DARREN CUMNER Get the Inside Track on Hitachi’S Arrival in the North East 2
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RESEARCH & BUSINESS ISSUE 3 – APRIL 2014 A Teesside University Magazine A ROYAL HONOUR Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Teesside University TEN YEARS OF DIGITALCITY The transformation of Teesside to a technology hotspot DARREN CUMNER Get the inside track on Hitachi’s arrival in the North East 2 Welcome from the Vice-Chancellor I am delighted to share with you the news that we have recently received a hugely prestigious royal accolade. Teesside University has received the It signifies everything that Teesside national honour of a Queen’s Anniversary University has grown to be with our excellent Prize for its excellence in higher track record of supporting enterprise, education. fostering innovation and delivering real business growth in the region. This much coveted award also recognises It is a great honour for the whole institution the outstanding work we do as an institution to receive this award, which demonstrates in the field of enterprise and working with how the University’s academic expertise, business to grow and secure the economic coupled with business acumen and future of this region. responsive services are increasingly adding Prizes are awarded biennially to only a huge value to the business sector within the handful of universities and colleges across North East and beyond. the UK for a period of four years. It is a truly wonderful reward for our This, for me, is a high profile signpost, efforts and achievements and it serves to approved by Her Majesty the Queen, to the provide you with an indication of the quality excellence we deliver to our current partners and extent of the work we carry out here at Professor Graham Henderson CBE DL and that we can offer to our partners of the Teesside with our partners. Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive future. CONTENTS 3 Royal honour for Teesside University 16 My Business For outstanding work in enterprise Stokesley company plays vital role in Editor: Alison Ferst and business defence of the nation Editorial team: 4 Business Focus 17 Research Adam Balfour Chris Lofthouse with Professor Cliff Hardcastle Discover some of the cutting-edge Julie Chapman Gary Martin 5 Leadership accelerator research in the region Judy Hume David Roberts Helping future leaders realise their 22 Enterprise clinic Sarah Hughes Michelle Ruane potential Get your business questions answered 6 Ten years of DigitalCity 23 Small business support Business team: Building a digital supercluster Scheme has £400,000 European funding T: 01642 384068 10 Leading the way 26 Helping manufacturers improve E: [email protected] Researchers reach ‘holy grail’ of efficiency tees.ac.uk/business bloodstain examination 27 Partnership expertise generates 13 Revolutionising the future of increased profits manufacturing 14 Insider interview Meet the head of Hitachi Rail Europe in the North East 3 Royal honour for North’s most enterprising university Teesside University is the recipient of a highly prestigious national honour for its outstanding work in the field of enterprise and business engagement. The University has been awarded a regional economy. This is a truly wonderful Queen’s Anniversary Prize, a much award and will serve as a real incentive to coveted award which is part of the everyone involved with this type of work in UK’s national honours and the most the future. prestigious form of national recognition ‘I have followed the Queen’s Anniversary This accolade is for excellence in higher and further Prizes for many years and marvelled at recognition of the way education. the world-class quality of the university in which our academic and college winners. To join that group, expertise, coupled with The prizes recognise outstanding work in an area so central to our mission at world-class level and are awarded of supporting the digital sector and our knowledge transfer, biennially to only a handful of universities developing highly employable graduates, business support and and colleges across the UK, allowing is a source of huge pride to the whole enterprise services, has recipients to use the prizes logo for four Teesside University community.’ supported the creation years to signpost their excellence to The prizes scheme is administered of a digital media current and future partners, staff and by the Royal Anniversary Trust and was students. As a national honour, the awards established in 1990 with the approval ‘super-cluster.’ are approved by Her Majesty the Queen. of The Queen and all-party support in Teesside University, which is built on the Parliament. The assessment process is academic foundations of its predecessor overseen by the Trust which makes the final institution Constantine College, was recommendations to the Prime Minister for opened in 1930 by the Prince of Wales advice to The Queen. (who later became King Edward VIII). It boasts an excellent track record of supporting enterprise and works to promote entrepreneurship as a realistic career choice among its graduates. Over the past decade, 430 new businesses have been created through its pioneering graduate enterprise and DigitalCity Innovation (DCI) initiatives, which have facilitated a vibrant start-up ecosystem in the North-East. Vice-Chancellor Professor Graham Henderson says, ‘This accolade is recognition of the way in which our academic expertise, coupled with our knowledge transfer, business support and enterprise services, has supported the creation of a digital media ‘super-cluster’ on Teesside to reposition and re-ignite our Vice-Chancellor Professor Graham Henderson CBE DL and Laura Woods receive the Queen’s Anniversary Prize 4 BUSINESS FOCUS with Professor Cliff Hardcastle Professor Cliff Hardcastle is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research & Business Engagement at Teesside University. He directs the use of University skills and expertise in support of business and industry, heads the University’s work on the regional DigitalCity regeneration project and grows and develops the institution’s research strategy. The past few months have been an to solve a particular project or implement a we can be onsite to offer our innovation extremely busy period at the University specific project through a shorter targeted services to the businesses located on the as we continue to work more and more KEI. This popular scheme can place a privately run business and science park. closely with business and enterprise talented graduate with your company or Teams from the University have already across the Tees Valley and beyond. organisation to help you with the support of worked with businesses on the site and I academic staff at the University. am delighted that their feedback has been It is gratifying to know that businesses We are also looking forward to working extremely positive and encouraging. They working with Teesside University through with our first cohort of 20 small to medium- are particularly pleased that members of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) sized enterprises who are each benefiting our business team are onsite on a regular are generating hundreds of thousands of from £10,000 worth of business support. basis to help companies with specialist pounds worth of increased profits each Our new Leading Growth scheme, run by expertise, training, recruitment and year. Teesside University Business School, is accessing global networks. We have been recognised as a national also supported by ERDF. And finally it is fantastic that we are the example of excellence in working with It is a really exciting opportunity for first North East university to be nationally business and more than £3m is projected businesses who take part. The programme approved to teach the Certificate in to be put into the regional industry profits has been carefully developed by University Knowledge of Policing (CKP) by the over the next five years – all as a result experts to ensure there is a rigorous College of Policing. An increasing number of KTPs. This recognition has come from approach to development and rich content of police forces, including the Metropolitan independent assessors who have rated which includes input from inspirational Police Service, request the CKP 82% of our KTPs over the last five years as industry leaders. qualification before an individual applies to ‘outstanding’ or ‘very good’ compared with The scheme will have a real impact on join the service. a national average of 55%. the companies to help them grow and I hope you enjoy this edition of R&B and It demonstrates just how much added expand their business through ten months discover more about the many and varied value there is in working with the University. of leadership training which includes ways we work with business. I hope it gives From our KTPs we have developed our masterclasses, coaching and a residential you a flavour of how we could work with own bespoke scheme – KEI – Knowledge setting. We are now in the process of you and your business. Exchange Internships which are part- selecting the first 20 businesses and we funded by the European Regional will soon be recruiting for the second Development Fund (ERDF). cohort of 20 who will begin the programme Visit tees.ac.uk/business Companies who perhaps don’t have in September. tees.ac.uk/research the resources or current need for a larger We have recently established a new @DVCHardcastle KTP project can still benefit from support office at the Wilton Centre in Redcar so 5 Teesside University teams up with major employers for leadership course By David Roberts Teesside University has teamed up with leading employers to design a course to help future leaders of industry realise their potential. The Leadership Accelerator Programme will help talented graduates develop their managerial skills to allow them to achieve their personal and career goals. The two-year course, which started this Spring, has been designed in collaboration with several leading industry partners including Lotte Chemical, Sembcorp, Huntsman, Cordell Group and GrowHow.