Tue, 16 August, 2022
National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC) Conference continues the 10th anniversary celebrations of a centre that is pioneering industry-led academia.
Supported by founding partners Lloyd’s Register Foundation, TWI Ltd and bp, NSIRC hosed it’s Research & Innovation Conference 2022 at TWI Ltd on Granta Park, Cambridge, UK on 21 and 22 July.
The conference was officially sponsored by Anglia Ruskin University, Brunel University London, Brunel Innovation Centre (BIC), Brunel Composites Centre (BCC), the University of Leicester, nquiringminds, Castalia, Floteks, and Smart Manufacturing Alliance.
Over 200 delegates gathered from global industry and academia in supported of the PhD and MSc research being exhibited, based on topics that solve huge technological challenges being faced by global industries.
For 2022, Keynote presentations were made by Jan Przydatek, Director of Technologies, Lloyd’s Register Foundation and John Morlidge, Deputy Director Aerospace, Innovate UK.
The two day event featured presentations from over 30 industry focused PhD students across six themes; coating technologies, additive manufacturing, joining technologies, inspection and monitoring, and composites and polymers.
Professor Tat-Hean Gan, NSIRC Director and TWI Innovation and Skills Director, said: "The success of NSIRC and it’s students has shown that this new model for academia has worked and can expand. Through the research that has been undertaken and exhibited, not just at this conference but over last 10 years, universities have been able to gain vital new avenues for impactful research, students have received the training that can only come from working within an innovative industrial environment, and industry has gain knowledge that it can used towards improved safety, technologies, enhance competitive advantage and commercialisation."
The conference dinner took place at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. Photo: NSIRC / TWI Ltd
Since opening it's doors in 2012, NSIRC has accumulated over 500 postgraduate students, with a 32% female participation rate, from over 40 different countries.
The centre is affiliated with over 40 universities in the UK, Europe and Asia, and has the support of industrial partners including Saudi Aramco Technologies Company and ADNOC, who are also providing supervision and sponsorship for several NSIRC doctoral students.
Over the last decade, NSIRC has lead with a mission of academia with impact, and the research conducted by students and alumni has accounted for the equivalent of 900 years of combined PhD research focused on industrial need, over 800 publications by students with 93 PhD peer-reviewed journals.
Collectively, research topics by NSIRC students has contributed to 13 Standards updates and additionally, NSIRC alumni have gone on to be employed in leading universities and companies, including Subsea 7, ExxonMobil, Accenture, Northumbria University, Ford and many more.
What does the future hold for NSIRC…?
NSIRC is working towards a vision for internationalisation, leveraging funding to maximise the value for sponsor, commercialisation and higher TRLs research.
Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed with leading universities in Thailand and Indonesia, and the expectation is to open more centres in Greece, Pakistan, India, Singapore and Malaysia.
Research at each NSIRC will have a bespoke research focuses, addressing grand challenges such as net zero manufacturing, material recovery and recycling, AI for asset integrity management and many more.
To find out more about the research taking place at NSIRC, visit ‘Our Research’.