The £40,000 funds have been raised through Innovation Vouchers from InvestNI and the Irish Republic’s Enterprise Ireland and represent a good example of co-operation between timber companies and their respective funding organisations on both sides of the border.
Danny McPolin of the School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering at Queen’s said he was "delighted" to be working with the local timber industry.
"Timber is a truly exciting and sustainable building material. This project will create innovations that will drive forward the potential and the uptake of timber in engineering."
Wood-ni executive Paddy Bowes said the organisation was very pleased to be associated with the research programme, adding that a close relationship had been forged with the university through Wood-ni’s 3rd Level Student Wood Awards. Queen’s School of Engineering has been a regular winner of the engineering category of the Awards.
It is hoped that this initial research into timber floor cassettes will lead to further research initiatives in the future.
"Ultimately we would encourage more timber companies to join Wood-ni and become involved in our work to enable us to step up our efforts not only with research initiatives at the university level but also to reinforce our ongoing programme with architects and specifiers," said Mr Bowes.
