NanoKTN helps UK start-up Bridgelight secure commercial contract

The NanoKTN made an introduction to Dublin City University on behalf of Bridgelight, resulting in a commercial contract, and now Bridgelight’s collaboration accelerator is gaining traction in a number of areas including the nanotechnology sector. Prospective early adopters are currently lined up across a number of UK academic institutions, research councils, and industry sectors including additive manufacturing, aerospace, and the UK rail industry.

Bridgelight is a UK start-up specialising in establishing collaboration partnerships to support and develop supply chains and commercialisation pathways within the nanotechnology and other technology areas. The company’s web platform is designed to identify suitable collaboration partnerships based on a user’s preferences, problems, areas of expertise and capability, and declared objectives. The system uses semantic web analysis and natural language processing to establish relational links between individuals, project teams, and organisations where collaboration is likely to produce profit through the creation of new products or services, or improvements in efficiency through improved supply chain optimisation.

James McGilvray of Bridgelight commented, “The support of the NanoKTN has been invaluable to the company. With their industry expertise and contacts, we have been able to secure contracts and form partnerships with key industry players. One area that is quickly gaining momentum is the connection that has been established by Bridgelight between STFC and the ISIS neutron source, and a major additive manufacturing machine manufacturer. We identified an opportunity for the use of the ISIS neutron source for the mapping of residual stress within additive manufactured components. As a result of the collaboration the first UK residual stress analysis has been conducted which is paving the way for an Open Research Programme to comprise a number of major aerospace companies.”

Current partners are supporting the development and testing of the platform and Bridgelight is keen to identify additional UK partners to work with in order to tailor the approach for different scenarios.

Dr Alec Reader, Director at the NanoKTN added, “The Bridgelight system presents a significant opportunity for the UK nanotechnology sector in the identification of collaboration partnerships to accelerate the introduction of new technologies into a wide range of industry sectors. We’re delighted that the NanoKTN has been able to play a role in the success of the company to date. Our aim is to identify potential opportunities to support UK organisations to collaborate and share knowledge with partners in key markets to ultimately achieve growth of the UK nanotechnology sector.”