Aug 20 2015
Daryl McManus, a PhD student at the University of Manchester, was awarded the prestigious £50k prize of the Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award for his business model to create a variety of inks using graphene for printed electronics.
Daryl McManus, winner of the Eli and Brit Harari Award
The Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award prize money is intended to assist the students, post-docs and recent graduates of The University of Manchester with the primary level implementation of a commercially-viable business model based on and around the many applications of graphene.
This year, the prize money will help launch a new graphene start up to produce graphene inks. Researchers are keenly interested in graphene inks. Recently, a compressed graphene ink RFID tag was exhibited by the University.
Daryl McManus’ plan required harnessing graphene’s superlative properties to create graphene inks, which can then be used in printing applications. This plan won the interest of the judges of the award committee more than the other twelve entries.
Advanced applications in printed electronics require the use of highly concentrated inks to allow them to be deposited in a very stable and environment-friendly manner. The new graphene inks proposed by Daryl meet this specification.
Daryl, 24, who is currently undertaking his PhD within the Graphene NOWNANO Doctoral Training Centre said: “Our environmentally friendly 2D material inks provide a cheap, scalable solution to the production of next generation flexible and transparent electronics. “The Eli and Britt Harari award gives us the opportunity to take our unique inks from the laboratory to the marketplace where their properties can be exploited by both businesses and researchers to create a new generation of printed devices.”
The judges selected Daryl’s business model as it was a complete package consisting of a viable plan coupled with a realistic application of graphene-based technology.
Professor Luke Georghiou, Vice-President Research and Innovation who led the judging panel commented; “The University is strongly committed to bringing the benefits of research to the economy and society. It is particularly pleasing when students get the opportunity to take their ideas into the market. This award provides a flying start for what I am sure will be a successful entrepreneurial career.”
This annual award was founded three years ago by Eli Harari, a University of Manchester alumnus and founder of SanDisk, with the aim of promoting the creation of many graphene start-up companies.
The award highlights the importance of early-stage financial support for any start up to successfully progress and to achieve full commercialisation of a product or technology linked to research in graphene.
The 13 annual entries were supported through information sessions, use of on-line resources, and business planning workshops involving the Manchester Enterprise Centre, last year’s winner, Dr Antonios Oikonomou, and UMI3.
The interest in this annual competition will only grow in the days to come, as the National Graphene Institute is now fully functional, with its world-class facilities and high-profile conference Graphene Week 2015, which draws numerous researchers from across the globe to the University.
The University’s futuristic plan is to build a Graphene City. This award therefore is a potential stepping stone for several graphene start-ups to be located in Manchester.