For months, our AI has been telling us which materials should outperform the toxic, rare-earth-dependent thermoelectrics that dominate the industry today. Now we get to prove it in a lab.

We've been awarded £130,000 in grant funding through Round 6 of the Henry Royce Institute's Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP6), delivered in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Royce Cambridge, the maximum project value available under the programme.

Why validation is the whole point

Anyone can claim a model works. Our approach has always been to combine AI, machine learning and physics-based modelling to identify high-performing thermoelectric materials in weeks instead of the years traditional R&D demands. But a prediction is only as good as its connection to reality, and we build that connection one lab result at a time.

This grant funds exactly that connection. We'll synthesise and test candidate materials identified by our discovery platform in the lab, then benchmark the results against our original predictions. Every result, whether it confirms or corrects the model, makes our next prediction sharper. It's the difference between a promising algorithm and a trusted one.

The applications this work unlocks are wide-ranging: power generation and solid-state cooling for data centres, industrials, quantum computing, defence, automotive, and IoT systems, anywhere efficient thermal management is a bottleneck.

The project begins in July 2026, run through our Royce Cambridge partnership and drawing on the University of Cambridge's experimental materials expertise alongside our in-house team.

A competitive vote of confidence

The Henry Royce Institute is the UK's national centre for advanced materials research, and ICP6 is not a rubber stamp, this round distributes up to £4 million nationally to projects judged capable of translating materials research into commercial reality. Securing the maximum eligible project value, following review by both an independent expert panel and Royce's internal assessment, tells us we're headed in the right direction.

What comes next

This award builds on a growing base of institutional backing; including Google for Startups, UK Research and Innovation, and Innovate UK and deepens our existing relationship with the Henry Royce Institute, alongside lab partnerships we already have in place with the University of Cambridge, the Henry Royce Institute, and Imperial College London.

We'll be sharing results from the validation project as they come in over the coming months, starting with the moment the lab data meets the model.

Mater-AI develops next-generation thermoelectric materials using AI, physics-based modelling, and lab validation; replacing toxic, inefficient, rare-earth-dependent materials with cleaner, higher-performing alternatives for power generation and thermal management.