Log in
The largest investment banks in London each have thousands of servers largely devoted to Monte Carlo simulations, and to quantify their risks and satisfy regulatory demands they need to be able to calculate huge numbers of sensitivities (defined below) known collectively as "Greeks". An adjoint technique developed by Professor Mike Giles in 2006 greatly reduced the computational complexity of these calculations. The technique is used extensively by Credit Suisse and other major banks, reducing their computing costs and energy consumption. It has also led to the Numerical Algorithms Group developing new software to support the banks in exploiting this new adjoint approach to computing sensitivities.
In 2010, the new Conservative government established the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) to provide independent and authoritative analysis of the UK's public finances. The economic case for an independent body to monitor fiscal policy was based on research by Professor Simon Wren-Lewis and his co-authors into fiscal policy rules and optimal debt policy. This research has provided important inputs to policymakers' thinking about fiscal councils, both in the UK and overseas. Work by Professor Wren-Lewis has strongly influenced and shaped the design and subsequent development of the UK's Office for Budgetary Responsibility.
Professor David Zhang's research into agility strategies and the analysis and optimisation of complex supply chain networks in the manufacturing sector has led to significant economic impact. Reductions have been made in inventory and cost of goods sold, amounting to an estimated £80M per annum for CIFUNSA, one of the world's largest engine block and head manufacturers. The entire senior management team has been trained in agility strategies and techniques at China's largest non-ferrous metals research and industry complex GRINM, leading to major corporate-level restructuring and growth. The senior management of solder-specialist COMPO has also been trained based on Zhang's research to help the company quadruple turnover in four years and become global market leader. Finally, these same strategy and analysis techniques have generated cost savings and performance improvements worth an estimated £375k for UK engineering solutions company J+S Ltd (http://www.jands.co.uk).
York research has, continuously since the early 1990's, underpinned the methods by which a substantial proportion of the total NHS budget is allocated by the Department of Health to the organisations providing or arranging healthcare. Despite numerous NHS reforms, our research has produced formulae appropriate to each new system. These formulae have driven NHS policy on allocations across geographical areas and health care administrative entities in England, thereby ensuring that the population of approximately 55 million people receives a share of over £90 billion of healthcare resources that is fair and better reflects relative health care needs.
This case study demonstrates how research into Object Orientated programming has resulted in a feature-rich e-commerce platform that has transformed the management and operations of a traditional sheet music company (Faber Music) and its expanding business partner network.
Impact includes:
Research by Dr Andrew Martin at the UCL Research Department of Structural & Molecular Biology has led to a series of antibody-related tools being made available for free use over the Web. One of these, Abysis, has been visited over 360,000 times by over 8,000 users. Abysis has also been released under a commercial license and has been purchased by companies ranging from small biotechs to large pharma for use in their antibody therapeutic development pipelines, allowing them to identify unusual features of their sequences and to improve strategies for humanisation. Martin has also acted as an expert witness for drug companies in patent disputes.
This case study concerns the long term (energy) sustainability of emerging winemaking regions. Underpinning research in energy efficiency and renewable technologies informs the case study in determining energy usage and benchmarks, development of energy guidelines/policy, implementation by national professional bodies and adoption of energy best practice by the local industry. Impact is through the adoption and application of benchmarks by winemaking associations, directly influencing (through policy, regulations and standards) the energy expended in making wine. The study is underpinned by international publishing accolades (Solar Energy `Best Full Length Paper in Photovoltaics', Mondol et al, 2005) and a highly prestigious personal Royal Academy of Engineering Global Research Award to Smyth.
Research undertaken at Royal Holloway developed a theoretical Performance Audit (PA) model for evaluating the value for money (v-f-m) of the post-decision operational stage of Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Performance Audits (PAs) undertaken by national audit offices encountered difficulties in evaluating v-f-m, given their lifespan of 25 years or more. The model has impact in the UK and Australia, influencing national auditors in their development of PA of PPP/PFI, initially in the UK National Audit Office and directly during the REF 2014 period on the PAs in the Victorian Auditor General's Office (VAGO), Australia.
The transport of people, goods, and utilities (e.g. electricity, oil, gas and water) is essential to civilised life, and in turn depends on a robust, reliable and affordable infrastructure. Since 1995, the University of Southampton Geomechanics Group (SGG) has led the development of an enhanced, science-based framework for understanding the behaviour of geotechnical transport infrastructure through monitoring, modelling and analysis. The techniques we have developed have been used by the builders, owners and operators of transport infrastructure both nationally and internationally to develop improved understandings of infrastructure geotechnical behaviour both during construction and in service. This has led to substantial savings in build, maintenance and operational costs; the implementation of effective remediation and management strategies; and significantly improved infrastructure performance.
The demise of Lehman Brothers in 2008 marked the start of the current financial crisis and illustrated some of the adverse consequences of linkages between banks. The prospect of systemic crises has concerned bank regulators and monetary policy authorities for many years. Research by Professor Altunbaş at Bangor Business School, in close collaboration with the European Central Bank (ECB), has had substantial impact over 2008-2013 by influencing priorities in the international policy debate on how bank innovation can influence the conduct of monetary policy. It shows that the effectiveness of traditional monetary policy transmission mechanisms (such as the bank lending channel) is reduced by securitization activity and this also exacerbates the risk-taking channel of monetary policy. Evidence of the impact and overall scope of Professor Altunbaş' research is reflected in reference to his research at the highest monetary policy levels in Europe as well as widespread recognition in official central bank and international organization publications.