SILENT SENSORS LIMITED

Their core work

Silent Sensors Limited is a Greater Manchester-based technology SME specialising in embedded passive sensor tags — specifically RFID and NFC devices designed to be physically integrated into transport components such as tyres. Their core work is developing not just the tags themselves but the commercial manufacturing processes that make them viable for industrial-scale deployment. They entered H2020 with a smart tyre management concept (STMS) and scaled it into a full manufacturing demonstration programme (OnTrack), which is a textbook SME Instrument trajectory from feasibility to market-ready production. Their practical focus is on enabling complete lifecycle tracking of transport components through embedded, maintenance-free sensor technology.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Silent Sensors ran both H2020 projects within a short, focused window (2016–2020), so the evolution is less about a shift in discipline and more about a deliberate scale-up along a single product path. They used the SME-1 feasibility grant in 2016 to validate the smart tyre monitoring concept, then immediately applied for and won the larger SME-2 demonstration grant to build the manufacturing infrastructure behind it. There is no keyword drift because no keywords are recorded, but the project sequence is self-explanatory: concept proof in year one, commercial production process in years two through four. The trajectory points firmly toward a company that had a specific hardware product in mind from the start and used EU funding as a structured route to market.

Their H2020 arc ended in 2020 with a commercially-oriented manufacturing demonstration, suggesting any future collaboration would likely focus on deployment, integration with fleet management platforms, or expansion into adjacent transport asset categories rather than further basic research.

How they like to work

Silent Sensors operated exclusively as sole coordinator under the SME Instrument scheme, which by design does not require consortium partners — so the absence of recorded partners is structural, not a reflection of insularity. This means there is no evidence of how they behave inside a multi-partner project. Anyone considering them for a consortium role should treat them as an untested consortium partner and probe their collaborative working practices directly, since all available evidence shows a solo, founder-driven R&D model focused on a proprietary product.

No consortium partners or cross-border collaborations are recorded across either H2020 project, which is expected for SME Instrument awards where the grant goes to a single beneficiary. Their network footprint within the EU research system is therefore minimal; any industry or customer relationships they hold would be outside the CORDIS record.

What sets them apart

What sets Silent Sensors apart is the specificity of their niche: not general IoT or generic asset tracking, but physically embedded passive tags designed to survive inside a tyre or transport component for its entire operational life. Successfully completing both phases of the SME Instrument — a two-stage competitive process — indicates that independent EU evaluators validated both the technical concept and the commercial plan. For a consortium builder needing a specialist in harsh-environment embedded sensing for mobility, they represent a focused, commercially-oriented UK SME with a completed proof-of-concept and a manufacturing process behind it.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OnTrack
  The largest grant in their portfolio (EUR 1.54M, SME-2), this project moved beyond research to build an actual commercial manufacturing process for embeddable RFID/NFC tags — the clearest signal that their technology reached production readiness within the H2020 period.
• STMS
  A successful SME-1 feasibility award that validated the smart tyre management concept and directly unlocked the path to the much larger OnTrack phase, demonstrating a disciplined product development strategy.