Funding Opportunities for Nuclear R&D:
A programme to be funded by the Technology Strategy Board

Based on an independent study which it commissioned to review both the business opportunities and the UK’s R&D capability for the civil nuclear sector (1), the Technology Strategy Board has announced that it will be investing up to £2m in feasibility studies (up to a maximum of £150k each study) to stimulate innovation and strengthen the supply chain in the area of nuclear R&D and its applications (2).

Supported by The Northern Way Partnership, three regional workshops are being coordinated by the Energy Generation and Supply KTN to promote the competition, engage with the supply chain and broker potential partnerships. The dates and venues are as follows:

7th June - Manchester 8th June - Middlesbrough 10th June - Sheffield

This event is free. Please register for the most convenient event by clicking on one of the links above

Who should attend?

The competition is looking to engage SMEs from a broad range of sectors together with existing major players in the nuclear sector or potential new entrants into the market. The SMEs may have technology ideas or products that they feel could be applicable to the nuclear industry, but need further development, analysis or assessment to take them to the next stage. Research providers such as universities and RTO’s are also eligible for the competition.

What Technologies are included?

The competition scope includes technologies such as:

• Condition monitoring, maintenance techniques, NDE
• Materials technologies, mechanical integrity, modelling and lifetime prediction
• Control & instrumentation, sensors and electronics
• Knowledge capture & transfer
• Manufacturing & construction technologies
• Fuel systems, decommissioning and waste handling/disposal

A more detailed description of the scope is given in references 1 & 2.

Programme

All meetings will follow the same format and timing, with keynote speakers at each event:

10.00 Registration and Coffee
10:30 Introduction & Welcome
10.45 An industry perspective on nuclear opportunities in the UK
11.15 Overview of the UK Nuclear R&D capability review
11.45 The TSB competition, details and scope
12.15 Lunch & networking
13.00-14.45 - Project brokering 
                   - Breakout discussions
                   - Surgery with TSB staff
14.45-15.00 Summary & Close

Request for project ideas

In order to facilitate discussion and proposal brokering, attendees (from SMEs, large companies, or researchers) who already have ideas, are kindly requested to bring with them a single page (preferably A3) outline description of their proposal (non-confidential) which should include:

• company name
• contact details of person within the company
• outline of project idea
• type of partners/technology providers sought

This information should be kept concise and will be put on boards to be shared with all the attendees present. These ideas will be grouped by ‘theme’ for the afternoon session to facilitate brokering. Equally, new ideas may be formulated during the day

Confidential one-to-one sessions with TSB staff will also be available