Technology is one of the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) National Laboratories, providing facilities and capabilities that are operated as a national research resource. Our specific role within STFC is to empower researchers to solve global challenges and enable major scientific breakthroughs through the invention, development, and application of cutting-edge technologies.

STFC is one of the seven councils managed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), along with Innovate UK and Research England. UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which seeks to build a world-class research system through investment in research and innovation, and the people who make it happen.

Read more about STFC’s National Laboratories and UKRI’s role as an NDPB.

We work with commercial companies across industry sectors on R&D challenges, developing solutions in areas where no suitable technology precedent exists. This could be through the design of new products or the development of manufacturing processes.

We apply the specialist expertise we have curated developing technology and instrumentation for world-leading scientific programmes to commercial collaborations -bridging the gap between pioneering science and business. We have worked with clients from a wide range of industries, including energy, electronics, healthcare, materials, security, and aerospace.

STFC supports an academic community of around 1,700 people in particle physics, nuclear physics, and astronomy, including space science, who work at more than 50 universities and research institutes in the UK, Europe, Japan and the US. This also includes a rolling cohort of more than 900 PhD students.

We frequently collaborate with academia through our engagement with major international science facilities and their ground-breaking projects.

We stand at the forefront of engineering excellence for three reasons: the breadth of our knowledge, the depth of our experience, and the diversity of our staff.

Our department has been working in the field of science and technology, in one way or another, for a very long time. We have honed our expertise over the course of decades, working with other major research institutions. The knowledge we have cultivated during this time is extremely wide-ranging.

It is not often that a single department can offer its expertise in the development of neutrino targets for particle physics experiments and the stewardship of vital energy data that could help the UK meet its net zero ambitions.

But, above all, our staff are the lifeblood of our department, from manufacturing technicians through materials engineers to detector scientists. Their multidisciplinary expertise and passion for science and technology sustain our successful collaborations and enable the success of many major scientific experiments.

Of course. We work with many international partners from major facilities worldwide, from the SKA Observatory in Australia and South Africa, to the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation (KEK) in Japan.

If you are interested in collaborating with us, please complete our contact form or email us at technology@stfc.ac.uk.

Through STFC’s Early Career and Public Engagement schemes, we help safeguard a pipeline of future STEM leaders. From our accredited and award-winning Graduate and Apprentice Placement Programmes to the Wonder Initiative, which facilitates engagement with communities in the 40% most socioeconomically deprived areas of the UK.

Find out more about Early Careers and Public Engagement at STFC.

We are just one of the Science and Facilities Council’s National Laboratories. Other facilities include:

• Accelerator Science and Technology Centre
• Central Laser Facility
• Hartree Centre
• ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
• National Quantum Computing Centre
• Particle Physics Department including Boulby Underground Laboratory
• RAL Space
• Scientific Computing Department
• UK Astronomy Technology Centre