NATS - National Aerospace Technology Strategy > ATVPs and AINs > Disruptive and Emerging Technologies AIN (DETAIN)
print friendly pageDisruptive and Emerging Technologies AIN (DETAIN)
The aerospace industry is recognised as one of the leading sectors in technology development, acting as a stimulus for growth and generating a substantial balance of trade surplus. This makes the aerospace the UK's most competitive manufacturing sector. Investment in R&T and R&D gives civilian aerospace sustainability and military aviation battle winning advantage.
As part of the National Aerospace Technology Strategy (NATS), the Aerospace Innovation & Growth Team (AeIGT) initiative is to realise the vision that "by 2022 the UK will offer a global aerospace industry in the worlds most innovative and productive location, leading to a sustainable growth for all its stakeholders". Instrumental to this is the formation of six Aerospace Technology Validation Programmes (ATVPs) and thirteen Aerospace Innovation Networks (AINs) believed to have the most direct impact on these objectives.
One of these recognised areas is the DETAIN programme, which will develop technology analysis tools in order to identify emerging and disruptive technologies. Emerging and disruptive technologies are essential to advances in industry and society. In order to gain maximum benefit from such technologies there is a need to:
- detect emerging technologies in their early stages
- recognise those which will improve applications, perhaps disruptively and
- promote rapid development to secure competitive advantage.
It is intended that this programme focuses effort on the capture, development and validation of disruptive and emerging technologies for the benefit of the aerospace industry.
Research Themes
The research themes have been identified as:
- To develop capability to capture and handle information focussed on the identification of disruptive and emerging technologies through innovative data analysis techniques
- To form a network of networks that potentially enables the analysis of the most widespread, multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral information base possible to support the technology analysis activity
- To identify emerging technologies by analysis of activity and validate potential connections with the broad but prescribed requirements of aerospace application defined within the totality of the AeIGT programme
- To validate disruptive propositions and the applicability of emerging technologies by a series of intrusive studies, analyses and small-scale validation programmes to a level at which they may be considered separately and subsequently as major areas for focussed research and development
- To establish a framework with which selected technologies, validated for impact, can be developed to sufficient maturity for industrial uptake
Benefits
The programme will engage industry, DTI, MOD and RDAs; working closely with the other AINs and ATVPs to exploit fully the emerging technologies and ensure they are pulled through from the science base and embedded in the supply chain. This is to be achieved by early identification and adoption of technologies to meet and assimilate future challenges and opportunities in order to remain at the leading edge of the global aerospace industry.
The benefits of under taking the programme are:
- an awareness of new technologies capable of giving rise to major advances in aerospace
- make possible better ways of doing things applying emerging technologies
- identify and harness disruptive technologies especially those arising from areas not traditionally oriented to aerospace that by their very application to aerospace cause step changes or disruption
- identify gaps in capability to meet identified needs or indeed to recognise the need etc
Status
The programme is currently in the scoping stage with industry working to identify technology research themes to align and support the projected future capability requirements for DETAIN and is expected to commence from 2007.