Two heads better than one

Engineers from Queen’s University Belfast have signed an agreement with researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia to collaborate on polymer research.

The universities say the partnership will enable better coordination of Australian, Northern Ireland and EU co-funded research projects; foster undergraduate, postgraduate and staff exchanges and lead to sharing of research equipment and joint grant applications.

Dr Tony McNally from the Polymer Research Cluster at Queen's said: ‘Bioengineering and nanotechnology are playing a major part in the ‘knowledge based economy’ and this agreement will allow us to play a leading role in the development of many polymer based technologies.’

This latest agreement expands on the universities’ existing collaboration since 1999 through staff and student exchanges. It will also allow undergraduate and postgraduate students to be trained by international experts in the fields of novel nanomaterials design, biomaterials, polymer rheology, polymer processing and process modelling.