The Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) will undertake a wide variety of work in the Manufacturing, Construction and product design areas. The work will be contained within 5 programmes:1. Transforming Organisations / Providing individuals, organisations, sectors and regions with the dynamic and innovative capability to thrive in a complex and uncertain future2. High Value Assets / Delivering tools, techniques and designs to maximise the through-life value of high capital cost, long life physical assets3. Healthy & Secure Future / Meeting the growing need for products & environments that promote health, safety and security4. Next Generation Technologies / The future materials, processes, production and information systems to deliver products to the customer5. Customised Products / The design and optimisation techniques to deliver customer specific products.Academics within the Loughborough IMCRC have an internationally leading track record in these areas and a history of strong collaborations to gear IMCRC capabilities with the complementary strengths of external groups.Innovative activities are increasingly distributed across the value chain. The impressive scope of the IMCRC helps us mirror this industrial reality, and enhances knowledge transfer. This advantage of the size and diversity of activities within the IMCRC compared with other smaller UK centres gives the Loughborough IMCRC a leading role in this technology and value chain integration area. Loughborough IMCRC as by far the biggest IMRC (in terms of number of academics, researchers and in funding) can take a more holistic approach and has the skills to generate, identify and integrate expertise from elsewhere as required. Therefore, a large proportion of the Centre funding (approximately 50%) will be allocated to Integration projects or Grand Challenges that cover a spectrum of expertise.The Centre covers a wide range of activities from Concept to Creation.The activities of the Centre will take place in collaboration with the world's best researchers in the UK and abroad. The academics within the Centre will be organised into 3 Research Units so that they can be co-ordinated effectively and can cooperate on Programmes.

With increased levels of obesity and the associated health concerns, exercise is being actively promoted across the population, resulting in an increased requirement for provision of sports facilities. One approach to this provision is through increased access to safe, high quality sports surfaces. Recent initiatives by governments as well as national and international sports governing bodies have led to increased funds being available for sports surfaces to be installed. In the UK, many of the new sports surfaces are synthetic. Advantages over natural sports surfaces, such as grass or cinder, include a reduced impact of weather conditions, lower levels of maintenance, and greater tolerance of multi-sport use. However, an increase in exercise and sport on artificial surfaces, as opposed to natural surfaces, has been suggested to have resulted in an increase in sport and exercise related injuries. For exercise to be a successful strategy for improving the health of the nation, it is important that quality, safe sports surfaces are provided. The proposed project takes a multidisciplinary approach to improving understanding of shoe-surface interaction, combining mechanical and biomechanical techniques. The project aims to improve the quality and safety of sports surfaces through an improved understanding of the factors associated with shoe-surface traction when performing on synthetic playing surfaces, with a specific focus on surfaces used in tennis and multi-sports surfaces utilised by a range of sports.The level of traction between the shoe and surface is the most frequently cited factor influencing injury occurrence and player performance. For example, a high percentage of injuries requiring medical treatment have been attributed to uncontrolled slipping as a result of low traction. In addition, ankle inversion injuries and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears have been associated with a high level of traction between the shoe and the surface. An adequate amount of linear and rotational traction is required to allow stopping and turning movements, but extreme levels of traction may increase the loads on the body to intolerable levels. In addition to high levels of traction increasing injury risk, it is likely that unexpected levels of traction are dangerous. Within reason, if high traction is expected, the participant is likely to adapt their movement pattern to maintain loads at a tolerable level. However, if surfaces are not sufficiently uniform, then the participant may not adapt adequately and injury risk will be increased. To ensure player safety and thus encourage continued safe participation in exercise, increased understanding of the influence of artificial surfaces on human biomechanics is required. The planned project will address the problem of traction-related injuries in sport and exercise by considering the specific characteristics of shoes and surfaces that influence their translational and rotational traction behaviour under loads applied during sporting applications. To achieve this aim, a multidisciplinary approach will be used. Mechanical test methods will be developed to characterise playing surfaces, using biomechanical data to provide boundary conditions. Engineering approaches will be used to determine specific material characteristics influential on traction behaviour. Human testing will be used to validate the results of mechanical tests and to investigate relationships between human biomechanics and perception and the material properties of tennis surfaces and footwear. As well as improving understanding of the physical interaction between player-shoe combinations and sports surfaces, this work has the potential to lead to improving standard test procedures for surfaces, both integral to ensuring a high level of performance and comfort (to encourage participation), and reducing the likelihood of injury.

With increased levels of obesity and the associated health concerns, exercise is being actively promoted across the population, resulting in an increased requirement for provision of sports facilities. One approach to this provision is through increased access to safe, high quality sports surfaces. Recent initiatives by governments as well as national and international sports governing bodies have led to increased funds being available for sports surfaces to be installed. In the UK, many of the new sports surfaces are synthetic. Advantages over natural sports surfaces, such as grass or cinder, include a reduced impact of weather conditions, lower levels of maintenance, and greater tolerance of multi-sport use. However, an increase in exercise and sport on artificial surfaces, as opposed to natural surfaces, has been suggested to have resulted in an increase in sport and exercise related injuries. For exercise to be a successful strategy for improving the health of the nation, it is important that quality, safe sports surfaces are provided. The proposed project takes a multidisciplinary approach to improving understanding of shoe-surface interaction, combining mechanical and biomechanical techniques. The project aims to improve the quality and safety of sports surfaces through an improved understanding of the factors associated with shoe-surface traction when performing on synthetic playing surfaces, with a specific focus on surfaces used in tennis and multi-sports surfaces utilised by a range of sports.The level of traction between the shoe and surface is the most frequently cited factor influencing injury occurrence and player performance. For example, a high percentage of injuries requiring medical treatment have been attributed to uncontrolled slipping as a result of low traction. In addition, ankle inversion injuries and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears have been associated with a high level of traction between the shoe and the surface. An adequate amount of linear and rotational traction is required to allow stopping and turning movements, but extreme levels of traction may increase the loads on the body to intolerable levels. In addition to high levels of traction increasing injury risk, it is likely that unexpected levels of traction are dangerous. Within reason, if high traction is expected, the participant is likely to adapt their movement pattern to maintain loads at a tolerable level. However, if surfaces are not sufficiently uniform, then the participant may not adapt adequately and injury risk will be increased. To ensure player safety and thus encourage continued safe participation in exercise, increased understanding of the influence of artificial surfaces on human biomechanics is required. The planned project will address the problem of traction-related injuries in sport and exercise by considering the specific characteristics of shoes and surfaces that influence their translational and rotational traction behaviour under loads applied during sporting applications. To achieve this aim, a multidisciplinary approach will be used. Mechanical test methods will be developed to characterise playing surfaces, using biomechanical data to provide boundary conditions. Engineering approaches will be used to determine specific material characteristics influential on traction behaviour. Human testing will be used to validate the results of mechanical tests and to investigate relationships between human biomechanics and perception and the material properties of tennis surfaces and footwear. As well as improving understanding of the physical interaction between player-shoe combinations and sports surfaces, this work has the potential to lead to improving standard test procedures for surfaces, both integral to ensuring a high level of performance and comfort (to encourage participation), and reducing the likelihood of injury.