Rosalind Franklin Institute Correlated Imaging Phase 3

Two new electron microscopes will capture atomic-level movies of materials as they change in real time, using a custom-built detector that records events faster than any current device. This matters because most microscopes only take static snapshots of materials. Scientists cannot see how a catalyst transforms during a chemical reaction, how a battery electrode degrades as it charges, or how a protein folds into its functional shape. These dynamic processes happen in billionths of a second, and existing instruments are too slow or too blurry to capture them. The project builds two aberration-corrected, time-resolved electron microscopes and a fast direct electron detector—components that together can visualise atomic motion as it occurs. If successful, the instruments could reveal the fundamental mechanisms behind catalysis, energy storage, and molecular biology. That knowledge might eventually help engineers design more efficient batteries, develop longer-lasting catalysts for industrial chemistry, or understand how misfolded proteins trigger disease. The work is fundamental science: it builds the tools needed to see processes that have been invisible, rather than solving a specific application. Past investments in electron microscopy have led to discoveries in materials science and drug design that were unimaginable when the microscopes were first built.