Patrick Grant has held the Cookson Chair of Materials at Oxford University since 2004. He has over 140 papers and 6 patents (3 licensed). From 1999 to 2004, he was Director of the Oxford Centre for Advanced Materials and Composites (OCAMAC) that helps to coordinate industrial materials related research across Oxford University, and was Director of Faraday Advance from 2000 until 2007 when it became the Transport Node of the Materials KTN and he became Executive Director. He was one of the founding academics of the Begbroke Science Park at Oxford University, now a major regional and international hub for innovation and close industrial-university collaboration. He is currently Associate Head (Research) of the Maths, Physical and Life Sciences Division at Oxford University.
Professor Grant was a member of 2008 Research Assessment Exercise panel for Metallurgy and Materials and is a member of the Materials & Structures National Technical Committee. He advises the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Strategic Advisor Network, the Fusion Advisory Board, and the Manufacturing the Future Strategic Advisory Team. He is a consultant to a speciality materials manufacturing company in the Far East and a member of Rolls-Royce's Materials, Manufacture and Structures Advisory Board.
His research focuses on the physics of materials processing in order to manipulate microstructure, extract maximum economic benefit and impose process control. He investigates novel manufacturing with liquid droplets, at near industrial scale with on line process diagnostics, and numerical simulation.