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REF impact found 34 Case Studies

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LightTouch: Low-cost, rapid oil and gas prospecting technology

Summary of the impact

The future of the world's energy supply is a global concern, as the demands of a growing population rise and the ability to locate precious oil and gas resources becomes increasingly difficult. Researchers at the University of Glasgow have made a fundamental contribution with the development of LightTouch — a Shell proprietary ultrasensitive, technologically advanced gas sensing survey method. In fourteen years of cooperation with Shell, the University of Glasgow has delivered multi-million dollar savings and improved the delivery of efficient survey data, substantially decreasing the economic impact associated with unsuccessful drilling.

Submitting Institution

University of Glasgow

Unit of Assessment

Physics

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Physical Sciences: Other Physical Sciences
Engineering: Environmental Engineering

Bayesian methods for large scale small area estimation (SAE)

Summary of the impact

Small area estimation (SAE) describes the use of Bayesian modelling of survey and administrative data in order to provide estimates of survey responses at a much finer level than is possible from the survey alone. Over the recent past, academic publications have mostly targeted the development of the methodology for SAE using small-scale examples. Only predictions on the basis of realistically sized samples have the potential to impact on governance and our contribution is to fill a niche by delivering such SAEs on a national scale through the use of a scaling method. The impact case study concerns the use of these small area predictions to develop disease-level predictions for some 8,000 GPs in England and so to produce a funding formula for use in primary care that has informed the allocation of billions of pounds of NHS money. The value of the model has been recognised in NHS guidelines. The methodology has begun to have impact in other areas, including the BIS `Skills for Life' survey.

Submitting Institution

Plymouth University

Unit of Assessment

Mathematical Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Economics: Econometrics

The application of embedded analytics to hyper-scale and distributed data archives

Summary of the impact

The research improves digital data archives by embedding computation into the storage controllers that maintain the integrity of the data within the archive. This opens up a number of possibilities:

  • Data analysis can be automated and incorporated into the archiving process;
  • The approach improves the archiving of all types of digital objects, from television broadcasts to genomes;
  • The approach can be applied to distributed data and to datasets that are too big for traditional approaches.

This has impact on three different classes of beneficiary:

  • Providers of national data infrastructure in the UK and US, who are incorporating Cheshire 3 into national data repositories;
  • Data Users, such as Astra Zeneca, RAI, Sanger Institute, who are using Cheshire 3 to extract valuable information from their data;
  • Equipment vendors, such as NetApp, Xerox and Bellerophon Mobile, who are developing commercial systems that will use Cheshire 3.

Submitting Institution

University of Liverpool

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Information Systems

08 - Assuring Hydrocarbon Flow with Improved Hydrate Management

Summary of the impact

ERPE research led to the following impacts in the REF2014 period:

  • Extending the life of the NUGGETS field (operated by Total) by three years with an increase in cumulative production of 2% (2.8 Million Barrels of Oil Equivalent, value $150M).
  • Saving $3-7M in costs associated with methanol removal from liquid hydrocarbon phase by demonstrating methanol could be removed from Natural Gas Liquids directly by molecular sieve, which played a major role in Total's decision in eliminating a de-propaniser from "methanol removal facilities", saving around £50M.
  • Hydrafact: a start-up company with a turnover of £1M in 2012 and employing 8 full-time and 15 part-time staff.

Submitting Institutions

Heriot-Watt University,University of Edinburgh

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

Improving Social Care Call Centre Operational Effectiveness

Summary of the impact

Targeted Projection Pursuit (TPP) — developed at Northumbria University — is a novel method for interactive exploration of high-dimension data sets without loss of information. The TPP method performs better than current dimension-reduction methods since it finds projections that best approximate a target view enhanced by certain prior knowledge about the data. "Valley Care" provides a Telecare service to over 5,000 customers as part of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and delivers a core service for vulnerable and elderly people (receiving an estimated 129,000 calls per annum) that allows them to live independently and remain in their homes longer. The service informs a wider UK ageing community as part of the NHS Foundation Trust.

Applying our research enabled the managers of Valley Care to establish the volume, type and frequency of calls, identify users at high risk, and to inform the manufacturers of the equipment how to update the database software. This enabled Valley Care managers and staff to analyse the information quickly in order to plan efficiently the work of call operators and social care workers. Our study also provided knowledge about usage patterns of the technology and valuably identified clients at high risk of falls. This is the first time that mathematical and statistical analysis of data sets of this type has been done in the UK and Europe.

As a result of applying the TPP method to its Call Centre multivariate data, Valley Care has been able to transform the quality and efficiency of its service, while operating within the same budget.

Submitting Institution

Northumbria University Newcastle

Unit of Assessment

Mathematical Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Information Systems

Estimating local populations with far greater accuracy using administrative data

Summary of the impact

There is growing evidence that official population statistics based on the decennial UK Census are inaccurate at the local authority level, the fundamental administrative unit of the UK. The use of locally-available administrative data sets for counting populations can result in more timely and geographically more flexible data which are more cost-effective to produce than the survey-based Census. Professor Mayhew of City University London has spent the last 13 years conducting research on administrative data and their application to counting populations at local level. This work has focused particularly on linking population estimates to specific applications in health and social care, education and crime. Professor Mayhew developed a methodology that is now used as an alternative to the decennial UK Census by a large number of local councils and health care providers. They have thereby gained access to more accurate, detailed and relevant data which have helped local government officials and communities make better policy decisions and save money. The success of this work has helped to shape thinking on statistics in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and has contributed to the debate over whether the decennial UK Census should be discontinued.

Submitting Institution

City University, London

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Economics: Applied Economics

CCPN: A novel approach to data exchange between software applications

Summary of the impact

Researchers in Cambridge have developed a data standard for storing and exchanging data between different programs in the field of macromolecular NMR spectroscopy. The standard has been used as the foundation for the development of an open source software suite for NMR data analysis, leading to improved research tools which have been widely adopted by both industrial and academic research groups, who benefit from faster drug development times and lower development costs. The CCPN data standard is an integral part of major European collaborative efforts for NMR software integration, and is being used by the major public databases for protein structures and NMR data, namely Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe) and BioMagResBank.

Submitting Institution

University of Cambridge

Unit of Assessment

Biological Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Computer Software, Information Systems

A world first in flight safety: University of Portsmouth academics bring avionic data analysis into the 21st century

Summary of the impact

A Portsmouth team has helped revolutionise how flight data from aircraft flight recorders is being analysed. This has improved the corporate performance of a leading UK company in a globally competitive market by helping it expand its business in the UK and to subsequently compete in the dynamic North American market. Historically, data was manually evaluated on a flight by flight basis. Research by the Portsmouth team means such data can now be analysed automatically by artificial intelligence (AI), saving significant man-hours, and allowing the company to diversify domestically into a related market and to expand internationally. The techniques developed were subsequently applied in a new market, enabling the new corporate partner to realise savings estimated at £100,000 p.a.

Submitting Institution

University of Portsmouth

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Information Systems
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Transportation and Freight Services

Improved monitoring of graphite cores supports the safety case for life extension of nuclear power stations

Summary of the impact

Deployment of robust diagnostic techniques developed at the University of Strathclyde has improved the analysis of reactor core data and has directly supported the Safety Case for continued and extended operation of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor nuclear power stations in the UK. The new diagnostic techniques have been used on a daily basis since 16/5/2008 (BETA) and 5/3/2009 (IMAPS) in four power stations: 1) providing improved support and confirmation of the manual assessment of reactor core data by graphite engineers; 2) informing and advising power station personnel making strategic decisions on channels requiring inspection during statutory outages, and 3) providing evidence and increased confidence for the monitoring stage of station Safety Cases.

Submitting Institution

University of Strathclyde

Unit of Assessment

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Information Systems

ECONOMIC BENEFITS DERIVED FROM MTEM LIMITED

Summary of the impact

Impact: Economic benefits have been derived from the MTEM Limited spin-out company, which has been owned since 2007 by Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS). These include a commercial marine application of the MTEM (Multi-Transient ElectroMagnetic) method offshore Tunisia in 2008, successfully discovering hydrocarbons before drilling and the 2012 launch by PGS of a fully-towed commercially-viable marine MTEM system.

Significance and reach: Approximately 180 man-years of employment, with a value of more than $15M, have been provided in Edinburgh over the period January 2008 — December 2012.

Underpinned by: Research into electromagnetic survey methods, undertaken at the University of Edinburgh (1999 onwards), which led directly to the creation of MTEM Limited.

Submitting Institution

University of Edinburgh

Unit of Assessment

Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Earth Sciences: Geology, Geophysics
Engineering: Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

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