Research Subject Area: Technology

REF impact found 158 Case Studies

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UOA09-11: Absolute distance measurement

Summary of the impact

The performance of absolute distance measuring systems has been improved in terms of accuracy, traceability, reliability and cost through the introduction of new methodology arising from research at the University of Oxford. This has brought commercial benefit to a German company making measurement systems, through the creation of a new product line. New capabilities for measurement have been delivered to a first customer in Germany. The research has also resulted in the establishment of new activity at the National Physical Laboratory, and influenced UK and European technology roadmaps for future manufacturing.

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Physics

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Physical Sciences: Other Physical Sciences
Technology: Communications Technologies

Accelerating structural biology with Phaser crystallographic software-Read

Summary of the impact

Knowledge of the three-dimensional structures of macromolecules is a prerequisite for understanding their function at the atomic level, an essential component of modern drug development. Most structures are determined by X-ray crystallography: the majority using molecular replacement (MR, which exploits known structures of related proteins), and about half of the remainder using single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD). The Phaser crystallographic software, developed by Read and colleagues, implements powerful new likelihood-based methods for MR and SAD phasing and has made a large impact, accelerating over the period 2008-2013. At the pharma giant, AstraZeneca, Phaser is considered the "tool of choice" for solving structures by MR.

Submitting Institution

University of Cambridge

Unit of Assessment

Clinical Medicine

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Technology: Computer Hardware

Advanced Radiometer Instrumentation for Earth Observation

Summary of the impact

Research on Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) structures has led to major advances in the design and manufacture of the world's most advanced payload instrumentation for use in Earth observation satellites. This technology has provided the core element of the radiometer instrumentation needed for more accurate global weather forecasts and better understanding of climate change. The advances described have made it possible to combine all of the different functions of the MetOP-SG radiometer into one instrument, thereby halving the footprint of the satellite payload resulting in a [text removed for publication] cost saving.

Submitting Institution

Queen's University Belfast

Unit of Assessment

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Physical Sciences: Astronomical and Space Sciences, Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics
Technology: Communications Technologies

Advances in gene therapy lead to successful treatment of haemophilia

Summary of the impact

Haemophilia, an inherited bleeding disease, is treated by frequent and extremely expensive infusions of recombinant versions of the missing factors. Advances in gene therapy have now been achieved at UCL, with successful treatment of Haemophilia B in 10 severely affected patients. The novel factor IX expression cassette has been patented and licensed to an industrial partner (UniQure). Savings to the NHS in excess of £1.5m have already been made and increase every month. Pre-clinical advances have also been made in Haemophilia A, and the factor VIII expression cassette has been patented and licensed to an industrial partner (BioMarin).

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Clinical Medicine

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Biological Sciences: Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Technology: Medical Biotechnology
Medical and Health Sciences: Cardiorespiratory Medicine and Haematology

Advancing Clean Energy Research and Biosecurity through Novel Bragg Grating Technologies

Summary of the impact

Ultra-precise Bragg grating writing-technology, invented in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), has led to impacts in the areas of security, safety, detection of bio-hazards and the underpinning laser technology currently being pursued for clean energy generation for future energy security. This case study highlights two aspects of the technology namely: planar-based for optical microchip sensors in areas such as portable detection of biohazards, which has resulted in the spin-out Stratophase, and fibre-based, inside the US National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest laser system, based in California, built for fusion-energy research, which has ORC fabricated fibre Bragg gratings within its laser amplifier chains. These ultra-high precision laser-written engineered gratings have enabled important advances in biosecurity, management of environmental hazards and clean energy research.

Submitting Institution

University of Southampton

Unit of Assessment

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Physical Sciences: Other Physical Sciences
Engineering: Materials Engineering
Technology: Communications Technologies

Automated assays for rapid mass screening and detection of bacteria and toxins in food, lead to economic and health benefits

Summary of the impact

Professor William Stimson has led research into rapid diagnostic tests for the food industry from 1996 to the present day. These tests reduce the time for microbiological testing of food pathogens from 2-5 days to within a working day. The new technology is fully automated, uses less material and involves fewer manipulations than previously available kits, leading to a reduction in cost and time. A spin out company, Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., has attracted €1.36M EUROSTARS funding for further Research & Development, and has created 24 jobs. Sales of testing kits produced revenue of £3.4 million by year end 2012, and have increased since this date.

Submitting Institution

University of Strathclyde

Unit of Assessment

Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Technology: Medical Biotechnology
Medical and Health Sciences: Medical Microbiology

Cambridge Positioning Systems

Summary of the impact

An entirely new radio location technology developed at the University of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory underpinned developments within silicon and software company Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) of "Enhanced GPS" (eGPS) which has been incorporated into mobile phones, other mobile devices, and server technology. The server technology is now a central strategic element in CSR's "Location as a Service" business and by 2009 was powering 40 per cent of the available market worldwide.

Submitting Institution

University of Cambridge

Unit of Assessment

Physics

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Engineering: Geomatic Engineering
Technology: Communications Technologies

CamSemi

Summary of the impact

Research on high-voltage power devices by the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) was commercialised by its spin-off company, Cambridge Semiconductor Limited (CamSemi), which, in the REF period, has:

  • shipped more than 450 million power-management chips
  • secured private investment of over GBP35M
  • continued to employ 50-60 staff.

CamSemi chips are more efficient than traditional linear power supplies. The CamSemi chips that were produced before the end of the REF period are estimated to save of the order of 100GWh of electricity and 50,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year in total.

Submitting Institution

University of Cambridge

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Chemical Sciences: Organic Chemistry
Engineering: Materials Engineering
Technology: Communications Technologies

C10 - Forecasting Ocean Oil Spill movements, facilitating Oil Spill clean-ups

Summary of the impact

In the 1990s Dr D Moore, who has extensive experience in fluid dynamics, worked with collaborators at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) on parallelising an ocean modelling code. This resulted in the Navy Layered Ocean Model (NLOM) and later the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). NLOM and HYCOM, which were/are distributed through the NRL and HYCOM consortium, are open access ocean modelling codes that are used to forecast ocean currents. They have proved particularly impactful for the forecasting of ocean oil spills and the corresponding management of the environmental risk. NLOM and/or HYCOM have been used extensively in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 as well as the Montara Well Release oil spill in Australia in 2009, providing valuable forecasts to assist with the response to the disasters.

Submitting Institution

Imperial College London

Unit of Assessment

Mathematical Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Computation Theory and Mathematics
Technology: Computer Hardware

Commercial and environmental impacts arising from the creation of a spin-out company: Antenova Ltd.

Summary of the impact

Antenova Ltd, a spin out company created to exploit University of Sheffield research, is a leading developer and supplier of high performance antennas and radio frequency (RF) antenna modules for wireless communication and consumer electronic devices such as smartphones, laptop computers and tablets. Significant commercial impact has been generated: Antenova has 6% of the global mobile antenna market (2 Billion units) and is a leader in the global antenna design market with a 15% share, employing 40 staff worldwide and with an annual turnover of about $8 million. To gain commercial advantage Microsoft Corporation bought out Antenova in 2013.

Small high dielectric constant chip antennas resulting from the underpinning research allow multiple wireless services to be provided on small devices such as smart phones and as these antennas are very efficient, save energy, extend battery life and so bring environmental benefit.

Submitting Institution

University of Sheffield

Unit of Assessment

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Technology: Communications Technologies

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