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At Edinburgh Napier University Professor Kennedy's research on modelling processes and results of biological classification has had, and continues to have, a major impact on the infrastructure for storing and exchanging biodiversity data worldwide. It led to the Taxonomic Concept Schema (TCS), a biodiversity data standard ratified by the International Biodiversity Standards Group (TDWG), now the basis of systems worldwide for referencing biodiversity data, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the International Plant Names Index. The TCS fed into the design of the Darwin Core standard subsequently ratified by TDWG, and now the exchange format for data in the major biodiversity infrastructures globally.
3D scanning technology has enabled multiple opportunities for innovation in diverse areas such as manufacturing, design, and the arts. However, full utilisation of this technology requires not just the scanning hardware, but accompanying software that can build meaningful, editable models. This development has been pioneered by research conducted in the School of Computer Science and Informatics, at Cardiff University. Innovative algorithms for reverse engineering and digital shape reconstruction were devised that enabled the reconstruction of complex computer aided design (CAD) models from data captured by 3D scanners. The algorithms have been endorsed by Geomagic Inc, a market leading American software corporation (recently acquired by 3D Systems), that has subsidiaries in Europe and Asia and global distributors, and incorporated into their software product suite. This is accessed by nearly 10,000 licensed users worldwide, who have applied the product for industrial applications including aerospace and automotive engineering, product design, cultural heritage preservation, and healthcare. Accordingly, the impacts claimed are twofold: a) economic gain manifesting in the benefits to Geomagic and a plethora of end users who have utilised the software, b) impact on practitioners and professional services in diverse domains.
MicroRNAs are a class of non-protein-coding RNA genes that regulate the expression of protein-coding mRNAs in animals and plants. Researchers at the University of Manchester (UoM) have developed a microRNA database (miRBase) which has become an essential resource for researchers both in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. The database is the central global repository for all published microRNA sequences and annotation.
miRBase data enables production of novel experimental kits and resources (including microRNA qPCR assays and microarrays) by companies including ABI, Invitrogen, Sigma-Aldrich and Exiqon. Tools produced by these companies underpin experimental microRNA research across academic and industrial settings, which benefit product development, drug discovery and clinical research. Exiqon reported more than 110 million DKK in revenue from their life science business in 2012, with main product lines involving microRNAs.
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.
The impact of statistical ecology research at Kent is on both the survey design of data collection on wild animals, and the analysis of the resulting data. As a result of our research, better quality data are being collected more efficiently, and a wide range of new methods of data analysis are being used. This is essential for the conservation and management of wild animal populations and the preservation of biodiversity. New methods developed at Kent are now standard tools used in ecology. Examples of impact are improved understanding of the decline of British farmland birds, underpinning conservation action plans; and analysis of data from tiger surveys, supporting the Indonesian Government's National Tiger Recovery Plan.
Compendium software is used to map dialogue and information around socio-technical dilemmas with economic, public policy, educational and health impacts. In Australia, urban planners attribute stakeholder buy-in to dialogue mapping with Compendium. In the USA, a deadlocked environmental planning process used it to make progress, while Southern California Edison use it to manage environmental policy. In the NHS, it can map therapeutic group dynamics, while in Germany, a journalist summarised a medical ethics case to parliament with it. More than 170 companies and individuals have endorsed Compendium, a striking application being to control Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at work.
Visual analytics is a powerful method for understanding large and complex datasets that makes information accessible to non-statistically trained users. The Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group (NCRG) developed several fundamental algorithms and brought them to users by developing interactive software tools (e.g. Netlab pattern analysis toolbox in 2002 (more than 40,000 downloads), Data Visualisation and Modelling System (DVMS) in 2012).
Industrial products. These software tools are used by industrial partners (Pfizer, Dstl) in their business activities. The algorithms have been integrated into a commercial tool (p:IGI) used in geochemical analysis for oil and gas exploration with a 60% share of the worldwide market.
Improving business performance. As an enabling technology, visual analytics has played an important role in the data analysis that has led to the development of new products, such as the Body Volume Index, and the enhancement of existing products (Wheelright: automated vehicle tyre pressure measurement).
Impact on practitioners. The software is used to educate and train skilled people internationally in more than 6 different institutions and is also used by finance professionals.
Research in quantum-mechanical methods, conducted at the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University, has resulted in the creation of an innovative software package called Molpro. Molpro provides the ability to calculate from first principles (ab initio) the properties of molecular matter. It is unique and differs from other quantum chemistry packages because, using local electron correlation methods, it significantly reduces the increase of the computational cost with molecular size. This means highly accurate computations can be performed for much larger molecules than with most other programs, and the screening of far wider libraries of potential new materials is enabled. Consequently, Molpro is extremely valuable to the global chemical and pharmaceutical industries and has been endorsed and applied by major international corporations that manufacture products that are used by a wide range of industries (including cosmetics, automotive and construction). Examples are BASF, Mitsubishi Chemical Group, Sasol and Nissan Chemical Industries.
The software is distributed under licence through Cardiff University and resellers, operating in China, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Russia, Poland and the USA. During the REF period, it has generated over £1.75M in revenue, and is used by over 650 organisations worldwide. Accordingly the impact claimed is extensive economic gain and impact on practitioners and professional services.
The UoA research enabled a step increase in the technical and commercial capabilities of Atlantic Geomatics (UK) Ltd (AGUK, Cumbria) and the development of a postal addressing solution for the Government of Gibraltar (GoG). The beneficiaries and benefits included: AGUK who secured a contract safeguarding jobs and opening new international markets. Moreover, the GoG now have a definitive solution for legislation to replace their manual, multiple and inconsistent address lists by a spatially-based official address register (OAR) incorporating geographical information thereby enabling the people of Gibraltar to receive enhanced services (e.g. postal, emergency, utilities) from a centrally managed OAR.
The need to manage, analyse and interpret the volumes of data and literature generated by modern high-throughput biology has become a major barrier to progress. Research at the University of Manchester on interoperability and advanced interfaces has resulted in innovative software (Utopia Documents) that links biomedical data with scientific literature. The software has been adopted by international publishing houses (Portland Press, Elsevier, Springer, etc.), allowing them to explore new business models, and by pharmaceutical companies (e.g. AstraZeneca, Roche), providing new opportunities to explore more efficient, cost-effective methods for exploiting and sharing in-house data and knowledge. The research also led to a spin-out company, Lost Island Labs, in 2012, which expects a profit [text removed for publication] in its first year.