What NRICH is
We are a contract engineering research house. A client brings us a problem, and we take it on as a project with a defined question, a written scope and a deliverable. We do the research, the design, the testing or the build that the problem needs, and we return an answer the client can act on and defend. Each project is aimed at a specific decision: whether to build, repair, replace, extend, accept, modify or redesign.
Any engineering discipline
The problem can sit in any engineering discipline. Our projects are research studies and feasibility, design and analysis, testing and experiments, and prototyping and build, and many combine more than one. We work for companies with an engineering problem to solve, universities and research bodies, government and public bodies, and start-ups and investors. The things we study include aircraft and their components, rail vehicles, vessels and offshore structures, energy plant, bridges, buildings and airside pavements.
How we approach a problem
We check models against measurement before we rely on them, and we state the uncertainty and the limits of the method with every result. We ask what you will do with the answer before we start, then size the method, the accuracy and the report to that decision. We record method, settings, data and assumptions so that the work can be repeated and reach the same answer. Your data, your assets and our findings stay confidential, and we publish or refer to nothing without your written agreement.
Independent by design
We have no commercial ties to equipment manufacturers or software vendors. We do not resell instruments, licences or inspection services, and we are not paid for recommending them. When we advise on a technique, a sensor or a software platform, the recommendation rests on test evidence and on your constraints, not on anything we sell. If the right answer is a method you already own, or no change at all, we say so.