The CREST Technology Gateway is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the ERDF Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-27

 

We are Coating Specialists:

CREST is the only dedicated surface coatings laboratory on the island of Ireland. We have over sixty years of commercial surface coating experience.  We address the needs of the Irish engineering, aerospace, automotive, architectural, electronics, biomedical and healthcare sectors in the area of surface coatings.

We recruit highly motivated personnel with product development backgrounds in Industry and Academia.

We are accredited to ISO 9001-2015 which ensures we consistently deliver quality services on time and to a high standard.

We have an expert and professional coatings consultancy service that front-faces with Industry. 

We serve the SMART economy by translating in-house knowledge from the bench-top to the market.

Our business model and the connection between all our components are described below: 

We are a member of the Enterprise Ireland, Engineering, Materials and Design (EMD) Technology Gateway cluster. We offer expert technical assistance, advice and support to this sector.

Research with Industry

We carry out research for companies / SME’s in Ireland and overseas to help increase their R&D capabilities. There are several funding streams available for companies to pursue. 

The research involved may be short or long term, in-house or within the parent company. This gives great flexibility for companies depending on their needs and resources.

The research can be:

• Directly funded
• Nationally funded (Enterprise Ireland e.g Vouchers/Partnerships)
• Internationally funded (H2020/JTI)

We aid companies in the preparation of the relevant documentation to procure funding.

  Testimonial:

“This project has been of huge importance for Venture. Not only has it provided us with data to underpin our product quality assurance but it has given us key insights into how we can evolve our offering and broaden the functionality of our product. Having access to R&D work of this calibre really bolsters our competitiveness and opens up opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be to an SME like ourselves.”

Patrick Gayer - Business Dev. Manager Venture

 

Testing for Government Agencies

We are the nationally approved testing laboratory for several government bodies as listed below:

• Department of Agriculture: Testing for corrosion properties of coated coil steel for the Irish Market to relevant standards. 
• Food and the Marine: Looking at the corrosion of steel in Irish harbors.
• NSAI: Elemental analysis and validation of test methods.
• OPW: Paint analysis for housing and artefacts of historical importance. Testing road signs and crash barriers. 

Academic Research

We recruit, train and supervise undergraduate project students and interns, from TU Dublin and European Universities, as well as postgraduate students.

The post graduate research programmes are funded in several ways, including but not limited to:

• Industrially Funded
• Nationally Funded (IRC/SFI)
• TU Dublin Funded (Fiosraigh)

Working under our business model and within the ISO 9001-2015 structures ensures rapid-turnaround in our research and long-term technology development activities.