Friction and wear cost UK industry billions each year, and a new research centre at the University of Southampton will tackle this problem head-on. Tribology—the science of interacting surfaces in relative motion—affects nearly every sector, from defence and energy to manufacturing and medicine. Poor tribological design wastes energy, shortens machine life, and increases emissions. It also matters for human health: the performance of replacement joints depends on how materials rub against each other inside the body. Despite its importance, the UK has lacked a large interdisciplinary centre dedicated specifically to tribology. The Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (CATS) will fill that gap. The centre will recruit young researchers across engineering, electronics, biology, medicine, mathematics, chemistry, and statistics. It will combine multiscale modelling, experimental techniques, and advanced facilities—including a £60 million clean room complex and high-performance computing—to understand tribological processes from the molecular scale up to macro contacts. Industrial partners such as Airbus, Shell, and DePuy will help align research with real-world needs. If successful, CATS could lead to more efficient engines, longer-lasting machinery, lower carbon emissions, and better-performing joint implants—improving systems that quietly underpin modern life.
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Tribology is an essential technology for nearly all UK Industry, including defence, and impacts on energy efficiency, carbon and other emissions, machine life, engine design, maintenance schedules and machine downtime, and the recovery and processing of oil reserves. It is also critical to the long term mobility, health and quality of life of patients with damaged or replacement joints. The Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (CATS) will use the 3.05M S & I grant plus 6.2M gearing from the University and Industry to recruit young staff from a variety of strategic disciplines to create an internationally leading research centre. This will conduct research into areas of major national importance such as future machines of all scales, energy efficiency, emissions and human health. The key role of the new staff will be to link with 18 academics in the School of Engineering Sciences and to 18 academics in six other Schools/Centres within the University of Southampton. The other Schools participating will be those of Electronics and Computer Science, Biological Sciences, Medicine, Mathematics, Statistics and Chemistry, thus creating a truly multidisciplinary Centre. This will be the first large interdisciplinary centre specifically focused on Tribology in the UK. CATS will uniquely address the combination of multiscale modelling, analytical and experimental techniques to develop a better understanding of tribological processes at the molecular, nano and micro scales. This understanding will be used in the development of micro-systems as well as predictive models concerned with macro contact performance. It will also address the interactions of biology and tribology, critically, by coupled modelling-experimental approaches to the nature of solid/liquid and cell-surface interfaces in biotribological and biological processes. CATS will have a distinctive platform by accessing the world class facilities and expertise at Southampton in high performance computing (Microsoft Institute of High Performance Computing), microfabrication and MEMS (new 60M clean room complex), advanced surface science, Developmental Sciences incorporating the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration in the School of Medicine as well as researchers in electrochemistry and biological sciences. CATS would use these resources for innovative modelling, applying novel solutions to MEMS, developing MEMS as sensors and novel probes for tribological processes, surface film characterisation by scanning probes. It would also deploy advanced electrochemical techniques to understand the human biological reactions to metal ion release and the surface-biotribology performance of joint implants. CATS will also aim to use collaborations with over twenty industrial partners with major tribological activities (such as Airbus, DePuy, Shell, Lloyd's Register, Dstl, NPL and Schlumberger) to ensure that the research footprint of the centre is aligned with industrial need, research can be exploited efficiently and to ensure effective national technology transfer of the knowledge generated by the centre.
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