Meridian International Research is an Independent Strategy Research and Technology Consultancy.

Our focus is on a number of the most important technical challenges facing the world in recognition of the important need to produce solutions to these problems.

One of our main areas of research is Renewable Energy - in particular, development of technologies to provide renewable electrical power that overcome the present limitations of photovoltaics, wind, biomass and the other renewable systems currently in use.

As well as the growing urgency of responding to the climate change induced by two centuries of fossil fuel emissions, transitioning to alternative energy sources is becoming critical for an even more pressing reason - Peak Oil. While global oil demand continues to grow, production is about to decline. By 2007 an unbridgeable gap will open up between the supply and demand for oil.

Energy technologies we are researching include Atmospheric Electricity, High Impedance Batteries and High Efficiency Electric Motors for mobile applications (such as Electric Vehicles).

In the area of Aeronautics, MIR has been carrying out market assessments and future technology studies since 1991. We are conducting research into the major issues facing the advancement of Civil Aeronautics in the 21st century - Sonic Boom, Propulsion Technology, Aircraft Reliability and Maintenance Intensiveness, Safety and Crashworthiness and VTOL.

The key barrier to the advancement of Civil Air Transport is Sonic Boom. Until sonic boom can be prevented in an efficient manner, a successor to Concorde will not be viable. Viable Supersonic Flight is the next frontier in Aerospace and we do not yet have a way to achieve it after more than 40 years. In conjunction with sonic boom, another serious barrier to supersonic flight is Cosmic Radiation. This problem has so far received little attention but will also be a major hazard to widespread operation of SSTs at altitudes of 60,000 feet or more.

A major reason for the difficulty with advancing civil aeronautics is the lack of accurate predictive computer modelling tools. This is due to reliance on the 200 year old mathematical model of the Navier Stokes Equations and the inherent limitations of digital computers in the face of the Laws of Chaos. Computational Fluid Dynamics in its current form is a limited approach that cannot permit accurate modelling of fluid flows outside already known regimes.

To overcome these problems, which limit the usefulness of the current digital Computational Fluid Dynamics architecture, MIR has developed a theoretical approach based on the modelling of fluid flows by Wave Dynamics. A new generation of Analogue Computers will be developed to simulate fluid flows in real time with 100% accuracy - or as close to "accuracy" as Chaos permits. This approach may also complement Finite Element Analysis for structural modelling and augment Computational Materials Science. Direct simulation of teh underlying Wave Functions of matter will become possible.

Management of Radioactive Waste is now a problem of global proportions and a serious threat to future health. The thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive and highly toxic waste generated by nuclear power and nuclear military activities for 60 years are still located in temporary storage at nuclear facilities across the world. Much of it will be dangerous for over 45 billion years - 10 times the lifetime of our planet to date. Safe storage underground or anywhere else of this waste for even a fraction of that time is impossible. Fortunately, it is scientifically feasible and the technology can be developed to remediate radioactive waste into short lived isotopes that decay within months into safe stable elements. Treatment of waste in this way can also be used to generate electricity as a byproduct.