Researcher Network Committee

The Network is steered by the Committee which includes researchers from several Hub universities.

Name	Email Address	University
Mikhail Matveev (Chair)	Mikhail.Matveev@nottingham.ac.uk	University of Nottingham
Anthony Evans	Anthony.Evans@nottingham.ac.uk	University of Nottingham
Irene Jimenez-Fortunato	ijf1a17@soton.ac.uk	University of Southampton
Lewis Munshi	Lewis.munshi@bristol.ac.uk	University of Bristol
Mike Elkington	Michael.Elkington@bristol.ac.uk	University of Bristol
Shankhachur Roy	shankhachur.roy@manchester.ac.uk	University of Manchester
Vivek Koncherry	vivek.koncherry@manchester.ac.uk	University of Manchester

Researcher Network Award

2019 saw the Researcher Network launch a new initiative; a “Hub Researcher Network Award”, aimed at Postdocs and research students to support small research projects. These aim to provide the very first steps towards independence for early-career researchers. The call was well received amongst the Researcher Network community, with a response of 8 applications from 5 different universities.  The projects were reviewed by the researchers themselves and  a panel with significant researcher experience. Proposals were required to focus on improving the Manufacturing of fibre reinforced polymer composites, and funding was available for up to three proposals of up to £5,000 each.

The following projects were successfully awarded funding:

• Dr Vivek Koncherry (Manchester) “Development of a Portable Artificial Intelligence and Industrial Internet of Things System for Inspection and In-process Evaluation for Composites”
• Verner Viisainen (Cambridge) “Development of a Loading Rig to Characterise the Wrinkling of Fabrics under Combined Tension and Shear”
• Dr Zhe Liu (Nottingham) “Forming Behaviour of Multi-ply Advanced Recycled Carbon Fibre Preforms with Highly Aligned Fibre Orientation”

Researcher Network Events

Events are regularly organised for the Researchers Network, which are centred around professional and knowledge exchange activities, but also include a large amount of social engagement.
Some highlights of the Researchers Network events include: a lab workshop at Nottingham with elements of competition between teams; a demonstration of advanced composite manufacturing technologies at University of Bristol.