Dublin City University has secured over €1.2m in funding from the EU as part of a €15m H2020 Open Innovation Test Bed project which is coordinated by The European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS). The project, ‘Innovation Eco-system to Accelerate the Industrial Uptake of Advanced Surface Nano-Technologies (NEWSKIN)’, involved 36 research and SME partners from across the EU and aims to develop nano-structured surfaces for use in water and marine application such as enhancing the efficiency of water filtration. The project will fund two PhD students and two post-doctoral researchers within DCU and also fund upgrade of laser machining facilities and pump cavitation test-beds. The project brings together expertise drawn from I-Form/APT and The Water Institute. The principal investigator is Dr David Kinahan from School of Mechanical Engineering and co-investigators are Prof Dermot Brabazon (I-Form/APT), Dr Yan Delaure, Dr Lorna Fitzsimons, Dr Jenny Lawler, and Prof Fiona Regan (Water Institute). Dr Kinahan says ‘Hosting an Open Innovation Test-bed within DCU is particularly exciting as the goal is to provide state-of-the-art and accessibly research facilities for Irish and EU-based companies. It is therefore a great opportunity to see cutting edge research which is conducted both at DCU and at our consortium partners translated have a tangible impact in industry’.
