“Taking into consideration the KTU’s international research projects and research quality, the University was invited to join the National Structural Integrity Research Centre located in the UK and become one of its seventeen academic partners”, says Leonas Balaševičius, Director of KTU’s Research Department.
According to NSIRC representatives, the partnership will contribute to the academic excellence to the Centre, as it seeks to address the need for fundamental research into structural integrity.
KTU is the 17th academic partner to join NSIRC, alongside other leading universities including Brunel, Leicester, Southampton, Edinburgh and Birmingham, and the first from mainland Europe. The deal will allow KTU’s engineering students to receive state-of-the-art training through NSIRC over the next ten years.
Professor Tat-Hean Gan, technology director at NSIRC, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Kaunas University of Technology. Together with the other partner institutions, KTU will strengthen our academic partnership and assist in the delivery of the NSIRC programme. In particular, the collaboration will strengthen our expertise in the technical area of ultrasonic NDT.”
All NSIRC academic partner institutions are helping the Research Centre, which is located in England and Wales, with its headquarters in Cambridge, to prepare researchers on master’s or doctorate levels.
“NCIRC as a private company cannot grant higher education degrees, so the role of academic partners is to provide the Centre with fundamental research knowledge and ensure high-quality research related to the needs of industry”, says Director of KTU’s Research Department.
According to Balaševičius, fundamental knowledge and the opportunity to work with top researchers’ groups in the partners’ institutions, combined with industry experience and the chance to carry out research in the state-of-the-art laboratories at NSIRC will ensure development of highly qualified professionals, who are much needed in the labour market.
NSIRC will provide a top level of studies combined with high-quality, industry-relevant training to support the safe operation of products and structures, innovation, fit-for-purpose technologies and design rules. Areas of study will include risk-based management, engineering critical assessment, non-destructive testing (NDT), structural heath and condition monitoring, and health management for use in industrial applications.
“KTU is the first university from mainland Europe to join NSIRC, and as our academic network continues to grow, NSIRC gets closer to its goal of becoming a world-renowned centre of excellence for structural integrity”, noted NSIRC technology director.
