Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council RESEARCH PERFORMANCE & ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT 2010/2011 EPSRC IMPACT OVERVIEW Impact is the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. EPSRC delivers impact and aids growth through its support for research and training which leads, for example, to new technological advances, products and processes, as well as a highly skilled workforce, which increase the competitiveness of businesses in the UK. In 2010/11, EPSRC supported over 7,300 researchers through nearly 6,000 grants and funded a population of over 10,000 PhD students. This research and training is vital to a broad range of key UK sectors, including the creative industries, manufacturing, healthcare and energy. Over 40 per cent of EPSRC’s research portfolio is collaborative, involving around 2,300 user organisations and leveraging a contribution of £430 million from such partners. EPSRC-sponsored research and training has significant impact in the knowledge-intensive sectors, which have been showni to be particularly important for the UK in terms of competing with emerging economies. Engineering and physical sciences research and training underpins elements of the top 10 UK sectors in terms of R&D intensity as a percentage of valued added. The sectors with the highest dependency on engineering and physical sciences are those with by far the fastest growth of value- added per employee since the 1990sii. Our study, jointly commissioned with the Royal Society of Chemistry, into the Economic Benefits of Chemistry Research to the UK, published in 2010iii, found that one in every five pounds in the UK economy is dependent on developments in chemistry research, with industries reliant on chemistry contributing £258 billion to the UK economy in a single year. This represented an equivalent of 21 per cent of UK GDP, with the industry supporting six million jobs and accounting for at least 15 per cent of the UK’s exported goods. In addition to our clear contribution to the UK economy, EPSRC investment has led to impact in addressing major societal challenges in areas such as energy, security and healthcare. In doing so, we have actively engaged the users of research in business, Government, the wider public sector and other non-governmental organisations. EPSRC-supported research also makes a significant contribution to advances in other areas, such as healthcare, for example, through the development of technologies which can be used by researchers in other disciplines. Creating new markets, new opportunities in existing markets and creating jobs AUTONOMY BOUGHT BY HEWLETT PACKARD FOR £7.1 BILLION The UK’s largest software company, Autonomy, was started by Dr Mike Lynch at Cambridge University in 1996 based on work conducted during his EPSRC-supported PhD. It has since become a global leader in infrastructure software that enables organisations to derive meaning and value from their information, and mitigate risks associated with their assets. The company has become the market leader in the provision of software that automates the analysis of unstructured data such as e-mails and has the vision to fundamentally change the IT industry by revolutionising the way people interact with information. In August 2011, it was announced that Autonomy had been bought by Hewlett Packard for £7.1 billion ($11.7 billion). Autonomy will continue to operate as a separate company, with nearly 2,000 employees in the UK. EXPORT SUCCESS IN INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING A series of EPSRC research grants, held by Professors Hall and Baker at Heriot-Watt University (and formerly at Hull) over the past 30 years has led to the development of Rofin Sinar UK Ltd. The company designs, develops and manufactures sealed carbon dioxide lasers for marking applications and industrial processing, giving it an annual turnover of £14 million, 99 per cent of which is from exports. The company, based in Willerby, Hull, continues to work with Heriot-Watt and exploit new research activity. 2 ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL RESEARCH PERFORMANCE & ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT 2010 /2011 0 0 0 DEEP SEA PIPELINES, WELDING AND BLOCKAGES Research undertaken by Professor Stewart Williams and his team at Cranfield University has enabled the world’s deepest subsea welds to be demonstrated during recent trials in a Norwegian fjord involving Isotek Oil & Gas Ltd on behalf of Statoil. Further applied research is continuing, supported by EPSRC through the Cranfield Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre and the Norwegian Government. The technology is important for a variety of offshore repair and maintenance applications including the oil and gas sector (pipeline, rigs) and renewable energy (wind, wave, tidal). It is increasingly important as deepsea oil drilling becomes more prevalent. For example when mature this technology could be deployed to prevent or reduce the impact of disasters such as that seen recently in the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, annual savings of £500 million can be achieved by allowing hot tapping of pipelines rather than having to shut them down for repair. Similar technology is being used in a separate £1.5 million collaborative project between BP and Cranfield. The welding process has been revolutionised by the development of a novel hybrid welding technique combining traditional arc welding with laser technology, thus reducing the time required to join large pipes by 75 per cent and resulting in annual cost savings of £1 billion for the industryi. Research is contining to extend the efficacy of the technique to smaller pipes and different types of steel. Researchers who pioneered the use of sound waves to detect blockages in undersea gas pipes used EPSRC follow-on funding to develop a commercial product. The Acoustek system, developed at Manchester University, has already been used by Yorkshire-based Pipeline Engineering, for whom the technology has already opened up new areas of business, generated greater volume of remediation work and enabled the company to take on additional staff. The inventors won the 2010 IET Measurement in Action Innovation award. They are now extending the technology to give better control over the process and enable scans of liquids as well as gasses. Pipeline blockages can cost companies hundreds of millions of dollars a day and this technology has already saved BP over £2 million in addition to its impact on pipeline engineering. Promoting the UK’s reputation as an innovator OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WINNER Amy Williams’ outstanding gold medal win in the skeleton bob event at the 2010 Winter Olympics was made possible with skills contributed by two EPSRC-funded students, Rachel Blackburn and James Roche, working in collaboration with the British Skeleton Association, UK Sport, Sheffield Hallam University and BAE Systems. The team developed a radical new sled tailored to the athlete’s size and sliding style, making it more responsive to the precise control needed to descend at high speeds. The project was given the Sports Award at The Engineer magazine’s annual Technology & Innovation Awards 2010. 3 ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL RESEARCH PERFORMANCE & ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT 2010 /2011 0 0 0 Facilitating discovery in other disciplines REVOLUTIONARY AND CHEAP DATING TECHNIQUE If you heat a piece of old ceramic, such as a pot or a brick, the process removes the water accumulated over the time it has existed. EPSRC-sponsored researchers have shown that by measuring how quickly the piece of ceramic gains water, and hence weight, once it has started to cool, it is possible to very accurately estimate its age. The technique has its origins in fundamental research into how cements and mortars behave. The researchers realised that the rate of water loss could be used for dating. A series of EPSRC grants over the last 18 years led to the breakthrough, and the research team at the universities of Edinburgh and Manchester have just used knowledge transfer funding from EPSRC to take it towards commercialisation. A spin-out company is expected soon. The green economy REDUCING FOOD WASTE EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Strathclyde have developed an ‘intelligent’ plastic indicator for food packaging that changes colour when the food is about to lose its freshness. The product will help reduce the estimated 8.3 million tonnes of household food that is wasted every year in the UK. The project has received support from the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Programme. CUTTING THE COST OF GOING GREEN FOR INDUSTRY A carbon calculator software tool developed by chemical engineers at The University of Manchester and recommended by Government as the carbon footprinting tool for the industrial biotechnology sector clinched the Outstanding Achievement in Chemical and Process Engineering prize at IChemE’s annual innovation and excellence awards. It also won the GSK Innovation Award at the Chemical Industry Awards, and the Best Collaborative Project from Chemistry Innovation. Professor Adisa Azapagic and her team, won the award for a software tool called CCaLC that helps companies measure and improve their carbon footprint at minimum cost. A spokesman for Europe’s leading PVC manufacturer, Ineos Chlorvinyls, said: “CCaLC is highly valuable for the European PVC industry’s commitment towards sustainable development. For example, it helped the industry realise for the first time that an equivalent 20-fold reduction of carbon dioxide could be achieved through PVC recycling.” CCaLC has been downloaded by over 2,000 organisations. From just one of those downloads companies can save between £5,000 and £10,000 in typical consultancy fees. The project was funded through EPSRC’s and The Carbon Trust’s Carbon Vision Programme. 4 ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL RESEARCH PERFORMANCE & ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT 2010 /2011 0 0 0 Improving the health of the nation HELPING HUMANS REPAIR THEMSELVES Tissue Regenix is a spin-out company formed in 2006 to commercialise research funded over a series of EPSRC grants by Professors John Fisher and Eileen Ingham from the University of Leeds.