Highways England has become the latest company to partner with the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC).
The new collaboration will look to address some of the many challenges experienced by the road network in England, such as the deterioration of road and pavement surfaces.
The partnership is looking to explore the operational and road user benefit of incorporating graphene into assets such as road surfacing and road markings as well as help to drive the development of a low carbon and digital road network.
The potential improvements could result in stronger, long lasting materials that would reduce roadworks and improve the journeys of road users.
James Baker, CEO of Graphene@Manchester, said: “This latest partnership is a brilliant example of how graphene can be used to tackle problems faced by most people every day.”
“This is further enabled by the facilities and capabilities we can provide to our industry partners, that accelerates the many small improvements that ultimately create an optimised product.”
Paul Doney, Innovation Director at Highways England, said: “We are really excited about the opportunity to explore leading edge materials and what this might lead to for our road network.”
“GEIC is at the forefront, having made the discovery here in Manchester, and by building a collaboration with our operations teams who understand the challenges, we are looking to deliver improved safety and performance of our roads.”