In early November, the graphene-info team visited the UK - the birthplace of graphene. Our first stop was Cambridge - visiting FlexEnable and Cambridge Nanosystems - and then we headed for the Cambridge Graphene Center for a two-day graphene conference. We finished the tour with a trip up north to Manchester, to see the NGI, Manchester University's Graphene institute.

While we try to be on top of everything that is related to graphene, our first impression from the visits and the conference is that the graphene industry is much more active than it seemed. There are many very exciting projects, some on the verge of commercialization, and it looks like graphene is going to make a larger impact than we expected in the near future. We came back very encouraged!

The National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester has entered into a collaborative partnership with Alpha, an electronic soldering and bonding materials supplier, to develop the next generation of graphene-based electronic materials.

The National Graphene Institute was recently opened in the UK, in an official ceremony that also included another intriguing event.

Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov demonstrated to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne the graphene light bulb, which was mentioned to be set to launch later in 2015. While the price is yet unknown, it is rumored to be relatively low-price, cut energy use by 10% and last longer owing to its conductivity.

The National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester has been officially opened, in an opening ceremony that included dignitaries, scientists and business leaders.

The institute received almost £40 million of government support as part of the wider £90 million UK investment in graphene and will enable researchers and industry to work together on a huge variety of graphene-related potential revolutionary applications.

In November 2014, James Baker, business director at the UK's National Graphene Institute (NGI), declared a LED light factory about to be opened in Manchester by an unnamed company, in which graphene will be used to dissipate heat.

Now, in a statement given at the Insider's Property Investment Forum in London, Baker mentioned that graphene lightbulbs will be available for purchase in B&Q within the next six months. While Baker did not offer any additional details regarding the identity of the supplier or even confirmed that this product will come from the afformentioned factory, this is still a very interesting mention.

The University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute recently purchased plasma etch equipment and deposition systems from Oxford Instruments.

These tools (PlasmaPro^® PECVD and ICP-CVD deposition tools and PlasmaPro ICP etch tools) are to facilitate graphene and 2D materials' processing, and enable the fabrication of tailored substrates for graphene such as SiN membranes which are useful for both fundamental and applied research on graphene and 2D materials.

The official opening of the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute will be marked by a special piece of music, dedicated to graphene.

A young artist called Sara Lowes was granted a £12,000 commission to compose a unique theme that will be written especially for the material. She spent time at the University of Manchester in order to get to know the material and draw inspiration to help her with the creative process.

Here are pictures of the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute (NGI), currently under contruction, taken about a month ago. The pictures were taken by BAM Construction and engineering, involved in NGI construction. The buildings are evidently progressing nicely and look great! 

The British government has given the go-ahead to a new £235m science research center called the Sir Henry Royce Institue for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation in Manchester, which will also have satellite branches in Leeds, Liverpool, London, Cambridge, Oxford and Sheffield.

The center will investigate the rapidly growing field of materials science across a range of disciplines including engineering, nanotechnology and chemistry. It is meant to complement the soon-to-be-opened National Graphene Institute (NGI), as well as the planned £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Center (GEIC).

The UK's National Graphene Institute (NGI), to be opened in March 2015, teams up with yet another company, Morgan Advanced Materials, to become project partners and collaborate in graphene research. The partnership with Morgan Advanced Materials is meant to improve the prospects of pushing forward graphene commercial use. 

This agreement follows last month's similar agreement between the NGI and 2-DTech. Both 2-DTech and Morgan Advanced Materials joined 30 other partners currently working on graphene research and commercialization projects with the University of Manchester.