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Prof Silver's research on the development of the technology to fabricate 3D electro-optic circuits via ink-jet and screen printing has provided a more sustainable solution to conventional back-lit posters (energy saving up to 75%) and printed displays. Due to the flexibility of the components (they can be printed in any shape or design) and low maintenance (battery operational), the technology has been commercially exploited by several industrial collaborators. Johnson Matthey have used Brunel research to gain knowledge of the market and supply chain, to sell silver and palladium nano-particles for ink-jet printing and to inform the investment of around £2M on R&D in this area. Intrinsiq Materials Ltd successfully marketed copper-based inks for ink-jet printing of ACEL displays, allowing the company to employ 22 additional staff. In addition, they have secured $4M of venture capital investment to develop the technology. Printed Electronics Ltd have secured £8.6M of investment to develop a high-volume supply chain for printed electronics, and have employed an additional 9 staff within the company. As a result of working with Brunel, Keeling and Walker have begun to sell ink that contains antimony-doped tin oxide nano-powders.
Ionic liquids (liquid salts) offer a more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable method of coating and processing metals than other more traditional methods. The generic technology developed at Leicester for plating and etching metals significantly decreases the power consumption, uses less hazardous chemicals and produces less aqueous waste. Many of the current acid-based liquids are restricted by legislation. The spin-out company, Scionix Ltd has developed numerous processes for metal processing through collaborative grants with the University of Leicester and the end users. Probably the largest impact has been through the development of a breakthrough technology for the electroplating of chromium removing the use of carcinogenic chromic acid. In April 2013 [text removed for publication] (one of the world's largest steel producers) signed an exclusive license with Scionix Ltd for [text removed for publication] using the ionic liquid technology developed at the University.
The University was the first adopter of the Direct Metal Laser Sintering/Melting (DMLS/M) technology in the UK resulting in significant research and knowledge transfer activities in the UK and globally. The University has and continues to be a catalyst in technology introduction for 5 out of the 10 UK companies that use this technology. This accounts for £2.5M of capital investment within the UK and is currently the largest concentration of this technology worldwide. Research has involved process optimisation, analytical simulation, materials development (including MMCs) with UK and international partners. Application research engagement has been in Automotive (including F1), Aerospace, Medical and Jewellery sectors.
Economic impact is claimed through the growth of the biopharmaceutical spin-out company Q Chip Ltd. During the REF period, this has created 19 new jobs, £7.5M investment, a new Dutch subsidiary (Q Chip BV), and staged-payment, six figure contract sales to four major international pharmaceutical companies.
Q Chip has generated over £928K in contract sales from the pharmaceutical industry from 2008-2012, with further sales of over £1M projected in 2013-14.
Originally established by Professor David Barrow in 2003 from his micro technology research, Q Chip has developed new processes and miniaturised equipment to encapsulate materials, including drugs, within uniform polymeric microspheres as injectable therapeutics.
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.
Nanomaterials research at Ulster into materials including diamond-like carbon (DLC) ultra-thin films, carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene, silicon and metal oxide nanoparticles has resulted in direct uptake by major industrial manufacturers and led to a directly quantifiable socio-economic impact via added value, improved efficiencies and cost-savings and has secured or increased the employment of skilled engineering staff. Examples of this impact since 2008 include ceramic nanoparticles research in partnership with AVX Ltd that resulted in improved production efficiency processes (up 20%) and higher quality devices (up 10%). [text removed for publication] Research into ultra-thin DLC films, funded by Seagate, has led to their incorporation into magnetic media. [text removed for publication] Our nanoparticle research has attracted a new spin-in company SiSaf Ltd. (2009) and by incorporating NIBEC's expertise in nanomaterials into its business plan, the company was able to grow to a valuation of £3.5m and employ 7 people in skilled technical positions.
The commercialisation of Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) and the associated novel fabrication processes developed at the University of Glasgow has provided Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CSTG) with a new foundry product supplying quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing, safety and security, and military applications. This resulted in 40% turnover growth from 2010-2012 and the company is now recognised as a global leader in QCLs and their fabrication. Based on University of Glasgow research, the company has created a manufacturing toolbox for the production of a wide variety of QCL chip designs. CSTG has also achieved a world first, manufacturing QCLs for systems that detect explosives at a safe distance and can counter heat-seeking missile attacks on aircraft.
The tropical root crop, cassava, is a food security crop for 450 million people in Africa. This case study describes the impact pathway from strategic research on transformation to make safe, cheap and valued products for food and industrial use, to impact on the ground in Africa benefitting 90,000 smallholder farmers with strong prospects to increase to 250,000 within eight years. The impact pathway involved using:
a) strategic research on cyanogen reduction during cassava processing, overcoming problems with mycotoxin contamination, improved processing and sensory evaluation;
b) adaptive research to develop market-based solutions to use cassava as a commercial/industrial commodity;
c) large scale impact on the ground in Africa through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding and take up of the products by the private sector.