Commitment by the UK government to invest in its coastal infrastructure has encouraged Moore Concrete’s existing desire to sustainably grow the business. Through this Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the Dept of Agriculture, Civil & Structural Engineering and Planning at Queen’s University Belfast, Moore are collaborating with leading academics, Dr Mohammed Sonebi and Dr Giuseppina Amato to continue their development of lower carbon concrete products for marine infrastructure, and improving performance.

KTP Associate, Luke Oakes has been leading the project, with support and mentorship from academics, to review the mix designs and production procedures of recent marine projects and identifying areas for improvement.

This KTP project has embedded statistical factorial design methods and developed a model for highly durable concrete for use in the marine infrastructure and sea defence sector. The knowledge transferred to the business is providing a unique opportunity to develop novel and more sustainable precast elements made with marine durable concrete and is enabling niche research into viable real world solutions to benefit the company and the environment by reducing carbon footprint and energy consumption.

KTPs are funded by UKRI through Innovate UK with the support of co-funders, including the Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government, Invest Northern Ireland, Defra and BEIS. Innovate UK manages the KTP programme and facilitates its delivery through a range of partners including the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Knowledge Bases and Businesses. Each partner plays a specific role in the support and delivery of the programme.

If you have an innovative business idea and would like to discuss whether a KTP could help take it forward, please contact us at ktp@qub.ac.uk