Ceramics have been used for millennia for architectural construction, utilitarian items and cultural artefacts. The ceramic medium has unique qualities in terms of durability, sustainability, longevity and aesthetics and has been an integral part of our creative and commercial output. However, many of the sectors involved with ceramic production have faced extremely difficult conditions with a very significant decline over the last many decades. Such a decline is likely to be a combination of many factors, including overseas competition and cultural changes, but a lack of innovation is also likely to have contributed. In order for the UK to maintain or regrow its long heritage with this medium, new approaches and innovation are required. Innovation within digital fabrication in the field of ceramics has, to date, been predominantly focused on 3D printing, with both powder and plastic clay printing methods being established. While these methods have extended manufacturing possibilities with new geometric possibilities, 3D printing remains a very slow and size limited production method, which limits the process' commercial potential with the ceramic medium. In contrast, profile ceramic profile extrusion is an extremely quick and efficient production method. This method dates back to the 17th century and remains a highly utilised manufacturing process in the production of bricks and clay pipes. However, ceramic profile extrusion is generally limited to the productions of straight linear sections and remain significantly under-utilised in many other aspects of ceramic production. This research project will seek to explore how digital fabrication technologies can be used to establish new approaches with the ceramic profile extrusion technique that extends conventional capabilities to provide new creative and commercial opportunities. The research will investigate how customised, curved and bespoke shapes can be generated through the application of robotics, and how rapid workflows from computer aided designs to creation of extrusion dies be developed through the used of parametric scripting and digital fabrication approaches which collectively are termed: Smart Tooling. The research will include an in-depth survey of existing practices through interaction with industry specialists, visits to companies and leading international research centres. The core of the research will focus on interdisciplinary practice based investigations structured as a series of experimental feasibility studies. Technologies and approaches developed through the research are aimed to impact on a number of sectors including architecture, design and craft. Applications and exploitation opportunities will be identified through collaborative dialogue with key sector organisations, research partners and commercial companies. The fellowship will be hosted at the Centre for Fine Print Research and draw support from the centre's extensive experience in practice based research and technology driven innovation. Furthermore, the project draws together a group of world leading companies and organisation as collaborating partners in the research; Wienerberger, Sibelco, Arup and Centre for Window and Cladding Technology. The vision for this research project is to provide an exemplar of how material knowledge, new technologies and interdisciplinary approaches can be complied to deliver sustainable innovation with a traditional material.