Research funds announced for ground and structural engineering projects

The EPSRC has said that the fund is the result of collaboration between academia and industry and will help improve the understanding and prediction of earth movements to protect major infrastructure; provide greater confidence in the durability of composite materials for use in civil engineering industries and develop new self-healing materials for construction.

Projects that are to benefit under the new funding scheme are Newcastle University’s ISMART scheme to look at the interaction between the ground and structures on major civil engineering projects, Warwick University’s research into providing greater confidence in durable composites and Cardiff University’s work on materials for life which will look at biomimetic multi-scale damage for immunity construction.

This funding follows on from a review undertaken by EPSRC in 2009 into research in these fields and one of the recommendations was for a more adventurous research with a community driven agenda. The research projects are expected to involve collaboration with over 20 other institutions and industry partners.

ICE president Barry Clarke, who is also professor of civil engineering geotechnics at University of Leeds, said: “I am very pleased to welcome this funding. These projects will look at issues which are both current and emerging and can improve the sustainability of our infrastructure and buildings. This is a positive example of the community and research councils working closely together.”

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