MEDALLOY links advanced materials and manufacturing to next-generation MedTech
A University of Galway-led European network is bringing academic, clinical and industry partners together to improve Nitinol technologies used in stents, heart valves and guidewires.
The University of Galway is coordinating MEDALLOY, a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral network funded through Horizon Europe, bringing together 11 academic, industry and clinical partners across six European countries.
The network will train nine doctoral candidates to advance Nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy whose shape-memory and superelastic properties make it important in medical devices including stents, heart valves and guidewires. The research aims to improve the performance and durability of these technologies while developing stronger understanding of the material across the medical-device value chain.
MEDALLOY combines materials science, advanced manufacturing and computational modelling. Its objectives include improving Nitinol alloys, refining conventional and additive manufacturing processes, understanding defect tolerance and fatigue life, and developing predictive models for how Nitinol materials and devices behave under complex loading.
For MedTech manufacturers and SMEs, the project highlights how product performance can depend on the interaction between material properties, manufacturing processes and validation. Access to specialist research, industrial-scale capability and cross-sector expertise can be particularly valuable when advanced materials must move from development into reliable, regulated manufacturing.
The collaboration is also a strong example of the model underpinning NWCAM2: connecting research expertise with industry capability to tackle commercially relevant manufacturing challenges. With the University of Galway coordinating partners that include Boston Scientific, CroíValve and specialist materials companies, MEDALLOY strengthens the advanced-manufacturing and MedTech knowledge base around western Ireland while building the next generation of specialist talent.
Original article
MEDALLOY: Forging medtech's future through European collaboration — Engineers Ireland