Aston University’s Latest Research Institute Founders Debut Membrane Research in Podcast Introduction
The founding members of Aston University’s newest research institute have recorded a new podcast to introduce themselves, their research and the plans for Aston Institute of Membrane Excellence (AIME).
In the latest episode of Aston Originals, Professor Roslyn Bill and Professor Paul Topham, AIME’s co-directors, joined Dr Matt Derry and Dr Alan Goddard to explain how the interdisciplinary team formed and how they will work together. AIME has been set up with the aid of a £10m grant from Research England.
In the podcast, Professor Bill explains that while there are research groups working on polymer membranes, and groups working on biological membranes, AIME will be the first group to bring together the whole spectrum of membrane research and achieve results that would not otherwise be possible.
AIME expects to benefit from its location on the Aston University campus at the heart of what is becoming Birmingham Innovation Quarter (B-IQ). B-IQ is expected to attract small and medium enterprises doing high-tech, cutting edge work, and AIME will be able to plug into that network.
The institute will recruit 20 new members of staff, including lecturers, professors, postdocs and a lab manager, and the team will also offer PhD positions.
Dr Goddard said:
“I think we’re really lucky at Aston University that we’ve got one single big building that houses all of our different schools. We can literally walk down the corridor and find people to collaborate with on different projects. I think we identified real world problems that we can solve together that we can’t solve independently.”
The new laboratories will further aid collaboration. Professor Topham said:
“Along with this external grant, Aston University has agreed to support this with £3m. We’re building a brand new set of labs. The idea is that we have the chemistry lab on one side, making the materials, all the way on the other side we’ve got the biological people doing all the clever biology stuff, and then in the middle we’ve got the analytical suite, where we actually characterise or identify what our materials are and how they perform.
“By having this shared area, particularly in the middle of shared equipment, all the researchers will naturally integrate because they’ll be chatting to each other on a daily basis.”
AIME will formally launch on 1 August 2024 and there will be a launch event on 13 September 2024.
The full podcast is available on the Aston Originals YouTube channel.