Three companies based at Imperial Incubator in White City are helping to shape the future of the UK’s advanced materials sector after securing Innovate UK funding.
From advanced electrochemical materials for clean energy, to novel technologies for accessible health monitoring, these projects by Incubator startups demonstrate the breadth of innovation emerging from Imperial’s community and the role universities are playing in translating research into real world impact.
As the UK rolls out its new national strategy to accelerate the development and commercialisation of advanced materials, M-Spin and CipherX Technologies are among the first wave of beneficiaries from Innovate UK’s National Materials Innovation Programme (NMIP). A third resident startup at Imperial Incubator has also received an award but wishes the details to remain confidential.
Powering The Future of Green Hydrogen
M-Spin has secured £110,000 to develop an ultra-high-surface-area porous titanium material that could improve the performance and reduce the cost of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers used in green hydrogen production.
The funding enables M-Spin to expand its portfolio of high-performance porous metal materials and strengthen its commercial offering by opening new markets across hydrogen and energy storage, supporting future investment.
Green hydrogen is expected to play a vital role in decarbonising hard-to-abate industries, but high production costs remain a significant barrier to widespread adoption. M-Spin is addressing this challenge with an innovative porous titanium sheet that uses less of the precious-metal catalysts and offers approximately 1,000 times the surface area of conventional titanium felts and meshes, while maintaining porosity of up to 97%.
Beyond PEM electrolysers, the product has wider potential applications across chlor-alkali electrolysers, electroplating and other electrochemical processes. During the nine-month project, M-Spin will optimise the material, demonstrate its performance with industry partners and accelerate its route to commercialisation.
Dr Ian Johnson, M-Spin’s Head of Product Development said:
“We are delighted to receive this Innovate UK funding to support the development of our porous titanium materials. This project will help M-Spin to become a UK leader in porous metal materials and strengthen the UK’s position in advanced materials for electrochemistry.”
The NMIP grant adds to M-Spin’s track record in securing Innovate UK projects, having also received support through the Battery Innovation Feasibility Studies programme, where the company is collaborating with LiNa Energy and the Centre for Process Innovation to apply its proprietary microfibrous metal technology to sodium batteries for grid-scale energy storage. Together, these projects demonstrate the versatility of M-Spin’s advanced materials solutions for clean energy, from hydrogen production to long-duration energy storage.
Transforming Healthcare Through Materials Innovation
CipherX has been awarded £100,000 to develop CHROMASKIN, an innovative dermal biosensing platform that could transform how metabolic health is monitored.
The technology uses a small microneedle patch to introduce tiny colour-responsive materials into the skin, where they interact with interstitial fluid to generate visible changes linked to specific health markers. Rather than relying on electronics, wearables, implants or finger-prick blood sampling, CHROMASKIN aims to create a visible skin-based signal that could be read using a standard smartphone camera. CipherX’s novel approach to metabolic monitoring could transform healthcare research and consumer health with a highly accessible, minimally invasive alternative. The nine-month feasibility study will generate early technical evidence for the platform, strengthen CipherX’s intellectual property and expand its microneedle technology capability.
Ferdinand Kohle, CEO and Co-founder at CipherX said:
“At CipherX, everything begins with people and their skin. The CHROMASKIN project allows us to explore skin as an interface, a way to make health information visible and easy to understand. This funding helps us expand our microneedle platform beyond minimally invasive tattooing into dermal biosensing and towards a broader future in human-centred skin technology.”
Graham Hewson, Head of Incubation and Prototyping Spaces at Imperial, added:
“We’re delighted to see CipherX and M-Spin recognised through Innovate UK’s National Materials Innovation Programme. As the UK strengthens its commitment to advanced materials as a driver of economic growth and industrial competitiveness, it’s exciting that our Members are playing a role in delivering that vision through scientific innovation. We look forward to supporting both teams as they build on this momentum and take the next steps towards commercialisation and growth.”
Learn more about Innovate UK’s £2 million investment in 23 feasibility studies to advance materials innovation here.
