Cumbrian firm launches new science research supply forum

A Cumbrian firm is launching a new science and research supply chain forum.

Nu-Tech Exhibitions + Events, based in Carlisle, is behind the inaugural Global Science & Research Infrastructure Exchange (GSRIX), an event designed to connect British industry with major research infrastructure projects and facilities in the UK and abroad.

The forum, currently believed to be the only one of its kind in the UK, will take place at the Concorde Conference Centre at Manchester Airport on December 1, 2026 – bringing together UK national laboratories, public sector research establishments and international research centres to meet with technology and engineering suppliers from across Britain.

The programme includes a technology exhibition, organisational briefings and pre-booked one-to-one meetings between suppliers and representatives from research facilities.

Lisa Jones-Taylor, managing director of Nu-Tech Exhibitions + Events, said: "For many British companies, major international research facilities can be difficult to access, while opportunities within our own national laboratories are not always visible to the wider engineering and technology supply chain.

"GSRIX is designed to remove some of those barriers by bringing UK suppliers face-to-face with the people responsible for designing, building and operating major research facilities.

"We currently believe there is no other event in the UK bringing this breadth of national and international research infrastructure together in this way."

 

The event will be opened by Professor Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST).

Ms Sutcliffe stated: "GSRIX provides a valuable mechanism for bringing communities together on an international scale.

"By connecting UK suppliers directly with our national laboratories and with major research facilities from across Europe and beyond, it can help strengthen international supply chains, encourage innovation and enable British businesses to access commercial opportunities arising from investment in major science and research infrastructure that might otherwise be difficult to reach."

Confirmed international participants include CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), European Spallation Source (ESS), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), European XFEL, Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).

They will be joined by UK organisations such as Diamond Light Source, the STFC Central Laser Facility, National Quantum Computing Centre, UK Astronomy Technology Centre, and the Boulby Underground Laboratory.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), UK National Nuclear Laboratory and TWI, representing the European Space Agency’s UK Technology Broker programme, will also attend.

Cumbrian firm launches new science research supply forum | In Cumbria