The British Iron and Steel Research Association (BISRA), was formed in 1944 with headquarters in London, originally at 11 Park Lane, later moved to 24 Buckingham Gate.

This centralisation attempt was backtracked but resulted in the closure of Welsh Laboratories and significant losses in numbers, knowledge and experience from both remaining centres.

To avoid closure of the Teesside Laboratories and loss of the remaining technical process expertise in Coal & Coke, Oxygen Steelmaking, Continuous Casting and Long Products Rolling, members of the sites management team (Chris McDonald, Gareth Fletcher and Dr. Richard Curry) and the Tata Steel Process R&D Director (Dr. Simon Pike) were permitted to spin the site out as an independent research institute.

They have ventured into contemporary techniques such as computational fluid dynamics and process instrumentation but cutbacks in staff and investment have limited development in these areas.

The Materials Processing Institute houses Liberty Speciality Steel's Additive Manufacturing Steelmaking Powder Metallurgy Development Plant.