Reynaers Aluminium UK has appointed Jim Smith, a building products veteran with more than 30 years’ experience, as managing director with a mandate to accelerate growth in the architecture and specification markets and strengthen commercial capability. Smith will maintain a core focus on the group’s Science-Based Targets initiative pathway, which commits to a 50% carbon footprint reduction by 2030. For façade, window and door specifiers, Reynaers is pushing aluminium systems designed for energy efficiency, climate resilience, durability and recyclability, embedding circularity and eco-design at project design stage.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems has become the first international partner in the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Lithium Breeding Tritium Innovation (Librti) programme at Culham, supporting development of tritium-breeding technologies for future fusion power plants. The collaboration will focus on testing lithium-based breeder materials and component designs under fusion-relevant conditions to optimise tritium production and recovery. For civil and materials engineers, the work points to future design requirements for breeder blankets, cooling circuits and radiation-resistant structural materials in commercial fusion infrastructure.

VASO Global has secured £5m from PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, UK Research Innovation and Eco Group to accelerate development of structural composite panels manufactured from recycled glass. The funding will support scale-up of panel production and validation of load-bearing performance, targeting use in building envelopes and other structural applications where composites can replace steel or concrete elements. For engineers, the move signals growing investor confidence in glass-based composites as a lower-carbon alternative material, pending full structural testing and certification.