An EU-funded programme has provided grants of more than €50,000 to four industry partners for developments in their manufacturing research projects.
The North West Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (NW CAM) was established to help develop and deliver 15 research projects to solve industrial problems in the life and health science sector.
This is being done by linking the academic capabilities of Northern Ireland and parts of Ireland and Scotland with respected industry partners.
The programme’s partners said these collaborative research projects have “the potential to deliver ingenious global products and processes that can be licensed throughout the world and span cutting edge advanced manufacturing technologies.” These include nano-manufacturing, additive manufacturing, advanced polymer products and sustainable manufacturing.
The four-year programme - which is now past the midway point - will see €8.7m invested across four research partners and nine companies. These projects are being delivered by 13 post-doctoral researchers and 13 PhD students that are attempting to create innovative solutions for the challenges faced by their industry partners.
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Four industry partners have now been allocated small grants of €57,000 for innovations after assessment by an independent panel. These included equipment to support the production of patient specific implants, testing instrument for improving patient diagnostics, simulation software for predicting 3D manufacturing and intelligent inks for electronic reading and tracking.
Catalyst is the lead partner with research expertise being delivered by NW CAM academic partners Ulster University, University of Glasgow, IT Sligo and Letterkenny Institute of Technology.
Claire McCafferty, project manager at Catalyst said: “The NW CAM project has been a big success, helping drive innovation and development in the advanced manufacturing sector, with industry and academic partners working in tandem to accelerate R&D strategy and solve complex problems in order to gain a competitive advantage in their individual markets.
“Pooling resources and expertise in this way has enabled our partners to produce a number of original prototypes which will, pending a successful trial period, be ready for market as soon as this year. We are very excited by the outcomes so far.”
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A recent highlight of the project was the NW CAM Showcase breakfast event with keynote speaker, Dr Michael Ryan from Science Foundation Ireland, who talked about all-Ireland collaboration opportunities and researcher development programmes that can connect research across the world.
The event, hosted in Catalyst’s Innovation Centre in Belfast, offered an insight to the various NW CAM projects and how they are progressing. The NW CAM is funded by the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme.
