Microscopic image of a battery electrode (nickel manganese cobalt oxide/NMC). Source (All Images) | Attributed from NREL, adapted by Polaron
Polaron (London, U.K.) an AI technology that is reported to significantly accelerate the development of advanced materials from years to a matter of days, has won the £1 million inaugural Manchester Prize, an annual multi-million-pound challenge prize from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, to reward British-led breakthroughs in AI for public good.
Advanced materials underpin every facet of modern life. Despite their importance, traditional methods for designing these materials tend to be slow, costly and inefficient due to complex manufacturing processes.
Polaron has developed generative AI that leverages microstructural image data — showing the features of a material only visible under a microscope — to bridge the gap between the way materials are made and their performance. The technology empowers engineers to characterize materials, quantify microstructural variation and optimize microstructural designs faster than before.
Polaron’s tools, in addition to many other materials, is useful for composite materials characterization and design. In fact, the company has already applied its AI to fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, highlighted in its first published research paper, which demonstrated its reconstruction technology on a carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-type material. Polaron notes that, although not actively working on FRP materials at the moment, the company does intend to expand into this market in the future.
Polaron has published a host of other scientific papers that demonstrate other examples of its AI tool’s potential. For example, one paper saw a more than 10% improvement in energy density of batteries is possible, roughly equivalent to adding 20 extra miles of range to a typical electric vehicle (EV). Its AI models can reportedly 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.
Polaron was founded by Dr. Isaac Squires, Dr. Steve Kench and Dr. Sam Cooper, spinning out their research at Imperial College London in November 2023. The growing startup unites AI, engineering and materials science, paving the way for material innovations in batteries and beyond.
“In the last year, we have turned the research we pursued at Imperial College London into a commercial product,” says Squires, CEO of Polaron. “We are now working with our first customers in the battery manufacturing sector to apply Polaron to improve the performance of EVs by extending range and reducing charge times. While this has been our core market to date, Polaron is material agnostic, and we are already bringing our rapid design capabilities to industrial manufacturing more widely, including alloys, composites and catalysts.”
An NMC cathode reconstructed by Polaron in 3D.
Polaron is the first-ever winner of the Manchester Prize. Launched in 2023, the first year of the Manchester Prize called upon the innovators, academics, entrepreneurs and disruptors in the U.K. to enter AI solutions that would deliver public good, receiving nearly 300 entries.
In May 2024, 10 finalist teams were awarded £100,000 each to develop their solutions, and a comprehensive support package, including additional funding for computing resources, investor readiness support and access to a network of experts. Entries included AI to boost renewable power generation, AI for water and wastewater management and AI to improve infrastructure maintenance.
The second Manchester Prize was launched in November 2024, which will award £2 million to AI-breakthroughs that help make Britain a clean energy superpower. Ten finalists will be announced in May 2025, each receiving £100,000 in seed funding, £60,000 in compute credits and additional non-financial support to develop solutions capable of winning the £1 million grand prize in 2026.
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