UK and Australia team up on advanced materials integration

The UK and Australian Governments have awarded teams from both countries funding worth £1.48m to develop proposals for the integration of composites, adhesives for structural joining, joining high-temperature structures and improving armour systems.The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Australia’s DST Group collaboratively assessed the competition. UK teams awarded funding include Foresight Innovations, Hephaestus Consulting, Nottingham Trent University and Matrix Composites, TWI, the University of Surrey and QinetiQ, Zentraxa and QinetiQ Australia.Australian teams awarded funding include Western Sydney University, Imperial College London, Metrologi, UNSW and Airbus Australia Pacific, QinetiQ Australia and RMIT, University of New South Wales, Imperial College London, Advanced Composite Structures Australia, University of Adelaide, Research Institute of Saint-Louis and Materials Science Institute, RMIT University and BAE Systems.The programme is funded by the Australian Next Generation Technologies Fund and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) Materials for Strategic Advantage programme.A common assessment framework for the programme was managed by the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).