ATTIC: Eureka Funding for Terahertz Inspection of Aerospace Composites
How we helped a five-partner UK-Austrian consortium win Eureka collaborative R&D funding under the photonics for advanced manufacturing competition, for automated terahertz imaging of composites and tooling profiling.
At a glance
The challenge
Composites have transformed aerospace: Airbus went from 7% composite content by weight in 1980 to 53% in the A350 XWB. But inspection has not kept pace. Non-destructive inspection of composite structures remains largely manual, with low area coverage and images that inexperienced technicians struggle to interpret, making inspection expensive and turning it into a bottleneck of the modern composites industry.
The solution
ATTIC combined terahertz imaging, which sees into composite structures without contact or ionising radiation, with laser profiling of tooling such as drill bits, deployed robotically and automated for both in-line and off-line inspection, aiming towards zero defects in high-value composite structures during manufacturing and assembly.
Photonics down the production line
What we did
1. A cross-border story with one voice
Eureka bids are assessed nationally but delivered internationally. We aligned the UK partners (FAR-UK's composites manufacturing need, TWI's testing facilities, Brunel's laser profiling expertise) with the Austrian partners (RECENDT's terahertz science, FILL's machine engineering) into a single work plan with clear ownership of each innovation.
2. Market evidence assessors can check
The business case mapped 4,914 potential customer companies across aircraft composite manufacturers, NDT service companies and maintenance organisations, targeting 524 customers and a 12% share within five years, at a system price of €100,000, supported by a business model canvas and year-by-year financial forecasts.
3. Alignment with national strategy
The proposal tied ATTIC to the UK's £13 billion photonics industry and the Grand Challenges of the Industrial Strategy, giving the bid relevance beyond the consortium itself.
The result
The project developed and demonstrated automated terahertz and laser inspection with robotic deployment, building the foundation for commercialisation with projected revenues of €54 million and 263 new jobs within five years.
Why this matters for your organisation
International collaborative programmes like Eureka reward consortia where each country's partners bring something the others cannot. ATTIC shows how we structure that complementarity, and back it with market numbers, into a fundable bid.
If you are preparing a Eureka, Innovate UK or Horizon Europe application, we can support concept development, consortium building, proposal writing, evaluator-style review and full submission. And if a project is not competitive, we will tell you before you spend money on it.