How it Works

Tell us what you need

Contact us to tell us about your materials challenge, the outcomes that you would like to achieve and the information, support, or technical assistance that you need.

GISMO is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and we will ask you for some basic information about your business to establish your eligibility for fully-funded support.

We find the right people to help you

The Materials Science Institute at Lancaster University has over 200 researchers, backed up by £45 million of specialist facilities and equipment.

We will assign one of our experts from the thematic area with which your challenge aligns as your main point of contact with the University. They will co-ordinate the support that you receive from us – providing it themselves in many cases – and keep you informed of progress.

We agree an action plan with you

Our experts will ask questions to clarify their understanding of your enquiry and to characterise your business and its operations. They will create an action plan for your challenge setting out the details of the support we will provide and the likely outcomes.

If the support (including research by our experts and access to our facilities and equipment) requires more than 12 weeks to complete, we will ask you to sign a specific collaboration agreement to agree the scope of work and the intellectual property arrangements.

We work with you on the solution

We will do what it takes to develop the right solution and advise you on how to implement it. Sometimes this may involve desk research or asking our experts to wear their thinking caps; it may also involve research and testing in our laboratories and workshops.

From time-to-time, we will run workshops on related topics that you may find it useful to attend.

We will keep you informed of progress, alert you to key findings along the way and consult you when key decisions are required or if the desired outcomes may change. We encourage you to visit our facilities when possible and hope that you will allow us to see you at work too.

Help us to evaluate the outcomes

When the work has been completed to your satisfaction, we will ask you to confirm the the support that you received and the outcomes, for the returns we have to provide to our funders.

Keep in touch

One of our business development managers will contact you to review next steps and find out how you would like to keep in touch and to receive updates, news and information from us