The competence centre supports research projects across 4 thematic areas. To ensure that the
research themes we support are relevant to industry, our themes have been developed by our
Industrial participants, in addition we regularly assess the themes to ensure they are always
supporting the needs of our Participants. Our current themes are:-

LARGE COMPOSITE COMPONENTS
This theme examines the development of a fully integrated design and manufacturing process to
enable the multi-disciplinary design and manufacture of large composite components, with potentially
complex surfaces.

FUTURE SMART SYSTEMS
This theme investigates the development of advanced materials and processes for high performance
applications at low cost. This will be supported through growth in our advanced design, simulation
and optimisation capabilities.

NEW MATERIALS DATABASE
This theme looks to develop a multi-functional research database that will centralise all the
information generated as part of the competence centre thereby expanding the knowledge base
available to NI Industry and Academia.

DESIGN FOR USE – ‘CRADLE TO CRADLE’
This theme aims to develop the tools and processes needed to integrate life-cycle issues with early
design models, which will facilitate and assist creative design processes.