Translating Innovation 1
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Translating innovation 1 Translating innovation Showcasing UK entrepreneurial science 2 Translating innovation Translating innovation 3 Contents Foreword Pioneering the next generation of imaging: from pixels to perception . 5 The Royal Society promotes industrial science and translation Professor Graham Finlayson and supports activities that help scientists to commercialise Joining forces: smart specs to restore eyesight . 6 Dr Stephen Hicks and Professor Philip Torr innovative research. Who will save us from space storms? . 9 Professor Cathryn Mitchell The process of translating research outcomes into To celebrate the second year of the Society’s Science commercially viable products can be challenging, and Industry programme, this booklet showcases the Intelligent land-use: leading the big data integration . 10 involving the need to overcome many technical and non- outstanding track record of UK scientists in research and Professor Mark Maslin technical barriers. The Society helps scientists on this innovation. Presented here are ten accounts of individuals journey by providing grants and funding, offering training who have used and built on the funding awarded by Quantum security solutions: security guaranteed by the laws of physics . 13 and mentoring and bringing together experts in academia the Society to translate their research from academia to Dr Robert Young and industry through our meetings and conferences. industry. We believe these scientists and the technologies they are working on are ‘ones to watch’ in the future. Greener, cheaper, more efficient: improving production through cutting-edge catalysts . 14 These opportunities not only give outstanding researchers Dr Catherine Cazin the freedom to pursue excellent science, but also to benefit industry, the economy and society through the StarStream: tackling the challenge of antimicrobial resistance . 17 translation of research. To understand the breadth and Professor Timothy Leighton FREng FRS depth of these achievements, the Society investigated Sir Simon Campbell CBE FMedSci FRS the commercialisation activities of the individuals funded Getting it out there: leading the charge in the advanced materials revolution . 18 Co-Chair, The Royal Society Science, Industry Dr Krzysztof Koziol through its grants and fellowships since 2009. and Translation Committee. Over this period, half of the researchers holding a Royal New standards for the future of mass spectrometry-based proteomics . 21 Society grant or fellowship have been involved in some Professor Claire Eyres form of commercialisation activity. Furthermore, the translation of discoveries has been steadily increasing Painkiller patches for steady, targeted pain relief . .. 22 over the past six years, with particular growth seen in Professor David Haddleton the most common form of commercial activity, industry Dr Herman Hauser KBE FREng FRS collaborations. We were also pleased to find that receipt Co-Chair, The Royal Society Science, Industry of funding from the Society is often a key facilitator in and Translation Committee. accessing additional finance from alternative sources. Cover image: Professor Leighton and Dr Birkin received the Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in 2011, and partnered with Ultrawave, to develop a device from a functional laboratory technology to a user-friendly prototype called StarStream. “4 Investors Translating innovation like and loathe Translating innovation 5 platform technologies in equal measure . They like Pioneering the next generation of imaging: it because there’s a lot from pixels to perception of applications that work Professor Graham Finlayson, University of East Anglia, former Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. and there could be a lot of Much information is lost when we take a photograph: the Imsense was subsequently bought by a major bluechip difference in brightness between pitch-black and staring company from the US. It was the first spinout at UEA to money to be made, but they into the sun is far less significant on screen or on paper raise venture capital and bring returns to the institution in also wonder how do you than when the human eye experiences it directly; near its 50 year history. This helped Professor Finlayson and and far objects don’t have the same level of focus or his industry collaborators, and also allowed UEA to build know what to choose first ”. detail; colour gets lost. This is unfortunate for ‘selfies’ or on the experience and establish better support for other holiday snaps, but becomes a big problem when looking commercialisation projects. for enemy vehicles in military satellite imaging, or when Professor Graham Finlayson Spectral Edge, Professor Finlayson’s latest spinout, using cameras to find signs of serious illnesses. developed technology to modify images so that Professor Finlayson specialises in the processing pipeline colourblind people are better able to see colours, with from taking a picture to seeing it on a screen. His work no detriment to non-colourblind people. The technology has improved the quality of pictures by developing works for moving images and has been integrated into programmes and algorithms to advance techniques television set-top boxes. including tone-mapping, illuminant estimation, dynamic Spectral Edge is paving the way towards ever more range compression and image fusion. His work is helping exciting innovations: modern cameras are able to record to create the next generation of imaging but the ability what the naked eye can’t see: infrared and heat. Spectral to create more detail and depth in pictures has many Edge uses this to create multi-layered image fusion for potential applications – it is a platform technology, so his even clearer, more beautiful pictures. work does not end there. These commercialisation activities have opened up Spinout company, Imsense, focused on digital imaging space for Professor Finlayson to conduct further research, for use in mobile phones and raised £2 million in venture making new discoveries through the company. Reflecting capital. A demo app reached top spot for photo processing on the challenges and opportunities of commercialisation, in several countries, with over 100,000 downloads. he concludes: “If I was advising a young academic I would say look at the medium and long term and see ‘is this going to be good for your research on those timescales?’” 6 Translating innovation “ As researchers you always Translating innovation 7 say ‘We should join forces Joining forces: smart specs to restore eyesight and do some work together’, Professor Philip Torr, University of Oxford/Oxford Brookes University, former Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. so it’s great when someone Dr Stephen Hicks, University of Oxford, received the Brian Mercer Award for Innovation. actually funds that ”. Sometimes it’s the combination of two very different fields 360,000 people in the UK are registered as blind or Dr Stephen Hicks of science that leads to successful commercialisation. Dr partially sighted.1 Trials have shown that the smart specs Hicks is a clinical specialist on the neuroscience of vision work for 30% of those. But Professor Torr and Dr Hicks who collaborates with Oxford Eye Hospital, to research understand well that they are addressing a global problem how much sight people have and ways to increase it, and have the opportunity to help many of the estimated including through using wearable devices. Professor Torr is 285 million visually impaired people in the world.2 an expert in computer vision and learning – how to make computers recognise what they see. Looking to apply his No larger company did anything comparable, so they research to help the partially sighted, he found Dr Hicks founded Oxford University spinout company VA-ST to through a simple internet search for experts in the area. commercialise the smart specs. The company has global ambitions, with China, the US and northern Europe planned The potential in combining their expertise to create as target markets. Mindful of the need for continuous intelligent wearables to increase what partially sighted development, Dr Hicks explains the way forward: people can see was evident from the start. Dr Hicks notes: “As researchers you always say ‘We should join forces “The plan is to build several successive models that and do some work together’, so it’s great when someone become smaller, more powerful and less expensive. actually funds that.” The system we have right now works very well. If, however, it turns out to be too unwieldy, we’ll do Through Dr Hicks’ Brian Mercer Award for Innovation some more engineering, but right now we have a fully and Professor Torr’s Wolfson Research Merit Award, they functional product.” developed a ‘smart specs’ prototype: a 3D camera and Android powered computer program that enhances the An application to the Google impact challenge in 2014 won visibility of nearby objects. Software hides the background £0.5 million to test prototypes developed during the Brian and highlights edges and features to make objects easier Mercer award in everyday use. The company has also to see. Many of these features work in darkness and the raised £2 million from a private investor in China, and will video can be paused or zoomed to provide greater detail. officially launch worldwide in early 2016. 1. http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/Sight%20loss%20stats%20postcard.pdf (accessed 15 February 2016) 2. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/ (accessed 15 February