I did modelling work for a group researching metal foams in my past academic life. Very interesting stuff with a lot of applications if the manufacturing proces

I did modelling work for a group researching metal foams in my past academic life. Very interesting stuff with a lot of applications if the manufacturing processes can be nailed down. Our funding was a mixture of European Space Agency and a car conglomerate: light armour for space vehicles and crumple zones / reinforcement respectively (less acceptable to research military applications in EU in my experience).