£619k · Grant · Software · Nottingham, UK
Nottingham-based MatAlytics has secured £619k in Innovate UK grant funding to demonstrate its CITRUS physics-AI software in steel manufacturing. The award follows an earlier £100k Innovate UK grant and will support a proof of concept as well as additional technical and commercial hiring.
CITRUS is designed to help operators predict how critical industrial assets behave under heat and mechanical stress. For the steel project, MatAlytics says the software will model the thermomechanical behaviour and microstructure of slabs and components more quickly than conventional simulation workflows, with the aim of improving production consistency while reducing cost and emissions.
Moving simulation into operating decisions
Traditional engineering analysis can be accurate but slow to rerun for changing plant conditions. MatAlytics is trying to compress that cycle by combining physics-based models with machine learning, giving manufacturers a tool that can support more frequent operational decisions rather than only one-off design studies. In steel, that matters because temperature histories and material transformations affect both product quality and energy use.
The grant funds technical validation, not proof of a repeatable commercial product. A successful demonstration must show that CITRUS remains dependable when it meets noisy plant data, different steel grades and established production-control systems. Manufacturers will also need outputs that engineers can audit and use, especially when recommendations touch safety, quality or equipment life.
A grant tied to commercial traction
Chief executive and co-founder Benedikt Engel said the project is intended to advance MatAlytics' technology roadmap and help the company gain early traction with UK industrial partners. That makes customer participation as important as model performance: a technically strong result has commercial value only if it fits plant workflows and reduces a measurable operating cost or bottleneck.
The company describes CITRUS as applicable to critical assets beyond steel, but this award gives it a focused proving ground. If the team can turn one subsidised deployment into a reusable implementation, it can lower the cost of selling into other heavy-industry environments. If every plant requires a bespoke model and integration, services work could absorb the scaling benefit. The £619k grant therefore buys evidence around both the physics and the delivery model.
Sources checked:
UKTN · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
