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Novel bioluminescent bacterial biosensors developed at UWE, Bristol, and commercialised by Randox, have been used by a range of companies to demonstrate effectiveness of drugs and decontamination procedures. This has improved development processes at companies including Clavis Pharma, Purest Solutions and Dycem, leading to new manufacturing processes and quality control test methods. The biosensors are used in novel applications to give pharmacodynamic data on effectiveness of drugs and real time in-situ demonstration of effectiveness of decontamination processes. These biosensors, pioneered and developed by Vyv Salisbury's group, have been commercially adopted and used for evaluation by at least six collaborating companies.
Trafficked persons have benefitted directly from van den Anker's research at UWE through improved support and legislation. Her policy model on human trafficking prevention assisted changes in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Belgium and Sweden and informed local policy development through her training of politicians, civil servants and NGOs in Bristol, Birmingham and Wales. Increased multi-agency working promoted by van den Anker has led to the establishment of new support services like a safe house and the Migrant Rights Centre in Bristol, directly benefiting migrants. International dissemination contributed to agenda changes in international organisations such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Companies in the manufacturing, construction, courier, freight and airline industries have made use of Photometric Stereo based imaging technology, developed by the Centre for Machine Vision (CMV) at UWE Bristol, to capture 2D and 3D data simultaneously. This has enabled them to develop new products for large volumetric measurement, characterisation of aggregates, tile quality control and automotive wheel alignment. These examples have addressed hitherto challenging tasks or have extended functionality to new or poorly structured environments, for instance: (i) the robust capture of accurate 3D data from postal packages exhibiting complex shape and coloration; and (ii) a new capability for distinction between printing and moulding defects during fast moving tile quality control — previously impossible. In all cases ultra-low-cost equipment is used — underlining the attractiveness of the techniques developed by the CMV.
Several National Statistics Agencies (NSAs) in Europe now use tools based on UWE research to ensure published tables are protected from hacking attempts to breach data privacy. Provision of high-quality data to policy and decision makers is so important that supplying it to NSAs is often mandatory for organisations and individuals. In return, NSAs, such as the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), must guarantee a degree of confidentiality. Our research has benefitted ONS, its clients and data providers, by exposing serious flaws in existing methodologies and techniques for protecting confidentiality and by creating tools for (i) auditing and (ii) protecting large complex tables.
Havi Carel's work on the experience of illness has had wide-ranging and significant impact on health professionals, patients and their families, policy makers and health researchers throughout the world. Her influential book, Illness, sparked a public debate on the importance of the first-person experience of illness. Consequently, through presentations, media coverage, public debates, academic-practitioner networks, educational activities and public workshops, Carel's influence on many people's perceptions of illness has been profound.
Maternity staff from hospitals in the UK and around the world have benefited from training to improve their communication and team-working skills in emergency situations. This has been achieved through input into a standard training manual now in wide use, and through the development of course content used in `train-the-trainer' sessions for consultant obstetricians, consultant anaesthetists and senior midwives who have in turn been able to train their colleagues. Research findings at UWE, Bristol, contributed to showing that clinically better results correlate with specific linguistic behaviours. The findings of the work made a direct contribution to this training content.
Industrial collaborators have achieved more efficient and cost-effective routes to market for their oral hygiene and wound healthcare products as a result of UWE in vitro biofilm models based on perfusion flow. These have been used to measure the products' efficacy.
These companies include GABA international, GlaxoSmithKline, Insense Ltd (now Archimed), and Healthcare International.
Healthcare International has developed an oral healthcare product following the use of the UWE models to identify which of several compounds were best suited for this; it has been sold and distributed by Boots International.
Practising dental professionals have been trained by UWE researchers, using insights gained from our research findings, in correct procedures to diagnose and treat breath malodour.
Nowhereisland by artist Alex Hartley was a public artwork curated and produced by Claire Doherty as part of the Situations public art commissioning programme. This large-scale touring public artwork and accompanying online programme of activity enabled over 23,000 active participants (including over 10,000 young people) from 135 countries to reimagine civic responsibility and citizenship and to rethink the nature of place, belonging and nationhood within the context of the London 2012 Olympiad. As an internationally recognised example of progressive, time-based, participatory public art Nowhereisland helped change perceptions about the nature of public art.
Research at UWE Bristol in new media and games has engaged business and policy communities. The resulting knowledge exchange has underpinned the AHRC Creative Economy Hub REACT (Research and Enterprise for Arts and Creative Technologies) which has stimulated £200k value of new business for SMEs in its first year of operation. The research has enabled start-ups, micro businesses and SMEs in the digital economy to use our critical and creative methods to improve their products and services. It has also made a significant contribution to the development of policy on games for young people.
The volume and diversity of data that companies need to handle are increasing exponentially. In order to compete effectively and ensure companies' commercial sustainability, it is becoming crucial to achieve robust traceability in both their data and the evolving designs of their systems. The CRISTAL software addresses this. It was originally developed at CERN, with substantial contributions from UWE Bristol, for one of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, and has been transferred into the commercial world. Companies have been able to demonstrate increased agility, generate additional revenue, and improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness with which they develop and implement systems in various areas, including business process management (BPM), healthcare and accounting applications. CRISTAL's ability to manage data and their provenance at the terabyte scale, with full traceability over extended timescales, based on its description-driven approach, has provided the adaptability required to future proof dynamically evolving software for these businesses.
This case study embodies a non-linear relationship between underpinning research, software development and deployment. It involves computer science research at UWE in conjunction with its applied development for the world's largest particle physics laboratory and onward deployment commercially into private sector industry.