The BP-ICAM will be modelled on a “hub and spoke” structure, with the hub located within The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, which has core strengths in materials, engineering, characterization, collaborative working. The spokes and other founder members are the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The ten-year investment program will fund research into advanced materials and is expected to support 25 new academic posts, along with 100 post-graduate researchers and 80 post-doctoral fellows.

Advanced materials and coatings will be vital in finding, producing and processing energy safely and efficiently in the years ahead, as energy producers work at unprecedented depths, pressures and temperatures, and as refineries, manufacturing plants and pipeline operators seek ever better ways to combat corrosion and deploy new materials to improve their operations.

—Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive

The BP-ICAM hub will be based in dedicated premises which will use advanced tools to support this major international collaboration. The BP-ICAM will carry out research into seven primary areas of direct interest to industry: structural materials, smart coatings, functional materials, catalysis, membranes, energy storage and energy harvesting. The initial focus will be on:

• Structural materials, such as new metal alloys and composites for deepwater production, and high pressure/high temperature reservoirs;

• Smart coatings, for increased protection from the elements and improving a structure’s usable life, protecting pipelines and offshore platforms from corrosion;

• Membranes and other structures, for separation, filtration and purification of oil and gas, water and chemicals in production, refining and biofuels processes and petrochemicals.

This should allow us to change the way we build, operate and maintain our equipment; manufacture cleaner and more efficient products; develop imaginative energy sources and then store that energy for when it is needed most; and increase the use of lighter metals and composites for structures and products.

—Bob Dudley

The universities will have academic freedom to publish fundamental science resulting from the BP-ICAM’s work, while commercial agreements will cover specific technological applications of the work.

BP works with some 200 universities around the globe and holds a number of long-term strategic partnerships with leading universities in the UK, US, China, Russia.

The University of Manchester is already home to BP’s Projects and Engineering College and a major collaborator member within BP’s Inherently Reliable Facilities Research Programme and includes a BP-funded research laboratory in corrosion.

The University of Cambridge also has a long association with BP. Since 2000, the BP Institute for Multiphase Flow has formed an important part of the relationship and in 2010 BP funded the new McKenzie Chair in Earth Sciences.

Imperial College, London, conducts a wide range of research for BP including in the areas of reservoir characterization, process modeling, climate change, seismic imaging and urban energy systems. In 2009 the start-up company Permasense, providing wireless corrosion and non-destructive monitoring technology, was formed based on BP-funded research.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of three partners supporting the BP Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a 10 year, $500-million program supporting BP’s Biofuels business. The EBI was launched in 2007.