Materials Processing Institute
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 | |
 Materials Processing Institute in 2022 | |
| Materials Processing Institute | |
| Industry | Advanced Materials, Low Carbon Energy and the circular economy |
| Predecessor | Tata Steel, Teesside Laboratories |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Middlesbrough , United Kingdom |
Number of locations | 1 Middlesbrough |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Chris Oswin (CEO)[1] |
| Services | Industrial Research and Development, Consultancy and Training |
| Website | www |
The Materials Processing Institute is a research centre serving organisations that work in advanced materials, low-carbon energy and the circular economy. The Institute is based in Tees Valley in the northeast of England.
The British Iron and Steel Research Association (BISRA), was formed in 1944 with headquarters in London, originally at 11 Park Lane, later moved to 24 Buckingham Gate. Satellite laboratories were formed much later to support the larger UK steel producing centres of Sheffield, Swansea, Teesside, and Battersea.
Following the second nationalisation of the UK Steel industry in 1967, BISRA became the R&D function of the newly formed British Steel Corporation.[citation needed]
Teesside Laboratories, later rebranded as Teesside Technology Centre, survived several rounds of R&D restructuring in which laboratories in Battersea and Swansea were ultimately closed.[citation needed]
In 2001, following the merger of British Steel with Koninklijke Hoogovens in 1999 (forming Corus Group PLC) Teesside Technology Centre, Welsh Laboratories and Swinden Technology Centre were to close to form a centralised UK Technology Centre. This was to mirror the single Dutch R&D site in IJmuiden. This centralisation attempt was backtracked but resulted in the closure of Welsh Laboratories and significant losses in numbers, knowledge and experience from both remaining centres.[citation needed]
In 2007, Tata Steel secured 100% of the Corus Group PLC shares, taking the company off the financial market.[2]
In 2014, Tata Steel, already in the process of restructuring the UK arm of the European business, decided to also restructure UK R&D. Teesside Technology Centre and Swinden Technology Centre were to close with a new R&D Division being formed at Warwick Manufacturing Group. To avoid closure of the Teesside Laboratories and loss of the remaining technical process expertise in Coal & Coke, Oxygen Steelmaking, Continuous Casting and Long Products Rolling, members of the sites management team (Chris McDonald, Gareth Fletcher and Dr. Richard Curry) and the Tata Steel Process R&D Director (Dr. Simon Pike) were permitted to spin the site out as an independent research institute.[3]
The Materials Processing Institute was launched December 2014.[3]