Green Engineering Grants - update from National Instruments

So far four companies in the UK and Ireland have benefited from NI's Green Engineering Grants, all of which have been worth in the region of 25,000. While companies have to purchase their own hardware, the grants cover software, support and training, with the software licenses being perpetual licenses. Software comes with a minimum of one year's Standard Service Program (which gives access to telephone and email support in addition to web-based support), as well as attendance at standard scheduled training courses, onsite start-up assistance/consultancy customised to the specific application, and ongoing system/code review services). Every grant so far has included at least a LabVIEW Development System, some onsite training/consultancy and standard training courses.

Comments from the four award recipients are as follows.

Dr John Coultate, R&D and Consulting Department Leader for Romax Technology, a consultancy operating in the fields of wind energy and transportation, says: "We chose LabVIEW and CompactRIO to take advantage of the powerful signal processing capabilities, potential for rapid deployment, the easy-to-use LabVIEW development environment and proven performance of the hardware."

Jan Rens, the Principal Design Engineer at Magnomatics, a developer of innovative magnetic gear systems and ultra-high-torque electrical machines, states: "LabVIEW provides us with a highly versatile control and data acquisition system for our test facility, and Veristand and CompactRIO allow us to rapidly prototype and deploy controllers for our ground-breaking products."

Eugene Doogan, the Operations Manager at Wavebob (see Wave energy converters benefit from real-time control, says: "In particular, the versatility, speed and simplicity of coding in LabVIEW, as well as excellent diagnostic and debugging tools, made it an obvious choice."

John Reid, the Chief Operating Officer at Sunamp Ltd, which has invented a high-power heat battery based on phase-change materials, comments: "The wide range of flexible NI hardware, together with the application development capabilities of LabVIEW, provide an ideal rapid development environment for our current R&D activities and a seamless path to deployment in production units."

Regarding further Green Engineering Grants, Ian Bell, the Market Development Manager for National Instruments UK & Ireland, states: "The grant programme is still open and we welcome further applications." Go to ni.com/uk/grant to learn more about the grant programme and download an application form, or use the form on this page to request more information.