<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ns2:project xmlns:ns1="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api" xmlns:ns2="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/project" xmlns:ns3="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/fund" xmlns:ns4="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/person" xmlns:ns5="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/project/outcome" xmlns:ns6="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/gtr/api/organisation" ns1:created="2026-07-08T08:44:08Z" ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/projects/19BC1E7E-10AC-41E4-B50E-9061828F4579" ns1:id="19BC1E7E-10AC-41E4-B50E-9061828F4579"><ns1:links><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/persons/81054494-ADAD-42CE-BBBF-B7AD85658974" ns1:rel="PM_PER"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/BE72AED8-D1A7-49F0-AC87-2E0789FC2754" ns1:rel="LEAD_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/BE72AED8-D1A7-49F0-AC87-2E0789FC2754" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/BE2C71D8-3D09-49F2-BBAE-451637979CCD" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/B5C86DB8-4736-48A8-87D1-F9EB2A9CDE39" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/CF992167-B86B-4D38-A412-DD4AC7A9F58E" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/BE108EA9-9F7E-4765-A3CC-B9B3975507BA" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/organisations/985318FB-9AF7-4C09-ADA7-1F1293473FE1" ns1:rel="PARTICIPANT_ORG"/><ns1:link ns1:end="2016-09-29T23:00:00Z" ns1:href="http://gtr.ukri.org/gtr/api/funds/290001E4-A606-4539-B353-7F45647DDE17" ns1:rel="FUND" ns1:start="2014-06-30T23:00:00Z"/></ns1:links><ns2:identifiers><ns2:identifier ns2:type="RCUK">101718</ns2:identifier></ns2:identifiers><ns2:title>NIRVANA - Near Infra-Red photoinitiated curing of industrial wood coatings and varnishes</ns2:title><ns2:status>Closed</ns2:status><ns2:grantCategory>Collaborative R&amp;D</ns2:grantCategory><ns2:leadFunder>Innovate UK</ns2:leadFunder><ns2:abstractText>Radiation Curing utilising Light Emitting Diodes (LED) offers substantial energy savings for industrial wood coating applications compared to conventional UV mercury arc lamps (~60% less) and traditional gas fired drying systems (~90% less). However, the growth of Radiation Curing applications has been limited due to: Poor depth penetration of UV in pigmented coatings; Poor surface coating properties (due to oxygen inhibition) and the absence of optimised coating formulations. NIRVANA will deliver 3 novel solutions to these challenges by:
1. Developing an innovative near-infra red (NIR) photoinitiator within the 880-1000 nm transmission window where light is not typically absorbed or scattered.
2. Developing novel hybrid organic-inorganic nano-materials to increase surface cross linking density and hardness and reduce oxygen inhibition.
3. Creating formulations of 100% solids acrylate based resin wood coatings that can be cured using energy efficient NIR LED irradiation</ns2:abstractText></ns2:project>