Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence wins £13.2m

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Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence wins £13.2m

Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME) has been awarded £6.1m in funding from the UK Government Department of Science, Industry and Technology (DSIT), with a further £7.1m in co-funding from partners including Science Card and Bruntwood SciTech.

The money will fund the MEMetic project, which will develop nature-inspired (biomimetic) polymer membranes for water filtration. MEMetic is being led by Professor Alan Goddard, from the School of Biosciences and AIME’s training and industry lead, and Dr Matt Derry, from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnologies and AIME’s marketing and comms lead.

Separating molecules from water is a fundamental challenge across sectors, from wastewater treatment to blood dialysis. Current filtration technologies rely on sequential separation steps based on the properties of the molecules, sometimes up to a dozen. However, biology has evolved a solution to this, developing proteins that sit within membranes to selectively transport a specific molecule across it.

MEMetic embeds these specific biological transporters in sustainably produced plastic membranes to create bioinspired membranes capable of selectively removing a specific molecule, such as antibiotics, heavy metals and nutrients, from water in a single step. Additionally, MEMetic’s membranes can concentrate the molecules of interest, making it perfect for recovering valuable resources from water, like phosphate and lithium. The technology could also, for example, be used in low-energy desalination or to remove toxic contaminants.

The government funding has been made through the Research Ventures Catalyst (RVC) programme, which was set up to provide funding to take truly novel ideas from concept to transformative technology. All awards must be at least equally fund matched with external investment.

Attached link

https://www.watermagazine.co.uk/2025/03/18/aston-institute-for-membrane-excellence-wins-13-2m-of-uk-government-and-co-funding-for-water-treatment-technology

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