NCN

National Composites Network

The National Composites Network (NCN), jointly funded by government and industry, embraces the entire UK Composites industry and its supply chain. The NCN is a Company Limited by Guarantee, with a Board drawn from organisations with prominent composites interests. NCN will call upon the expertise of a Strategy Group, representing the breadth of the composites community.

The UK has an impressive global reputation for innovation and research in composite materials and recognised high skills and quality based manufacturing, which is heavily led by implementation of new technologies. Driven by improvements in business economics and the technical performance of materials, industry will inevitably seek further advances via the use of composites. The NCN offers various routes to link industry needs with expert resources and public funding, to encourage the productive engagement of interested parties.

The establishment of Regional Centres of Excellence where companies can obtain hands-on support and expert advice has already begun. The intention is to grow this cluster of centres from existing UK capabilities and focus future infrastructure investment on capability gaps defined by industry.

A significant part of the programme will focus on active technology transfer, particularly to SMEs, where the NCN will respond to specific queries made via the helpdesk or website as well as carry out targeted activities to address wider sector issues. It will use proven technology delivery methods to ensure technical and business opportunities are exploited, delivering a step-change in the performance of the UK composites industry.

This approach will transfer to all interested organisations, particularly SMEs, a wide range of technology associated with the application and use of polymer, ceramic and metal matrix composites. In addition to technology specifics, the service will also cover advice on advanced manufacturing issues such as unit cost of production, time to market, productivity, quality, environmental aspects, safety, reclamation and whole life costs.

NetComposites is supporting the NCN though development of a powerful online presence for the network. This website will facilitate effective knowledge transfer within the UK, as well as at a global level, and provide an online information point for the activities of the NCN itself. The relevance of this project is primarily in promoting complementary development or research programmes and in the creation of a virtual infrastructure to coordinate the access of external researchers to the unique facilities, skills and activities of the partnership. The network will do this by in-depth assessment and transfer of the existing knowledge of each of the partners to identify key areas of skill, as well as mapping the gaps in existing and future research infrastructures.

WWW Link: http://www.ncn-uk.co.uk