Congratulations to APT PIs Dr David Kinahan, Prof. Dermot Brabazon, Dr Yan Delaure, Dr Lorna Fitzsimons, for the funding of over €1.2m from the European Union to develop new types of surfaces for use in water and marine systems.

The award is part of an overall €15 million Horizon 2020 Open Innovation Test Bed project which is coordinated by the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS). Titled ‘Innovation Eco-system to Accelerate the Industrial Uptake of Advanced Surface Nano-Technologies (NEWSKIN)’ it involves 35 research and SME (small, medium enterprise) partners from across the EU.

The work will involve using laser machining to create nanostructures on surfaces. These are minute in scale, typically those in-between microscopic and molecular structures. These nano-structured surfaces can, among other things, enhance the efficiency of water filtration systems.