Malvern joins cross-disciplinary research quality initiatives

Malvern Instruments has announced that it is becoming a member of two European initiatives that are designed to promote higher standards of research.

The science firm has become part of the SoftComp Consortium and the European SoftMatter Infrastructure, organisations which aim to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and technique development in soft matter composites and complex fluids.

Through these projects, it is hoped that alliances between industry and academia can be forged in order to stimulate new advances in the creation of materials such as colloids, polymers, liquid crystals, biological systems and surfactants.

Innovations of this kind play a key role in the biopharmaceutical industry, providing insight into areas such as the behaviour of blood and skin.

Dr Samiul Amin, Malvern's strategic technology group manager, said: "Soft matter research drives innovation in so many fields."

Last month, the company launched a new size exclusion chromatography light scattering device, Zetasizer mu-V, for use in the analysis of proteins.