Engineering Network Funding Spurs Investment into Other Welsh Projects

As Wales achieved its €50 million EU research and innovation goal from across universities and businesses last October, two projects funded as part of the National Research Network (NRN) in Advanced Engineering and Materials (AEM) have gained recent success securing £1,090,000 through the EU’s largest research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.

Professor Owen Guy, Director of the Centre for Nanotechnology in Swansea University, which is also a partner institute in a €3.5 M H2020 Marie Curie Training Network led by Plymouth University, received funding of £470,000 for developing platform technology for a range of sensor applications. “This grant represents a unique opportunity to link with leading European research groups and industry partners, to develop diagnostic technology related to Alzheimer’s disease,” Professor Guy said.

In a second Project, in collaboration with Universities of Limogues (France) and Padova(Spain), as well as fellow Bangor academics and Welsh-based enterprise Creo Medical Ltd, Dr Cristiano Palego, of Bangor University, also received a grant of £705,050 to Bangor University for his work focused on advancing medical devices to aide doctors in detecting pathogens and malignant cells through non-invasive means. Dr Palego said the funding would “ allow me to establish my own bioelectric lab funding will enable him to establish a bioelectric lab both in terms of equipment and expertise, which will be quite unique in Wales.” He also saw the possibilities of potential to “attract talented researchers and increase competitiveness,” in Wales through the resources the fund would provide for.