One year ago I wrote in the Chairman’s Corner about the relaunch of the MTFW at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel. The occasion signified a commitment from your Steering Committee to provide you with a more efficient and effective service. In return, members were asked to pay a nominal fee to bring the changes we considered necessary into being.

Now is the time of reckoning as we assess our success in relation to a satisfied paid membership and in terms of our role as a ‘conduit’ for the transfer of materials technology in Wales. The quarterly Bulletin is distributed widely throughout Wales and is a major success. Throughout the last twelve months we have received many complimentary statements about its format and content.

We believe that it provides up-to-the-minute information in a form that busy members can assimilate quickly. This year the Bulletins have given the recently launched CETICs (Centres of Excellence) in materials the opportunity to inform our members of their expertise. During the forthcoming year we intend to make further improvements by introducing a themed approach to the articles. The specific themes will be Metal Processing, Non-metallics, Sustainable Renewable Materials and University Research. Specific case studies from members will be promoted alongside these themes.

In addition, our successful mix of Technology Opportunities, reviews on events and details on future activities will continue. Our frontline seminars and workshops, which paid-up members can attend free of charge, have also increased over the last year. Events have focused on Construction Materials (in Cardiff Bay), Environmentally Friendly Composites and Computer Modelling of Materials. Our prestigious seminar focused on ‘Joining Technologies’ and was held at ECM2, the new WDA R&D facility at Port Talbot.

Each event involved collaboration with other organisations promoting materials including the Timber Forum, the Sustainable Composites Network, CETICs at Swansea and Bangor, the WDA and ECM2. A portfolio of events for next year is currently being finalised. While our current plans are based on surveys carried out, meeting members’ needs is our greatest concern. Suggestions on themes from our membership, therefore, will be warmly welcomed.

The MTFW web-site is evolving rapidly. You will find much useful information there and many pointers to people and organisations of relevance to our SME membership. There are also important links to other, relevant web sites in the materials sector such as the Wales Relay site featured below. Shortly we will be going ahead with our ‘members only’ page which will be updated speedily to keep our members up to date with events - another benefit of membership.

We are, however, mindful of the fact that a web site is useful only if it is continually updated. Our site is currently a prime consideration of the Steering Committee and a Task sub-group is reviewing our strategy in this area. Once again, your comments would be most welcome.

The MTFW, therefore, has seen a very successful year in which our paid-up membership has continued to grow, our members have commented favourably on our activities and our role as a conduit for the material sector in Wales has become even more important with the establishment of the CETICs, the birth of ECM2 and an expanding SME base with strong interests in materials - after all, materials are a fundamental resource to virtually every industry and business. However, we must not be complacent. New members are essential, continued support from existing members is vital and a satisfied membership is fundamental to our future. Remember, that in addition to the Bulletin, free access to events, and a member specific web-site, our members also have the benefit of visits from Technology Counsellors and speedy advice on experts in the field who may be able to solve their problems.

So please join, re-join, comment-favourably or critically, but provide an input on your requirements and consider becoming a member of our Steering Committee. We look forward to your continued participation during the forthcoming year.

Wales Innovation Relay Centre

http://www.walesrelay.co.uk

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MTFW Website - Materials Directory links The Wales Innovation Relay Centre is the Welsh arm of the European wide IRC network, which was established in 1994 with the support of the European Commission. The network was created to stimulate transnational technology transfer and innovation and today's network consists of 68 centres with 250 organisations and over 1000 experienced technology professionals.

The Wales Innovation Relay Centre is hosted and part funded by the Welsh Development Agency and helps organisations in Wales obtain and exchange the technology information they need to innovate. The site has the advantage of detailing all the technology offers and requests generated by the Relay Centre network. It is also able to alert registered users to relevant technologies, once they have selected keywords which identify their interests. The site also has information about the technology transfer process, research and development funding, international brokerage events and news.