Cirdan is delighted to be a member of the smart nano-manufacturing corridor consortium (Smart Nano NI) led by Seagate Technology Ireland and to work in partnership with rapidly growing and innovative local Northern Irish organisations including, Yelo, Causeway Sensors Limited, Digital Catapult and Analytics Engines, alongside academic research institutions Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University and North West Regional College (NWRC).
Through this partnership, Cirdan looks forward to the introduction of the next generation of imaging products utilising Photonics and smart nano manufacturing, which will greatly aid outcomes in the treatment of Cancer.
What is Smart Nano NI?
Smart Nano NI is a Northern Ireland consortium involving local industry leading organisations collaborating to develop game-changing advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing methods to deliver new technologies. These methods will have applications across medical research, data storage and data analysis as well growing innovation and scale up capacity in device manufacturing.
The consortium has been awarded seedcorn funding of £50,000 to develop their bid and compete for a share of £236 million for the UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund. The collaboration is aimed at driving self-sustaining local industry and economic growth through research and innovation.
Smart Nano NI is among 22 shortlisted projects competing for awards of between £10 and £50 million each. If the consortium is successful in securing the funding, the collaboration will establish a centre of excellence with wide reaching benefits for the technology sector and provide opportunities for knowledge transfer enabling advances in Life and Health Sciences as well as exploiting the potential photonics and nanotech in other high-growth sectors across the whole UK.
What is the Strength in Places Fund?
The Strength in Places Fund is a UKRI pathfinder programme that invests in research and innovation projects to boost research and innovation capacity in specific areas of the UK, in order to drive economic growth in those areas. It does this by funding consortia of research organisations, businesses and local leadership, to deliver research and innovation that will have an impact on local economic growth. A total of £168 million of SIPF funding has been allocated to date. The aims of the Strength in Places Fund are:
- To support innovation-lead relative economic growth, closing the gap between the rate of growth in the area and nationally.
- To enhance local collaborations involving research and innovation.
Source: Smart Nano NI
For more information on Smart Nano NI visit: https://www.smartnanoni.com/
Consortium members
Follow the links below to find out more on our fellow consortium members.
Analytics Engines- https://analyticsengines.com/
Causeway Sensors: https://www.causewaysensors.com/
Yelo: https://www.yelo.co.uk/
Seagate Technology- https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/
Digital Catapult- https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/
North West Regional College: http://www.nwrc.ac.uk/
Queen’s University Belfast- https://www.qub.ac.uk/
Ulster University – https://www.ulster.ac.uk/