Polaron wins £1 million Manchester Prize
Polaron wins inaugural Manchester Prize
Polaron has won the £1 million inaugural Manchester Prize.
Advanced materials underpin every facet of modern life - from metal alloys that support infrastructure to lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles. Despite their importance, traditional methods for developing new materials are slow, costly, and inefficient due to complex manufacturing processes.
Polaron leverages state-of-the-art generative AI and microstructural image data - the microscopic features of a material visible under a microscope - to bridge the gap between the way materials are made and their performance. The technology empowers engineers to characterise materials, quantify microstructural variation, and optimise microstructural designs faster than ever before.
In a recent study on battery design, Polaron demonstrated a more than 10% improvement in energy density, roughly equivalent to adding 20 extra miles of range to a typical electric vehicle. Its AI models can explore thousands of material designs in under a day - a task that would take current state-of-the-art physics-based simulations around 50 years. This breakthrough is a catalyst for a manufacturing revolution, enabling the materials we need for a more sustainable future.
Polaron was founded by Dr Issac Squires, Dr Steve Kench and Dr Sam Cooper, spinning out their research at Imperial College London in November 2023. The growing start-up unites AI, engineering, and materials science, paving the way for material innovations in batteries and beyond.
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What is the Manchester Prize?
The Manchester Prize is a multi-million-pound challenge prize from the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to reward British-led breakthroughs in artificial intelligence for public good. Every year for the next decade, it will reward innovations that will help to transform the lives of the people across the country and continue to secure the UK’s place as a global leader in cutting edge innovation. In its first year, the Manchester Prize sought out the boldest and most cutting-edge ideas that use AI to make a positive impact on society in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure. The prize awarded 10 of the most promising solutions with £100,000 grants and additional non-financial support to develop prototypes capable of winning the £1 million grand prize.
Dr Isaac Squires, CEO of Polaron, winner of the first Manchester Prize, said:
“We are thrilled to have won the first ever Manchester Prize - it has been an extraordinary team effort. In the last year, we have turned the research we pursued at Imperial College into a commercial product, using our AI to reduce decades of materials development into just one day. We are now working with our first manufacturing customers in the electric vehicle and battery space to apply Polaron to extend the life of batteries and improve the performance of EVs. While these have been our core markets to date, Polaron is material agnostic, meaning we can bring its rapid design capabilities to a much wider range of industries - including metal alloys, technical ceramics, and nuclear materials.”