universities of Cambridge, Cardiff, St Andrews, Southampton, and King’s College London, and it is directed by the University of Exeter’s Professor Alastair Hibbins.
Hibbins said: “Over the next five years, we are committed to pioneer brand new science and pursue novel routes to fabrication and scale up of 3D nanoscale metamaterials. Underpinning all our activities will be the drive to ensure the materials we design and build are sustainable, and that the technology we develop and commercialise, will solve global challenges in health, energy, communication, computing and environmental sensing.”
Metamaterials are among a emerging class of materials which have the potential to deliver solutions to the identified in the wider National Materials Innovation Strategy which was launched at the start of 2025.
“Establishing this hub is essential in accelerating their manufacture and translation into commercial reality at the pace which is necessary for them to deliver both societal and economic impact in line with the ambitions of the emerging industrial strategy,” said Professor David Knowles, CEO, Henry Royce Institute, one of the MetaHub’s lead partners. Professor Andy Bell, the Chief Science and Technical Officer for Dstl, said the hub unites the UK’s best capabilities to develop complex 3D metamaterials for energy-efficient information processing and electromagnetic applications.
Further reading
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