AN award-winning technology business that designs systems for nuclear attack submarines has invested in a new scheme that could help it win more major deals.

Applied Integration of Stokesley, has joined forces with Teesside University in a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). Funded by government grants and sponsorship, KTP is designed to encourage businesses to improve their competitive edge through the use of emerging expertise and innovative technologies to gain a competitive advantage.

Applied Integration is working with the university’s School of Computing to develop software to streamline its in-house processes to reduce costs and development time.

The firm designs and develops automation and control systems for customers in the petrochemicals, oil, gas and defence sectors.

Recent winners of the manufacturing section of the North East Business Awards, when it was also shortlisted for the second successive year for Teesside Company of the Year, it is currently building control systems for the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered Astute-class attack submarines.

The university’s team on the project is led by Dr Peter Gregory and Dr Joao Ferreira, both senior lecturers and members of the university’s Digital Futures Research Institute.

Ali Almohammad, a recent graduate, is working as an associate on the £108,000 KTP, while engineer Phil White supervises the project within Applied Integration.

Director Garry Lofthouse said they were excited about the project. “If it’s as successful as we believe it can be, it will provide us with a business tool that will give us a real advantage over our rivals," he said.

The project is designed to ensure clients requirements are 100 per cent understood from the outset.

Mr Lofthouse said: "It’s estimated that significant changes made towards the end of a project can multiply 15-fold the amount of work necessary had the changes been made at the outset.

"The commissioning segment of the complex projects we carry out, traditionally represents 60 per cent of the overall costs, so accurate, standardised requirements capture – covering the ‘what if’ scenarios through fully automated testing – is the planned outcome from the KTP.

"When you consider that some of our Defence sector projects on nuclear submarines, for instance, can cover a six-year period, then it’s easy to understand the importance of getting it right from the very start."

Mr Lofthouse and fellow directors Lee Raywood and Graham King, are all graduates of the university, along with several members of the firm’s engineering team.

Mr Raywood said: “We see this exciting partnership as the start of a close working relationship with the university.

“This is a cutting edge programme, not only within our industry but any industry, so we are keen to tap into the university’s centre of excellence for mathematic modelling and all the great academic expertise they hold.

“Quality assurance is a particularly critical aspect within the Defence sector, with clients expecting us to demonstrate what we can do before they place an order with us.

“As the complexity of systems within the Defence sector increases so the importance of the process increases to guarantee the quality of that process.

“Making a success of this project will not only strengthen our existing customer relationships but would potentially help us seal major deals in future.”