CorrosionRADAR, a spin-out firm from Cranfield University, has won £354,000 funding to further research into monitoring corrosion in oil and gas pipelines.

The company secured £250,000 from Mercia Fund Managers and a further £104,000 from Innovate UK. The investment will be used to develop CorrosionRADAR’s technology and business to secure commercial partners for initial field tests.

The main aim of the company is to address the unmet industry challenge of monitoring corrosion in pipelines, particularly in Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) or buried pipes.

CorrosionRADAR was established by an international team of four scientists and business professionals, including Professor Hoi Yeung, an Emeritus Professor, Dr Prafull Sharma and Dr Mehrdad Silatani, both former PhD students from Cranfield, and Dr Chiraz Ennaceur.  In 2016, the company won the University’s VentureFest competition to fund new start-ups and secured a pre-seed investment of £15,000.

Robert Evans, Technology Transfer Manager at Cranfield University said: “We are delighted that this technology has been spun out into a new company, and we hope that it will be the inspiration for many more innovative technology start-ups at the university.”

Dr Chiraz Ennaceur, CEO at CorrosionRADAR said: “Our team is committed to creating a game-changing solution for tackling corrosion management and we are looking forward to working with Mercia on this exciting journey.”

Cranfield has supported several other spin-out companies, including Halo X Ray Technologies Ltd and MIP Diagnostics Ltd, which are both part-owned with other UK universities.

About Cranfield University

Cranfield University is a specialist postgraduate university that is a global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management.