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Research undertaken at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) studied habitat enrichment in captive coyotes (with the National Wildlife Research Center in Utah), and herd composition of donkeys, horses and mules (with the Donkey Sanctuary). These studies observed social and environmental interactions, addressing important welfare indicators in gregarious species. The work identified welfare issues in both sites and provided the necessary evidence to allow improvements to be made.
Specifically, this research has:
1) led to changes in the husbandry practice and policy in both partner institutions that have improved animal welfare;
2) improved how the Donkey Sanctuary trains international partners and undertakes welfare education.
Professor Hutchinson's team has pursued research into movement of large land animals, and how they have evolved under biomechanical constraints, such as gravity, which dominate their lifestyles. Their findings relating to elephants and to dinosaurs, applying physics, maths and computer science to study the natural world, have captured the public's imagination through a variety of engagement activities. The work has contributed to several major documentaries and interactive museum exhibits, (with Professor Hutchinson consulting), as well as featuring in a substantial number of print and online news stories. The research has had practical applications in foot health and welfare of elephants in captivity and, through examining constraints of growth on anatomy, has also led to applications in health of broiler chickens.
A spin-out company, Contemplate Ltd, is using advanced static analysis technology in global top-ten investment banks and other clients to discover previously undetected defects in enterprise-scale business-critical multi-threaded Java codebases. The impact is in terms of the benefits delivered to Contemplate's clients by this technology and in terms of the formation and growth of Contemplate as an employer and a successful business.
The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx) at Nottingham is a world leader in the development and application of experimental and behavioural economics. CeDEx's research is increasingly influential in affecting the way in which experimental methodology is utilised by public sector agencies (e.g. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, DEFRA) and in fashioning the public and policy makers' understanding of how human motivations and decision processes affect individual and group behaviour and, in particular, their responses to different policy tools (e.g. incentives, regulation, information, `nudges' etc). The research of the CeDEx group has had broad and diffuse impacts on public decision-making and public debate; through public events, the provision of advice to government departments and regulators, the delivery of training workshops, commissioned research and an active strategy of engagement in public debate.
Payment card fraud is a significant cost to business, as well as being a route to funding of organised crime, drug smuggling and terrorism. Detection of fraud requires a technique that is both transparent and adaptive. We have used the Department of Computing's expertise in machine learning and rule induction to develop a scalable method of automated fraud detection that meets the industry's needs. This technique is now being commercialised by AI Corporation, with a contract for its use having been placed by the world's largest retailer. Contracts with major banks are currently under negotiation.
Fifteen years of research in advanced Lab-on-a-Chip technologies at the University of Glasgow has led to three spin-out companies: Mode-Dx, Clyde Biosciences and SAW-Dx. Since 2008 these companies have developed a range of products and services for the diagnostic screening of chronic diseases, for the detection of acute infections and for improving the drug discovery process. The three companies have secured a total of £2.3M in venture funding and secured key strategic collaborations with stakeholders including industry partners and the NHS.