The three-year Manufacturing Immortality Project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), that will investigate the development of materials made up of biological and non-biological parts which are capable of self-healing.
Initially the project will focus on creating materials for use in inaccessible places such as deep-sea cables or radioactive sites, but in the future the research could lead to consumer goods such as mobile phones with self-healing screens.
The EPSRC-funded consortium is made up of experts from the University of Bristol, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Manchester, Cranfield University, University of Aberdeen, Lancaster University and Northumbria University.
Dr Paul Race, principal investigator and biochemist at the University of Bristol said: "This research has the potential to lead to some truly ground-breaking developments which could have a huge impact on our everyday lives – such as smartphone screens which have the ability to ‘self-heal’ if they are cracked or damaged.”
