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Innovative geochemical research led by Selby at Durham has permitted savings of up to $70M in global mineral and petroleum exploration programmes (e.g., Andes of S. America; West of Shetlands oilfields). Selby's research has developed a unique geochemical toolbox using rhenium, osmium, platinum and palladium that constrain more accurate geological models leading to better reserve predictions. The toolbox provides previously unavailable geological time constraints and source identification of resources (e.g., copper, gold, crude oil) that gives mineral and/or petroleum companies an enhanced economic advantage by improving reserve estimates and/or reducing exploration budgets and/or minimising the environmental impacts of exploration.
Vincent Gauci and The Open University (OU) Ecosystems Research Group have demonstrated human influences over exchanges of carbon within vulnerable, temperate and tropical wetland ecosystems, which are the largest source of the powerful greenhouse gas methane to the atmosphere. The group's work showing that acid rain pollution suppresses methane emissions from wetlands has influenced policy in the UK, particularly peatland restoration, where the group has had direct interaction with users. The group's work on carbon balance resulting from deforestation, drainage and fires in the carbon-rich Bornean peat swamp has also informed IPCC methodologies for carbon balance calculations in its 2013 Wetlands Supplement.
University of Leeds Research has been used by its specialist Turbidites Research Group (TRG) to underpin consultancy work for oil companies that has, in turn, steered them to make high-value decisions. Examples include an oil well placement, the development of an oil field, and a decision to only partially develop another. The TRG has been funded by 14 oil companies since 1992, and its annual income has risen from £125k/yr prior to 2008 to £380k/yr during the REF period. It is estimated that the cumulative value of oil company decisions based on TRG research exceeds several hundred million dollars. Following the impact, Leeds have replicated the TRG business model to form new specialist industrial research groups that have each generated further impact.
The longevity of volcano impact monitoring projects is a strong argument for the involvement of citizen scientists and volunteers. Professor Rymer and colleagues have run several long-term volcano projects in collaboration with the charity Earthwatch. Over 500 citizen scientists have collected geophysical and environmental data since 2000. The work has impacted on the lives of the volunteers, who are engaged and enthused by scientific research, park wardens in Nicaragua who continue to monitor long-term SO2 release, and authorities in Costa Rica, Iceland, Italy and Nicaragua who use the citizen science data to mitigate the environmental effects of persistent volcanism.
Research on the copper industry by Swansea historians has acted as a catalyst for the regeneration of the former Hafod-Morfa copperworks site in the Lower Swansea Valley. Until recently the abandoned site was associated only with industrial dereliction, but historical research on entrepreneurship, innovation and global trade has galvanised a new public appreciation of its international significance. Since 2010, an extensive programme of public engagement activities has persuaded key partners in local government to adopt an ambitious plan to preserve and present its cultural heritage. The project received national acclaim in Research Council UK's 2011 report on `Big Ideas for the Future', which noted that `The example set by the research in Swansea could be used across the UK' (C1).
The intensification of food production, fossil fuel combustion and water consumption has led to substantial increases in the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus flushed from land to water. The accumulation of these nutrients in freshwaters, estuaries and the coastal zone has led to reductions in biodiversity, the loss of ecosystem services, and compromised water security. The UK is a signatory to a raft of international conventions and policies which require reductions in the flux of nutrients from land to the water and restoration of ecosystem health and services. To meet these obligations, policymakers need information on the scale of the problem, the sources of nutrients and the effectiveness of intervention measures.
Research in the Unit has directly addressed this need. It has provided robust scientific evidence of the scale of the problem and the sources of nutrient enrichment, and has provided the capability to test intervention and policy scenarios at field to national scales. It has fed directly into the development of monitoring approaches and mitigation measures now in use by the Environment Agency (EA) and Defra, informed the development of UK Government policy in relation to catchment management, and supported compliance with the EU Water Framework Directive, the renegotiation of the Gothenburg Protocol under the International Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, and reporting on discharges of nutrient pollution to the North East Atlantic under the OSPAR Convention.
The results of commissioned research by Aberystwyth University (AU) have shaped decision-making that led to the relocation of refugee Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) communities in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo. In 2009/2010 AU research unequivocally identified the source of elevated lead (Pb) levels in soils that had been blamed for high infant and adult mortality rates in RAE refugee camps, and established that Roma Mahalla had sufficiently low soil Pb levels to permit the construction of a purpose-built housing development for the RAE communities. Following the relocation of the RAE families to Roma Mahalla in 2010/2011 there has been a significant reduction in blood Pb levels in children with no reported deaths attributable to Pb poisoning. This AU research project has had a demonstrable positive impact on life quality and human health of the resettled RAE communities living in Mitrovica.
UCL research findings about the source, transport and fate of arsenic in sediments exploited for water supply in the Bengal Basin have underpinned the development and implementation of policy by the Bangladesh government, international donors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and led to improvements in public health security across southern Bangladesh. By demonstrating that arsenic pollution in Bangladesh is not caused by irrigation pumping, the research countered popular demands and government intentions to curb irrigation, thereby supporting the country's continued food-grain self-sufficiency. Subsequent UCL explanations of the geochemical and hydraulic processes controlling groundwater arsenic have underpinned further revision of the government's strategies for monitoring groundwater and mitigating the crisis; the resultant reduction in arsenic exposure among approximately 10 million people has significantly enhanced public health security.
UCL's Deep-Water Research Group (DWRG) creates knowledge transfer between research and the hydrocarbon industry. Oil companies use the DWRG's research results to generate improved in-house computer-generated hydrocarbon reservoir models, allowing them to manage, develop and value their reservoirs better. The same companies also use the research to run training courses for employees, including reservoir engineers and managers, leading to improved understanding and more informed decision-making about the management of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Improved management and development of reservoirs ultimately leads to oil companies being able to extract a greater amount of oil.
Newcastle University research on biodegraded petroleum systems has had a number of broad reaching impacts on the oil industry (ExxonMobil, Statoil, Woodside, and Shell), related companies (Permedia) and regulators (Alberta Energy Regulator). A new approach to oil viscosity determination was developed, which directs well-placement in biodegraded oilfields to lower viscosity areas, resulting in improved production of heavy oil. Software tools developed to model oil composition have been incorporated into proprietary in-house, oil company reservoir simulations. A spin-out company was founded, Gushor Inc., which provides services to the heavy oil sector and was recently acquired by Schlumberger. Collectively the research from Newcastle University has saved oil companies hundreds of millions of pounds by avoiding poorly producing viscous zones in biodegraded reservoirs.