Keltbray Group and City, University of London are to move forward with a new Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to help advance deep foundation design and construction.

Funding was awarded from Innovate UK to launch the project.

The KTP scheme helps businesses to innovate and grow by linking them with an academic or research organisation through the employment of a dedicated, full time research associate and the provision of academic resources.

Under the new partnership, both companies will build a cutting-edge development that has the potential to revolutionise the piling industry, and in turn support Construction 2025 objectives to reduce construction programme lengths and costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

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A City, University of London graduate will serve as KTP Research Associate, leading the project. It will run from December 2018 to December 2020.

This follows on from the announcement on 17 October of the signing of a collaboration agreement between City and Keltbray to develop innovative technical solutions to create unprecedented efficiencies in the design and construction of foundations.

Stuart Norman, Managing Director of Keltbray Piling, said: "These are exciting times for Keltbray and we are pleased that our collaboration with City is already beginning to bear fruit. The KTP itself promises to deliver ground breaking research with the intention for Keltbray to launch new products and services in the latter half of next year. We are aiming for these to deliver unprecedented levels of efficiency."

Dr Andrew McNamara, Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering at City, University of London, added: "As principal investigator for this KTP I am looking forward to experimenting, exploring and developing a sustainable, but more importantly a practical foundation solution for industry. This is a hugely significant project that promises to shake up the piling sector and I am thrilled to be leading it and collaborating with Keltbray."

(CM/MH)