Second £60m graphene centre at University of Manchester planned

A second centre for research into "wonder-material" graphene is to be built in Manchester, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.

The £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre will be located at the University of Manchester.

Mr Osborne said it would enable graphene products to be fast tracked from the drawing board to the market.

It is designed to complement the National Graphene Institute (NGI) under construction and due to open next year.

The NGI is also located at the University of Manchester.

Mr Osborne said the new centre alongside the NGI put Manchester and the UK in pole position to "lead the world" in graphene technology.

He said its properties made it "one of the most important commercial scientific breakthroughs in recent memory".

"It presents tremendous opportunities with the potential to provide thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of further investment," he added.

Half of the cash for the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre is coming from clean technology and renewable energy company Masdar based in Abu Dhabi.

Graphene consists of a single layer of carbon atoms packed in a honeycomb structure. It has a range of applications, from drugs that can be delivered to specific cells, to bendable smartphones.

Graphene was isolated for the first time in 2004 by Sir Andre Geim and Sir Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for their research is 2010.