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24th May 2017
Treasury ministers have been urged to back Britain's world-leading research into graphene, the "wonder" material that was first discovered in Manchester, amid fears that the city university's £1 million a year funding could be lost after the Brexit vote.
Scientists have warned that Britain could lose its place in the EU's Graphene Flagship project, following the recent decision to leave the European Union.
Leaving the project would also mean losing £1 million a year in funding for the University of Manchester, where the material was first discovered. It's been argued that EU membership was vital to the Manchester economy and so there have been calls for Theresa May to plug any potential shortfalls if EU funding is lost.
With a total budget of EUR 1bn, the EU Graphene Flagship launched in 2013 and is Europe's biggest ever joint research project with 150 groups taking part across 23 different countries. Scientists believe that graphene has thousands of potential commercial applications, including being used in the next generation of aeroplanes and high-speed trains.
The material was first isolated by Konstantin Novoselow and Andre Geim, who won the Nobel prize in physics for their work in 2010.