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The UCL Department of Chemistry has for many years run a far-reaching programme of outreach and public engagement that has deep roots in the department's research programme. Its schools outreach work has promoted chemistry and science among secondary school children, while contributions to blogs, newspapers, radio, and television have engaged diverse audiences from primary school children to the elderly. Millions of people have viewed television contributions, while tens of thousands have been reached in theatres and science fairs, with positive reviews and feedback confirming a stimulation of public interest in, and understanding of, chemistry.
The impact presented in this case study is the commercialisation of 15 products with perfume microcapsules by Procter and Gamble (P&G), made possible using capsule mechanical strength data provided by Prof Zhibing Zhang's research group at Birmingham. Use of microcapsules gives improved freshness performance, and thus commercial advantage, compared with traditional formulations; they have been incorporated in P&G's four major billion-dollar brands — Downy, Febreze, Lenor and Tide. This has significantly improved their competitiveness enabling P&G to retain their leading position in the USA and Western Europe. A novel micromanipulation technique developed at the University of Birmingham has been used extensively to obtain mechanical properties data for the micro-particles, including microcapsules prepared in Birmingham and provided by companies, which is related to their formulation and processing conditions and end- use performance. In addition, the knowledge generated has helped 15 other companies to commercialise new functional products containing micro-particles.
This case study relates to research that has had an economic and application impact through the continued operation of a University spin out company, Biox Systems Ltd. The success of the Company's AquaFlux device for measuring aspects of skin barrier performance has, since 2008, resulted in:
Access to AquaFlux has enabled commercial and R&D organisations, including health care, household product and cosmetic industries, to gain better insights into the performance of their products. AquaFlux has been cited as the "gold standard" for Trans-Epidermal Water Loss (TEWL) measurement.
The nanobiotechnology research group at the University of Kent (Bruce et al.) has pioneered the ability to control, manipulate and commercially process magnetite nanoparticles. Two spinout companies, EryDel and Dietheva have been formed, with a €6 million venture capital grant, as a direct result of the Kent-led research. EryDel (in collaboration with Philips Healthcare) are exploiting the materials worldwide for drug delivery (Erydex), with US and European approval for Orphan drug designation given in 2013 for genetic diseases, and Diatheva are marketing the technology for forensic diagnostic kits. The predicted five-year revenue is €35 million with a potential market of €17 billion.
Bio Nano Consulting (http://www.bio-nano-consulting.com) was established as an operating business in 2007 through a joint venture between Imperial College London and UCL, whose formation was underpinned by research produced by Professor Tony Cass's group at Imperial. The company is the first consultancy in Europe to focus on the increasingly important intersection between bio- and nanotechnology, and it facilitates the development and commercialisation of new biomedical and nanotechnology-based techniques. Since its start-up, the company has attracted numerous clients across the aerospace and diagnostics sectors, including Lockheed-Martin and [text removed for publication]. The company's activities have generated £6M worth of revenue and it has a growing portfolio. The company, which is based in London, currently has 8 full time employees.
Between January 2008 and July 2013, over 10,000 key stage 4 school students and their teachers directly engaged with active research of the Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge through an annual interactive 3 day exhibition, titled "Physics at Work". In 2012 the event attracted 31 non-selective state schools and 17 selective/independent schools, 23 of which had visited the exhibition 3 or more times previously- a testament to its success. Building on the enthusiasm that the students showed during their participation in the event, teachers noted an increase in the number opting to study A-level physics and stated that those previously with no interest left with a very positive image of the subject.
Heat capacity is the measurable physical quantity that specifies the amount of heat required to change the temperature of an object or body by a given amount and is an important quantity to establish in any application that requires knowledge of the thermal response of a material. It is quite usual in the development of new materials that the volume of material available in single crystalline form is limited, and the ability to measure small samples sensitively has particular importance for this reason. We claim a dominant influence on the design of an ultrasensitive heat capacity microcalorimeter that is now sold by the UK company Cryogenic Ltd as a heat capacity option for their cryogenic measurement systems. The microcalorimeter makes it possible to measure ultra-small samples, particularly magnetic samples that are invisible to other commercial probes. Research was carried out within Imperial's Physics Department in 2003-04 to develop the instrumentation; the design was published in 2005 after which it transferred to UK company Cryogenic Ltd. In the past three years the approximate total sales of the heat capacity option at Cryogenics amount to £500K, as a valuable component of a physical properties measurement system with a total sale value in the region of £2M [section 5, source E].
The impact we describe arose from research led by Professor Brian Tighe between 1998 and 2013 involving research students and fellows of Aston Biomaterials Research Unit (BRU). We proposed [3.1] that responsive polymers modelled on nature's macromolecules would be required for successful synthesis of biomaterials analogues of natural systems. This led to health and economic impacts in the area of vision care, specifically: a commercially successful family of daily disposable contact lenses (current annual sales > 2 billion lenses), which use blink-activated release of hydrophilic macromolecules from contact lenses to mimic aspects of the corneal surface thereby enhancing ocular comfort.
The pioneering work of Steven Ley on polymer-supported reagents and continuous-flow reaction technology has helped change the way we achieve cleaner chemical processes. The concepts and techniques invented in Cambridge allow more sustainable processes to be developed, with concomitant reduction in purification steps, shorter reaction times and diminished solvent usage. The work has led to a spin-out company (Reaxa), seeded the creation of a number of other companies, and resulted in the development of several devices for continuous flow synthesis that are now commercially available via Mettler-Toledo (USA) and Cambridge Reactor Design (UK). This technology is having an impact in industry, with continuous flow processing increasingly being used for full-scale commercial production.
Research, undertaken at the University of Sheffield since 2001, into the discolouration of drinking water occurring within distribution systems has had economic, policy and professional practice impacts on the water supply sector since 2008. This has resulted in improved levels of service, has safeguarded water quality delivered to the public and has delivered substantial economic savings. For example, in one of the few cases where monetary value is available, Wessex Water made 63% savings on two trunk main schemes with an initial estimated cost in excess of £1M. The 4 and 7 km lengths of these trunk mains represent less than 1% of the trunk mains being impacted by our research. Our research has resulted in a step change in the concept and approach to the management of discolouration in water distribution systems.