In this exclusive op-ed for The Manufacturer, Paragraf’s Dr Simon Thomas argues that escalating global disruptions, from energy shocks to fragile supply chains, underline the urgent need for the UK to move beyond innovation alone and secure its position through strategic leadership in advanced materials.
The global ripples of the near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz show how quickly supply chains can break down. This disruption has driven sharp energy price increases, with oil and gas costs surging across Europe and Asia, while fertiliser exports have been hit, threatening global food production and pushing up prices.
Shipping delays, rerouting and soaring insurance costs have added time and expense to global trade. This isn’t new. In 2020, the global semiconductor shortage, driven by a surge in demand for electronics during the COVID-19 pandemic just as supply chains were disrupted, exposed the fragility and concentration of global chip supply chains. In response, national governments and multilateral blocs such as the EU introduced measures like the Chips Act to build greater onshore resilience to international supply chain disruption.
Writing in the Financial Times, Chi Onwurah MP warned that the UK’s lack of a clear, coherent technology strategy risks undermining national security, economic resilience and public trust at a time of growing global instability.
Onwurah, Chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee highlights contradictions in policy, such as investing in quantum computing while cutting related research, and points to continued dependence on overseas supply chains for critical components. With billions in public R&D and procurement at stake, she argues that without strategic clarity on what the UK should own, control or rely on allies for, both government and private sector investment lack direction. The UK must define and execute a focused approach to technological sovereignty, or risk drifting into long-term dependence.
I couldn’t agree more. The UK is excellent at research, development and innovation, but too often remains an incubator economy for new technologies. It has the opportunity to go further, building on world-class advancements in new and novel materials to deliver greater sovereign resilience.
The UK does not need, nor is it realistic, to replicate entire global supply chains domestically. The discovery of graphene at the University of Manchester by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, is a clear example of world-leading innovation in advanced materials. Modern manufacturing is inherently international. However, to be an effective partner in that system the UK must own and control critical parts of the value chain.
Leadership in areas such as advanced materials provides exactly that leverage. By anchoring capability at the material layer, where performance, efficiency and next-generation functionality are defined, the UK can secure a strategic position in global manufacturing partnerships, ensuring access to the components, systems and markets it cannot and should not seek to fully replicate at home.
At a moment of heightened global uncertainty, the opportunity for the UK is not to compete across every stage of manufacturing, but to lead where it can exert the greatest influence. Advanced materials sit at the foundation of modern manufacturing, shaping the performance, efficiency and capability of everything built on top.
By focusing here, the UK can move beyond being an originator of ideas to a strategic enabler of global manufacturing, embedding itself in high-value production systems and ensuring long-term industrial relevance.
Paragraf is a clear example of that shift in action, translating UK research strength into real industrial capability through the mass production of graphene-based electronic devices using standard semiconductor processes.
Through our work across multiple regions and supply chains, we see first-hand the extent to which demand for advanced materials is accelerating. This is increasingly influencing where value sits in manufacturing, and which countries and companies are able to secure a more strategic position within it.
Ongoing disruption only sharpens the case for continued UK investment in domestic capability across advanced materials and semiconductor manufacturing, reducing reliance on concentrated global supply chains and strengthening long-term resilience. Onwurah is right: sovereignty is a choice. Without making it, the UK risks drifting into long-term dependence.
About the author
Dr Simon Thomas
, founder and CEO of Paragraf and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Paragraf is the first company to mass-produce graphene-based electronic devices using standard semiconductor processes.
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