Global leaders in innovation, research, and technology from across the cement, metal, glass, ceramic, paper, polymer and chemical industries have come together to form the Foundation Industries Sustainability Consortium (FISC). These essential materials are an invisible part of everyday life. The products made from these materials are essential to our everyday lives, but together, they are responsible for 10% of the world’s CO2 emissions. We cannot do without the products of the foundation industries, so it is essential that we work to make the products more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint.

FISC brings together the CPI, Glass Futures, Lucideon, Materials Processing Institute and the Henry Royce Institute. The consortium will lead projects based on six themes; alternative fuels, digital sensing, process optimisation, sustainable materials, circular economy and training and skills. It’s first project is known as EconoMISER (Economic Materials Innovation for the Sustainable and Efficient Use of Resources). It is funded by Innovate UK as part of the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge and builds on the existing innovation capability of the partners. The EconoMISER programme is developing a network of scale-up centres across the FISC partnership to align with the consortium’s themes.

Graham Hillier, FISC and EconoMISER Project Chair, said: “All of the centres are well established in their own right and support innovation in their own industries. We felt that by working together on cross cutting themes that affect the whole of the foundation industries there was an opportunity to combine our capabilities in ways that can identify and transfer best practice between the centres and, more importantly, into manufacturing plants and supply chains to enhance the UK’s position economically, environmentally and socially.”

www.ukfisc.org