Speaker
Description
The UK's investment in Materials 4.0 is skewed: of nearly 6,000 identified projects, over 95% target algorithms and digital tools, while barely 5% address the data ontologies, measurement protocols and shared infrastructure that make those tools trustworthy. AI models, digital twins and autonomous laboratories are only as good as the characterisation data feeding them, and volume cannot substitute for quality. Drawing on the Henry Royce Institute's National Framework for Materials 4.0, with examples from nuclear materials, offshore wind and battery characterisation, I'll argue that metrological traceability and FAIR data are non-negotiable prerequisites, and that closing this gap depends on people as much as infrastructure: the research technical professionals and measurement experts uniquely positioned to generate trustworthy data and champion shared standards. The message for PSDI: the AI comes later. The measurement comes first.