Almost a year-on since the last round of the Grantham Opportunities (GO) Fund, we have caught up with Dr Niki Trochoutsou, a Research Associate at the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, who was awarded £10K in funding for her “Durability of bio-composites for strengthening of masonry structures” project in collaboration with Dr Maurizio Guadagnini.
The GO Fund enabled me to advance my research on a new generation of biocomposites and develop a multi-scale methodology that can unlock their potential as a sustainable solution for the strengthening of masonry structures.
Dr Niki Trochoutsou
Research Associate at the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The University of Sheffield
Q: What is the Grantham Opportunities (GO) Fund?
The Grantham Opportunities (GO) Fund enables researchers to obtain funding to develop interesting projects that have a strong cross-disciplinary sustainability focus and are designed to propose practical solutions to complex problems.
The second round awarded 14 researchers at the University of Sheffield with funding to develop their projects across many different disciplines. You can read more about the amazing cross-disciplinary sustainability research that resulted from it here.
Q: Tell us more about your project, what are you trying to achieve and its impact.
My project is titled “Durability of bio-composites for strengthening of masonry structures”. The GO Fund enabled the implementation of an extensive multi-scale experimental campaign on the durability of bio-composites for strengthening of masonry structures. A range of materials were procured and examined, including natural fibre textiles of different architectures and lime-based mortars, and two PhD students were given the opportunity to work as research assistants, stimulating technical and leadership skills in parallel to active learning.
Advanced, expensive, analytical techniques (such as SEM, XRD) were also carried out, which were indispensable to examine physical degradation mechanisms. Most importantly, it was possible to disseminate the obtained results to: i) international committee meetings, ii) leading industry partners (KIMIA SpA), iii) research group seminars and other outreach activities, and iv) two international conferences highly related to the field of strengthening and sustainable technologies (SCMT6, SMAR2024).
The outcomes of this research unlock the full potential of natural-fibre textile-reinforced mortars and pave the way towards the engineering and tailoring of these novel bio-based systems to meet specific-application criteria, while directly contributing to key UN SDGs.
Q: What is next for you?
I am very excited as, earlier this year, I was awarded the Marie-Skłodowska Curie (MSCA) postdoctoral fellowship and I will be hosted by Politecnico di Milano (Italy) for the next couple of years. My project (called "AESTHESIS") will focus on the development of a new generation of innovative textile-reinforced mortar systems, capable of “feeling” damage and “healing” cracks, for the durable and sustainable retrofitting of our cultural heritage.
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You can learn more about the GO Fund and its next reiteration here.