National Technical Platform for Materials Innovation Growth UK Workshop – 2026: RTP Collaboration and Secondment Showcase

Overview

Following the success of the Growth UK Symposium in 2025 and the monthly webinars, Growth UK are hosting a showcase workshop in 2026. This will be a national networking and knowledge exchange event bringing together Research Technical Professionals (RTPs) and Industry within the thin‑film growth field to foster collaboration, promote secondments, and strengthen partnerships across UK academia and industry. It will be held in London, immediately after the NanoFab Conference (19th – 21st August).

Background and Motivation

Growth UK is a national networking and knowledge exchange platform connecting academics and research technical professionals working in thin film growth and their applications. It hosts monthly lectures and discussions focused on thin‑film growth, jointly organised by the University of Cambridge, the University of Leeds, and Imperial College London. This event will provide a valuable opportunity for in‑person networking, helping to spark collaborations between RTPs and support career development for those working in materials science, thin‑film deposition, and device fabrication. With a particular emphasis on secondments, knowledge exchange, and raising awareness of schemes that enable these opportunities, the event aims to encourage collaboration across institutions. Through this, it will facilitate secondments for RTPs within manufacturers’ facilities as well as materials laboratories at other universities, strengthening connections across the UK research community.

Audience

The workshop is aimed at research technical professionals working in thin film growth and applications within the UK.

Travel and accommodation will be provided by NTPMI if required.

For those RTPs that are attending the NanoFab Conference, your travel to the NanoFab Conference and any accommodation for Thursday 20th August evening can be covered by NTPMI. You can indicate any travel/accommodation requests within the registration form.

We have a limited number of pre-arranged accommodation that will be filled on a first come basis.

Learning outcomes

After the event participants should be able to:

• Identify opportunities for secondments and cross‑institution collaboration
• Understand methods to facilitate secondment and knowledge exchange programmes.
• Build practical networks with RTPs, researchers, and industry partners