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Impact: Economic The light-emittingdendrimers are a new class of materials for organic light-emitting diodes, a major display technology. They have been commercialised by Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), the leading developer of polymer light-emitting diodes.
Significance Light-emitting dendrimers provided a breakthrough in the efficiency of organic light emitting diode (OLED) materials deposited from solution. This enabled the convenience of solution-processing to be combined with high efficiency, and enabled solution-processed materials to compete with evaporated materials.
Beneficiaries CDT, display manufacturers around the world and display users.
Attribution The research was performed by Professor Samuel in collaboration with Professor Burn of the University of Oxford.
Reach Materials based on light-emitting dendrimers are manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical in Japan and supplied to global displays manufacturers.
Impact: Health and Economic Gains:
Research has led to a wearable light source that provides a new way of treating many skin cancers and acne. The treatment is safe, convenient, and easy to use bringing benefits to patients and healthcare providers. In addition it brings economic benefits to Ambicare Health Ltd, the company commercialising it.
Significance
For skin cancer treatment, the device gives effective treatment with much reduced pain. The simplified treatment procedure allows more patients to be treated in a clinic session. For acne, the device provides a convenient at-home treatment without the application of drugs or chemicals.
Beneficiaries:
Skin cancer and acne sufferers, the clinics that treat them and Ambicare Health Ltd.
Attribution:
The work was led by Professor Ifor Samuel (PHYESTA) working with Professor James Ferguson (Ninewells Hospital, Dundee).
Reach:
The wearable light source has changed treatment in the UK and the Netherlands. The skin cancer treatment is in regular use at more than 25 clinics, and the acne treatment at more than 250 clinics.
Implementation of photonic quasi-crystals on light emitting diodes (LEDs) can produce more light using less energy. This technology was brought to the global market via the successful commercialisation of laboratory devices derived from research in nanophotonics and the subsequent development of photonic quasi-crystals by a multi-disciplinary team from the University of Southampton. The intellectual property of the technology was acquired and adopted in 2008 by Luxtaltek Corporation, a global manufacturer of LEDs. In the period 2008-2012 Luxtaltek Corporation, made total profits of £35 million utilising the photonic quasi-crystal LED technology, employing more than 300 people in its production facilities.
Natural photonics research by Professor Pete Vukusic at the University of Exeter was responsible for shaping the successful global communications strategy of Bausch & Lomb, a world-leading supplier of eye health products. Drawing on Vukusic's studies into bio-inspiration, Bausch & Lomb built its core brand messaging for a major new lens product around the ability of nature to inspire technological breakthroughs. Outreach campaigns targeting media and optometry professionals took Vukusic's research to an international audience, raising wider public awareness of the concept of bio-inspiration. Bausch & Lomb attributed their subsequent rapid sales growth to Vukusic's work.
Regulation of our sleep-wake cycle is crucial to health and well-being. The quality (intensity and spectral distribution) of artificial light is currently described according to its ability to activate rod and cone photoreceptors in the human eye. This approach ignores the discovery of a third photoreceptor that Lucas and his group have shown to be responsible for a range of sub-conscious neurophysiological and neurobehavioural responses to light, which together strongly contribute to health, productivity and well-being. Their research has established ways of measuring light that predict its effect on these newly discovered photoreceptors. They have partnered with industrial [text removed for publication] and public policy (various) organisations to translate this knowledge into improved artificial light sources and updated international standards for architectural lighting, for use in a wide range of domestic, public and industrial settings.
Initial research into polymer nanocomposites and their formation took place at Strathclyde from 2000 - 2010. This was followed by a collaboration with the world's largest manufacturer of composite kitchen sinks, Carron Phoenix Limited, through a 6-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) which resulted in a successful new production process of its high-end synthetic granite kitchen sinks. This led to £4 million of capital investment in new production facilities at their Falkirk site, enabling the company to sustain its leading position in the designer kitchen sink market and retain its workforce of over 400 employees in central Scotland, including the 170 workers in the composite sink division in Falkirk. Within the REF period, the research has led to the manufacture and sale of in excess of one million kitchen sinks, generating sales revenue in excess of over £50M and supporting the UK economy.
The company Ossila Ltd has developed a range of products targeted at developers of organic electronic devices, with products based on know-how derived from research within the Soft Matter Physics (SMP) group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The company also supplies research-based services to technical markets around the world. Since its establishment in 2010, the company has grown organically, and now has a growing revenue stream that makes it a sustainable profit-making entity, with 85% of its products sold to overseas markets. The company enjoys rapid growth and currently employs 10 people (~7 FTE equivalent). Ossila's financial turn-over has increased by between 50-100% annually, [text removed for publication].
A manufacturing process developed by Bradford researchers has revolutionised the way endodontists perform root canal treatments. When coated with a hydrophilic polymer, the highly-filled hygroscopic material has enabled UK company DRFP to develop SmartPoint — a new endodontic technique that dramatically reduces failure rates of root canal treatments from 11-30% over five years to approximately 1%, and gives lower levels of post-operative pain when compared with conventional techniques. The technology has won three awards for innovation and DRFP has expanded significantly, with a dedicated production facility and sales team offering visits to dentists to demonstrate the benefits of the technology.
Metamaterials deliver electromagnetic properties not available in natural materials. Transformation optics replaces the ray picture of Snell's law with the field lines of Maxwell's equations and is an exact description of classical optics. These powerful concepts, originally developed by Prof John Pendry, have engendered massive interest in the electromagnetic community encompassing radio frequency (RF) through to optical applications. His advice is sought by numerous companies and these concepts are now filtering through into products. In the last 5 years there has been great involvement of industry and particularly of the defence establishment in the USA who run several multi mullion dollar programs on metamaterials based at DARPA, WPAFB and Sandia. A company, KYMETA, was formed in 2012 to market this technology with $12M of investment funding, and is developing a laptop-sized antenna that gives instant Internet hotspot access anywhere in the world, with an ultimate application allowing cheap and fast Internet connections for the everyday consumer. In the UK, BAE Systems is using metamaterials for several applications including compact, directional antennas.
Developing renewable sources of energy has to go hand in hand with reducing energy demand through increased energy awareness and behavioural change. To this end a multidisciplinary consortium of researchers, led by Professor Christopher Howe (Biochemistry), have developed several biophotovoltaic (BPV) devices for off-grid electricity generation, and as educational tools. This has resulted in impact on commerce (i.e. the acquisition of a BPV spinout company by Ortus Energy Ltd in 2009 through share exchange), on society and culture (an award-winning `Moss Table' developed by the consortium, which incorporates BPV technology, has been exhibited internationally since 2011 and has received extensive international media coverage) and on educational practices (a prototype BPV educational tool for schools has been developed by Howe and colleagues in 2013 and trialled with 6th form students).