EPSRC Pioneer 14

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

EPSRC

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the second decade 2004-14

20th anniversary special part two

CONTENTS EPSRC: the second decade 2004-2014

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4-13 2004: Wonder material graphene is first isolated; new adventures in ultrasound begin; maths giant wins major award; metamaterials pioneer is knighted 14-22 2005: Green chemistry steps up a gear; new facial recognition software becomes a Crimewatch favourite; researchers begin mapping the underworld 24-27 2006: The Silent Aircraft Initiative heralds a greener era in air travel; bacteria munch metal, get recycled, emit hydrogen 28-35 2007: A pioneering approach to prepare against earthquakes and tsunamis; beetles inspire high technologies; spin out company sells for US$500 million 36-41 2008: Four scientists tackle synthetic cells; the 1,000 mph supercar; strategic healthcare partnerships; supercomputer facility is launched

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42-49 2009: Massive investments in doctoral training; the 175 mph racing car you can eat; rescuing heritage buildings; the battery-free soldier 50-55 2010: Unlocking the mysteries of antimatter; spin out sells for US$330 million; harnessing the power of pee 56-61 2011: Spin out company sells for £7.1 billion; Professor Colin Humphreys on the GaN LED revolution; the world’s first synthetic organ transplant 62-69 2012: Meet the MASER – no longer the laser’s less attractive cousin; the laundry additive that purifies the air as we walk; £60 million to encourage innovation

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70-73 2013: Massive investments in manufacturing, engineering and energy; drones to monitor radiation levels 74-79 2014: Slide rules: how two doctoral students helped Lizzy Yarnold slide to victory; 20 years of the Southampton Optoelectronics Centre 80-83 Digging thinking: 10th anniversary of EPSRC’s pioneering Sandpit workshops 84-89 EPSRC Science Photo Competition 2013-14: Gallery of winning images

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90 V-signs: At last, the mystery of why birds fly in V-formation is resolved 91 EPSRC: At a glance

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Creative partnerships Chief Executive Professor Philip Nelson reflects on EPSRC’s second decade, and reveals an era defined by collaborative research and creative thinking. Looking back over 20 years since EPSRC’s formation in 1994, some interesting patterns emerge. The first decade is characterised by extraordinary research breakthroughs across the EPSRC portfolio, from pioneering biomedical engineering and advanced materials, to charting new territory in computer science and developing a host of renewable energy technologies. The second decade harnesses the energy and matches the research excellence of the first 10 years, and complements it with a refined sense of purpose – built on maximising the value of EPSRC investments, and accelerating the impact of the research it supports. We see dedicated centres of excellence for the training of doctoral students; the evolution of specialised centres for manufacturing and innovation; longer, larger, multi-partner research grants – all focused on pooling resources and providing the tools and skills society and industry need for all our tomorrows. This collaborative approach is echoed in EPSRC’s development of partnerships with universities, business, charities, funding agencies and government organisations. Across our portfolio we work with around 2,800 partner organisations, and, at the last count, 45 per cent of EPSRC-supported research projects were collaborative with

PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

research partners. This is demonstrated by the fact that over 20 years, and particularly the last decade, our research partners have contributed over £1.7 billion in funding. We also have dedicated staff with a comprehensive understanding of R&D issues and opportunities. People who know how to join the dots between universitybased researchers, business and other organisations, both to enhance and deepen the body of research itself, but also to apply the fruits of research for societal and economic benefit. By getting involved in the development of research proposals, and through engagement in research projects and postgraduate training, our partners, particularly from industry, are forging crucial links with excellent, original academic research and helping accelerate its translation for national and global good. It’s not just about the bottom line. Take the smartphone, now ubiquitous across the globe. It’s fair to say that this modern marvel would not exist as we know it had it not been for the EPSRC-supported researchers who helped to develop much of the technology that makes it such a critical part of everyday life. Today, a new generation of EPSRCsupported researchers are pioneering ways for smartphones to be used for social good – from personal health monitoring to tracking disease outbreaks. EPSRC is at the centre of this cycle of innovation. Much of this, of course, is a consequence of globalisation, and the fact that so much of our daily lives is interconnected, but it’s also

a recognition that a meeting of hearts and minds really can be greater than the sum of its parts. No better example of this can be found than EPSRC’s Sandpit programme (see pages 80-83), which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Built around five-day workshops dedicated to blue-sky thinking, Sandpits often stretch beyond the outer reaches of science, and have led to remarkable research projects tackling current and future challenges – such as clean water for all, combatting terrorism and cyber crime, and developing new forms of sustainable energy. Such has been its success, the Sandpit model has been adopted by other organisations both in the UK and internationally. My tenure as Chief Executive of EPSRC began in 2014, in the final year of its second decade. Before that, I sat on the other side of the fence, as a scientist and engineer at the University of Southampton. But these boundaries are not as they were. There is greater collaboration not just between academia and business, but also between researchers, universities, research councils and other funders of research – and, I believe, a greater willingness from all parties to join in the process of discovery and innovation. Creative research from which we all benefit. This edition of Pioneer features snapshots and highlights from the last 10 years, and is by no means definitive. It does, however, reflect a period of extraordinary achievement which would not have been possible without collective cooperation and commitment.

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2004 Size zero In 2004, EPSRC-funded research by Professor Andre Geim and Dr Konstantin Novoselov, from The University of Manchester, led to the isolation of graphene, a material with many potentially world-changing applications. Just six years later, Andre Geim (pictured below) and Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their graphene research. EPSRC has supported their research through continuous funding since 2001. On the same day they received the award, both men were back in their lab, continuing to unveil new and exciting properties of graphene and other related twodimensional crystal materials.

If you’ve ever drawn with a pencil, you’ve probably made graphene, which consists of a sheet of carbon atoms connected in a honeycomb-like structure. At just one atom thick, no material is thinner than graphene. It’s also harder than diamond and 200 times tougher than steel – yet can be stretched by a quarter of its length. Graphene also has extraordinary properties as an electrical and thermal conductor, and almost complete optical transparency, making it potentially suitable for a host of commercial applications – from lightweight materials for aircraft, cars and clothing, to flexible, super-tough touchscreens for mobile phones and tablets (already under

development); and from water purification to next-generation low energy computers. Geim recalls the momentous days back in 2004 when he and his team, including Dr Novoselov, then a postdoctoral researcher, successfully extracted individual sheets of carbon atoms from bulk graphite – the material pencils are made from. True to the two scientists’ reputation for innovative thinking, they used sticky tape to strip the graphite down to the atomic level. Although scientists knew graphene existed (it was first studied in 1947, and named in 1987), no one had worked out how to extract it from graphite.

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Double act: Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. Their isolation of graphene and subsequent graphenerelated research led to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 and Knighthoods in 2011.


April 2: St Mary Axe, otherwise known as the Gherkin, is officially opened in the City of London

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February 4: Facebook is launched

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2004 (Continued from page 4) The breakthrough came during one of Geim and Novoselov’s now legendary Friday evening sessions, when they head into the lab to try out experimental science not necessarily linked to their day jobs. This playful approach is fundamental to how both men work, and is seen as both a useful way of maintaining interest in a field and a means of generating new ideas. Following discussions with colleagues, Geim and Novoselov adopted a method that researchers in surface science were using – using simple scotch tape to peel away layers of graphite to expose a clean surface for study under the microscope. Once used, the tape was simply being thrown away. Yet no one had noticed the material on the tape was thinner than the material produced by polishing. They had made graphene, yet had not realised it. Konstantin Novoselov continued to explore how thin the graphite flakes on the tape could be made. He peeled the layers so thinly that what was left was one-atom thick graphene. The pair then began testing the material under the microscope, beginning to take in the vast potential of its properties. They produced the first isolated graphene flakes in 2003 and published their findings in the journal Science in 2004. Professor Geim says: “Our objective was simply to see how thin materials could be. At the time, it was presumed materials one atom thick couldn’t exist. But our discovery of graphene proved this supposition wasn’t correct.”

News of graphene’s discovery sparked a global explosion in graphene research, which shows no sign of abating. The global market for graphene-based applications could potentially grow to tens of billions of pounds over the long term, in areas such as electronics, high-performance materials and life sciences. In 2009, the website ScienceWatch.com revealed Dr Novoselov’s work on graphene as the most cited of the decade, with 33 academic papers quoted 2,895 times. Geim and Novoselov, who received knighthoods in 2011, continue to push the boundaries of graphene, and its diverse potential applications. In November 2014, they revealed in the journal Nature that monolayers of graphene, and its sister material boron nitride, could potentially revolutionise modern fuel cell technology. They also revealed that graphene membranes could be used to sieve hydrogen gas out of the atmosphere, where it is present in minute quantities, creating the possibility of electric generators powered by air. In 2014, Geim and Novoselov’s original Manchester graphene paper, which laid out the foundations of graphene research, was named among the top 100 cited publications of all time. All this from two scientists “whose playfulness is one of their trademarks”, according to the Nobel committee. Professor Novoselov says: “During our Friday evening experiments I just do all kinds of crazy things that probably won’t pan out, but if they do…”

At the time, it was presumed materials one atom thick couldn’t exist. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Graphene facts •

Graphene is over 200 times tougher than steel

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Graphene is a far better conductor than silicon

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Electrons pass through graphene at over 100 million metres per second, behaving as if they have no mass

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Graphene is the thinnest material on earth – one million times thinner than a human hair

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Graphene is the world’s first 2D material, opening the doors to new, experimental fields

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As well as being virtually transparent, graphene is also flexible

Potential applications for graphene •

Next generation, low-energy computers

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Graphene paints, to protect metal structures against corrosion

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Super-fast internet speeds

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As lightweight materials for aircraft, cars and clothing

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Flexible touchscreens (already under development)

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High-frequency electronic devices

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Large scale electricity storage

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Lightweight durable batteries

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Development of other 2D materials with the potential to create previously-unimagined electronic devices

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Water filters for desalination and purification

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Nanoscale graphene-based drug packages delivered to specific cells in the body

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Packaging to keep food fresh for longer

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Sensors to detect minute traces of gases or dangerous chemicals

March 29: The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants

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Going large – EPSRC’s contributions to UK graphene R&D EPSRC has invested widely in graphene research and development since 2004. In 2012, EPSRC advised the UK Government on its £50 million investment in the creation of a global research and technology hub. Building on the UK’s research strengths in many universities and business, the hub concept was developed by EPSRC, the Technology Strategy Board and academic and business stakeholders. It has also been supplemented by additional investments from EPSRC and Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board). Key government investments in graphene: •

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£38 million in the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester to develop new production methods and techniques for largescale manufacture, application and commercialisation of graphene £12 million for graphene research equipment in other leading research groups across the UK

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£14 million for EPSRC-supported research into manufacturing processes and technologies linked to graphene

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Over £10 million of EPSRC support towards fundamental science in graphene and carbon nanotechnology

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£2.5 million jointly from EPSRC and Innovate UK to accelerate the commercial application of emerging graphene and related carbon-based nanotechnologies

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£15 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) alongside £5 million support from Innovate UK to establish the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre in Manchester

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£14 million of Innovate UK funding for the Graphene Applications Innovation


Centre, based at the Centre for Process Innovation, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, in Sedgefield There are now over 35 active university groups in the UK, which have attracted over £90 million in graphene-related EPSRC research grants and capital investment, as well as significant investment from Europe and industry. Alongside The University of Manchester, there are EPSRC-supported centres of excellence and/or graphene programmes at the universities of Cambridge; Lancaster; Imperial College London; Oxford; Bath; Birmingham; Nottingham; Exeter; Surrey; and Durham. 2014 saw the launch of two EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training, based at the universities of Cambridge and Manchester, focusing on developing world-leading expertise in the science and technology of graphene. Graphene engineering Since 2012, EPSRC has invested £26 million in graphene engineering, which includes £12 million from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.

led by Professor Andrea Ferrari. The centre has attracted £13 million in additional support from over 20 partners, including Nokia, Dyson, Plastic Logic, Philips and BAE Systems. The centre works alongside the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics and the new EPSRC Graphene NOWNANO Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology at The University of Manchester. In 2013, the Cambridge Graphene Centre signed a research collaboration agreement with leading flexible plastic electronics manufacturer Plastic Logic. A major element of this agreement is to develop graphene as a transparent, conductive layer for plastic backplanes for unbreakable LCD and flexible OLED displays. EPSRC has invested £1.6 million in graphene engineering at Durham University and the University of Sheffield. Industrial partners include Dyson Appliances Ltd, P&G UK and Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) – a world leader in graphene production and applications, founded by EPSRC grant-holder Professor Karl Coleman at Durham University.

The University of Cambridge has combined three of its Graphene Engineering EPSRC grant awards, totalling £12 million, to establish the Cambridge Graphene Centre,

September 1: Chechen terrorists take between 1,000 and 1,500 people hostage, mostly children, in a school in the Beslan school hostage crisis

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June 8: Transit of Venus between Earth and the Sun occurs

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No limit In 2004, John Pendry, Professor of Theoretical Solid State Physics at Imperial College London, was knighted for his revolutionary work on metamaterials. With EPSRC’s support, Sir John has established an entirely new field of science. By developing and using certain materials that don’t occur in nature, he has shown that light can interact with structures that are smaller than its wavelength, making it possible to see even at the nano scale, and then harness the benefits that this insight brings. The impetus for Sir John’s research came from work he was doing with the company Marconi, attempting to understand why certain materials absorbed radar. But the new area of research that this led to has a huge range of potential applications in many different fields. Professor Pendry’s research built on EPSRC-supported work throughout the 1990s, including a 1997 Senior Research Fellowship to further his work on ‘a new class of man-made materials with extraordinary optical properties’. He said later: “Having great ideas doesn’t involve excessive time. What does take time is working them through. That’s what EPSRC funding allowed me to do. It put a rocket under the metamaterials work.” In 2000, Sir John published a number of papers developing ideas put forward in 1968 by the little-known physicist Victor

Veselago. The papers set out the theoretical basis for creating ‘perfect lenses’, which could be used to see things smaller than the wavelength of light. Pendry’s perfect lens utilises what is known as negative refraction, and sidesteps old optical limits by bending rays of light the ‘wrong way’. In other words, the so-called ‘resolution limits’ that were thought to restrict the range of things that we can examine through optical imaging need not apply. In 2002, a second EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship enabled Sir John to leave his post as Principal of Imperial’s Faculty of Physical Sciences to pitch himself into fulltime research. In 2006, metamaterials hit the headlines when Sir John published ideas for a Harry Potter-style ‘invisibility cloak’. Metamaterials could be used, he said, to send light around an object, making it look like it wasn’t there. Journalists have fixated on the story ever since. In 2014, metamaterials are finding application across the electromagnetic and acoustic domains and are seen as an enabling technology of the future. Negative refraction could allow limitless computer data storage, and revolutionise biological imaging, nanofabrication and light harvesting. In theory, it could also lead to perfectly efficient solar panels. Research into this emerging field has grown very rapidly. To date, EPSRC has invested over £130 million in over 90 projects related to metamaterials and

photonic materials research. At the University of Southampton, Professor Nikolay Zheludev has a major EPSRC grant to develop artificial electromagnetic media with myriad potential applications in areas such as telecommunications, energy, data storage and defence. Research into nanoscale-structured metamaterials by Professor Jeremy Baumberg, from the University of Cambridge, has revealed a host of novel and highly exploitable optical properties, for which he received the Royal Society Mullard Prize. Research at the University of Exeter, which hosts the new EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Metamaterials, has led to breakthroughs in the design of thin radar absorbers and improved RF-ID tag detection; the team are also developing acoustic metamaterials to improve underwater imaging. In 2014, Sir John Pendry was awarded the Kavli Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in nanoscience, with Thomas Ebbesen and Stefan Hell, in recognition of his ‘transformative contributions’ to nano-optics. Sir John says: “Things have come full circle: my work on metamaterials began with attempts with Marconi to solve a practical problem. It then went theoretical, as we tried to explore the profound academic implications of what we were finding. And now here we are again, with all kinds of practical applications coming from our research.”

Left: This striking abstract ‘sculpture’ is part of a nanoscale metamaterial with negative index due to chirality, from the EPSRC-supported Optoelectronics Centre at the University of Southampton.


November2: In the US presidential election, incumbent President George W. Bush is declared the winner over his challenger, Senator John F. Kerry

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2004 New adventures in ultrasound In 2004, Dr Sandy Cochran (top left), from Paisley University, was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship to explore new types of ultrasound source that might one day echo across our oceans or resonate in our bodies. A series of EPSRC grants followed, including a £5 million Platform Grant to develop ‘SonoPill’ technology. The SonoPill is a capsule that patients can easily swallow to carry tiny ultrasound technology into the body. The gut is a wonderful viewing window and as the capsule passes through it, it will relay images which clinicians can use to diagnose disease.


Now at the University of Dundee, Professor Cochran says: “So-called capsule endoscopes have already benefited well over a million patients and are in common use in the UK and around the world. We aim to develop that technology further to include ultrasound, for the first time seeing beyond the surface of the gastrointestinal tract into the tissue itself. “This will bring significant diagnostic benefits for patients. We also want to explore the very exciting possibilities of treatment with such pills.” The SonoPill programme includes very valuable collaborators at Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow, and is linked with the NHS and many local and international industry partners.

In its use of tiny, high performance ultrasound arrays and its exploration of therapeutic ultrasound, the SonoPill research forms a natural extension to the UK-wide EPSRC-supported ‘Sonotweezers’ programme, involving the universities of Bristol, Dundee, Glasgow and Southampton as well as other industry partners. Following EPSRC funding, the Sonotweezers programme is developing new tools for the life sciences and high value manufacturing using ultrasound to manipulate microparticles by electronic alteration of the patterns of ultrasonic excitation. The team have already demonstrated that a ‘sonic lasso’ can be used to grip

July 17: Former South African President Nelson Mandela calls for commitment by the world to take action against Aids

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microscopic objects, such as cells, and move them about; this has myriad possible applications, from assembly of nanocomposites to cell sorting and analysis, and engineering of human tissue from collection of cells. In 2014, the Southampton Sonotweezers team helped to develop technology that could lead to life-changing medical advances, such as better cartilage implants that reduce the need for knee replacement operations. Using ultrasonic sound fields, the team showed that cartilage cells taken from a patient’s knee can be levitated for weeks in a nutrient-rich fluid, providing a zerogravity environment perfect for optimising cell growth. The tweezers can also mould the growing tissue into exactly the right shape so that the implant is truly fit-for-purpose when inserted into the patient’s knee.

Meanwhile, at the University of Glasgow… In 2004, a team of EPSRC-supported researchers led by Professor Margaret Lucas (pictured below left) began development of an integrated robotic orthopaedic surgery system incorporating an ultrasonic cutting blade that could consign the surgical saw to a museum. Using conventional powered saws on bone causes many problems for patients and surgeons. For example, the action of the saw produces swarf – small pieces of bone – that can reduce visibility at the cut site, create a risk of contamination, and damage delicate soft tissue structures around the cut. Also, heating from the sawing action causes cell death, which is known to prolong post-surgery healing. The team’s research led to the development of ultrasonic cutting tools precise enough to remove sections from the shell of an egg without breaking the membrane underneath. Further EPSRC-funded projects allowed the group at the University of Glasgow to develop miniature ultrasonic orthopaedic devices incorporating novel transducers and smart materials.

In 2013, Professor Lucas, Professor Cochran and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh were awarded a threeyear EPSRC research grant to develop a needle which is actuated by vibration at ultrasonic frequencies. Amongst its many potential benefits, this will allow doctors to penetrate bone with needles with much less force than in contemporary procedures and with much higher precision, improving the effectiveness of bone biopsies and allowing more direct delivery of drugs to parts of the body obscured by bone. In 2014, Professor Lucas and Dr Patrick Harkness were awarded €2.4 million by the EU Commission to develop an ultrasonic drill to explore the surface of Mars. The research builds on much of the basic knowledge gained from designing bone cutting devices and also builds on an earlier EPSRC-funded research programme led by Dr Harkness, who says: “Unlike normal rotary drills, our ultrasonic drill tool doesn’t produce much heat – meaning that biological material and life markers will not be damaged. “Because the drill only requires a very small downward force, it is ideal for use in low gravity environments such as Mars or on asteroids.”


August 22: Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch’s The Scream, Madonna, and other paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway

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2004 Knitting it In 2004, the crocheted artwork above, developed by two EPSRC-funded University of Bristol mathematicians, aroused international media interest.

Sound as a mound In 2004, an EPSRC-supported Loughborough University research team took part in an innovative project to investigate whether African termite mounds could inspire new types of self-sufficient, environmentally friendly buildings which are also cheap to run. The project included research in Namibia to digitally scan the structure of the termite mounds, which the team turned into a precise 3D reconstruction of

Big ideas

the mound in a level of detail never achieved before. The team discovered that termite mounds provide a self-regulating living environment that responds to changing internal and external conditions. The human equivalent of these ‘smart’ mounds would be buildings that meet all energy, waste management, heating, ventilation and other needs on site. The research was filmed by the BBC for inclusion in a Sir David Attenborough natural history series screened in 2006. In 2004, EPSRC held its first ‘Sandpit’ event (see pages 80-83), setting the template for similar blue-sky thinking initiatives subsequently adopted by funding agencies around the world. One of the inaugural Sandpits, Mapping the Underworld (see pages 16-17), brought together academia and industry to look at innovative ways to best detect and manage the UK’s buried infrastructure such as water pipes, sewers and telephone lines. Research proposals arising from the Mapping the Underworld Sandpit spawned a major research project, now in its third phase of EPSRC funding.


The crochet was a striking object created by Dr Hinke Osinga and Professor Bernd Krauskopf to describe the nature of chaotic systems – such as the weather or a turbulent river – defined by what are known as Lorenz Equations. After months of staring at computer animations of these surfaces they realised their computations had naturally generated crochet instructions. Dr Osinga, who learnt to crochet at age seven, took up the challenge, and 25,511 stitches and 85 hours later the Lorenz Manifold, the name they called their creation, was born. Dr Osinga says: “The computer-generated crochet instructions were remarkable. Simply by looking at the real-life surface I would never have designed it the way the computer did. After all those months of trying to create it on screen, it was fascinating to see the surface grow under my own hands.” But this wasn’t done just for fun. Osinga and Krauskopf’s work gave much-needed insight into how chaos arises and is organised in systems as diverse as chemical reactions, biological networks and even your kitchen mixer. The Lorenz Manifold is a very helpful tool for understanding and explaining the dynamics of the Lorenz system.

July 9: SanDisk releases the first SD (Secure Digital) card with a capacity of 1 gigabyte, costing about $500

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Maths maestro In 2004, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awarded the Abel Prize, equivalent to a Nobel Prize for Mathematics, jointly to Sir Michael Atiyah FRS, from the University of Edinburgh, and Isadore M. Singer, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Atiyah (pictured) and Singer received the prize for the Atiyah-Singer index theorem – one of the great landmarks of twentieth century mathematics, influencing profoundly many of the most important later developments in topology, differential geometry and quantum field theory. Professor Atiyah’s Abel Prize Medal citation recognised his ‘outstanding contribution to the advancement of mathematics, as exemplified by his visionary role in the establishment of the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. The institute, which is part funded by EPSRC, is now an internationally recognised centre of mathematics research thanks to Sir Michael’s direction and guidance in its early years.’ In 1990, Professor Atiyah, a Fields Medal recipient in 1966 (see page 79), became the first director of the Isaac Newton Institute, which was set up to meet the need for a UK national institute in mathematics and theoretical physics. EPSRC continues to support the institute. Interdisciplinary research is a key criterion in the selection of the Isaac Newton Institute’s scientific programmes. To date it has brought together 24 Fields Medallists, eight Nobel Prize winners, 16 winners of the Wolf Prize and nine winners of the Abel Prize. In 2013, Professor Atiyah, 85, began a new EPSRC-supported research project, with Professor Bernd Schroers, into Dynamics in Geometric Models of Matter. This ambitious and adventurous research draws on many different areas in mathematics and physics; and could pave the way for a radically new mathematical language for elementary particle, nuclear and atomic physics. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Home help In 2004, Roger Orpwood, from the University of Bath, became Director of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering (BIME), an independent charity developing assistive technology for disabled people. Among EPSRC-funded projects carried out by the institute, Professor Orpwood led an initiative to develop and demonstrate dementia support technologies in a specially designed smart house in Gloucester. Under Roger Orpwood’s stewardship, over 100,000 of BIME’s innovative products have been sold, including the Wizzybug powered wheelchair for children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, spina bifida and muscular dystrophy. The technology includes smart monitors to help dementia sufferers deal with day-today situations. For example, a smart tap (pictured) issues a verbal reminder in a familiar voice to a user who has left a bath running, and turns off the flow of water if the bath gets too full. In 2012, a two-year EPSRC-funded project in collaboration with BIME developed the inTouch computer interface for people with dementia to ‘virtually visit’ relatives and family, reducing social isolation.

Paperless proposals In 2004, EPSRC announced that paper research grant proposals were to be phased out by March 2005, as part of a move to further integrate administration systems between research councils. When paperless proposals came into effect, the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system allowed four councils, including EPSRC, to provide their communities with electronic research grant services so that grant proposals can be completed and submitted on line. This paved the way for universal electronic submissions across all seven research councils.

Good vibrations In 2004, Perpetuum, a spin out company from the University of Southampton, was launched to commercialise a new kind of vibration-based energy harvesting technology developed by Professor Neil White and his team. The company’s technology uses kinetic energy resulting from vibration to power wireless sensors via microgenerators, and was swiftly adopted by industry. Perpetuum has since become a global leader in vibration energy harvesting. Applications for its technology range from industrial plant monitoring and transportation to healthcare and aerospace. In 2013, Perpetuum won the contract to equip all 148 of Southeastern Railway’s Electrostar train stock, which includes 618 cars and carriages, with sensor systems to monitor the wear of bearings and wheels to help maintenance engineers determine when maintenance is needed.

December 26: A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami, causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Maldives

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February 22: At least six men stage Britain’s biggest robbery ever, stealing £53 million from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent

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Green light for chemistry In 2005, one of the early protagonists of green chemistry, Professor Martyn Poliakoff (pictured), set up the Driving Innovation in Chemistry and Engineering (DICE) project at The University of Nottingham, with funding from the first wave of EPSRC’s £120 million Science and Innovation Awards scheme. The project, which followed a host of EPSRC research grants, including a Clean Technology Fellowship awarded to Professor Poliakoff in 1994, was one of the first to bring chemists and chemical engineers together, and helped reinforce The University of Nottingham’s reputation as a global leader in green chemistry – which promotes the design of products and processes that minimise the use and generation of hazardous substances. Working with long-standing industrial partner, Thomas Swan & Co Ltd, Professor Poliakoff had already developed a radical new type of chemical reactor, able to do the work of a 1,000-litre reactor in just four litres – and thus requiring much smaller amounts of chemicals to produce the same end product. The reactor exploits the unusual properties of supercritical fluids (SCFs) which flow like gases but behave more like liquids – making them ‘clean’ solvents suitable for many types of reaction. In 2007, Professor Poliakoff and DICE member Professor Mike George, working with pharmaceutical multinationals AstraZeneca and Sanofi, and Thomas Swan, used their expertise in supercritical fluids to develop a greener approach in the production of a highly reactive form


of oxygen, known as singlet oxygen, which has applications in areas such as photosensitised oxidations, and synthesis of reactive compounds. The team showed how green chemistry methods could yield significant reductions in waste during the production process. The success of this EPSRC-funded project sparked the interest of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, since the use of singlet oxygen may have a critical role to play in the safer and more effective manufacture of anti-malarial drugs – combatting malaria is central to the foundation’s mission. “Progress has been very good and the results will be published soon,” Professor Poliakoff says. In 2008, a hugely productive EPSRCsupported collaboration between Professor Poliakoff, who had just been awarded the CBE, and video journalist, Brady Haran, resulted in a series of short films on each of the 118 elements in the Periodic Table. It took just five weeks. “It was completely bonkers,” Professor Poliakoff says. “When we had made the films, we thought we had finished, but that was just the start of it.” By 2010, The Periodic Table of Videos had received nearly 20 million YouTube views in over 200 countries. The key to their popularity is their accessibility, and quirky but knowledgeable approach to their subjects. Professor Poliakoff says: “One morning, I discovered that overnight I had lectured to more people than I had reached in my entire career.” By 2011, the Nottingham team’s web site boasted 320 videos, with content covering molecules as well as elements

November 30: Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant

and featuring a growing multidisciplinary team of Nottingham colleagues. Today, the site has 537 videos and over 510,000 subscribers with many followers on social media. In 2011, Professor Poliakoff was elected Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, adding to his 2002 Royal Society Fellowship. The role sees him travelling the world as an ambassador for chemistry and UK science. In 2012, Professor Poliakoff was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Nyholm Prize for Education, largely for his work on The Periodic Table of Videos. In April 2014, Professors Poliakoff and George joined chemical engineer Steve Pickering and 11 industrial partners in an EPSRC-funded project to investigate the role that light could play in the manufacture of chemicals. Poliakoff describes the project as a direct legacy of DICE. Another Poliakoff legacy – though he would never claim it as his – is the building of the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry at Nottingham, which had been due for completion in 2015. Sadly, the building was devastated by a fire in September 2014 but already the university has pledged the facility will be rebuilt. The new laboratory will provide facilities for three new Chairs in Sustainable Chemistry, funded by GSK, EPSRC and The University of Nottingham. GSK has a long-standing strategic relationship with both EPSRC and the university, and the new professors will expand the interdisciplinary approach to green chemistry that Professor Poliakoff started more than 30 years ago.

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2005 Mapping the Underworld


May 5: The United Kingdom general election takes place, in which the Labour Party is re-elected for a third consecutive term

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In 2005, EPSRC invested in a major multidisciplinary, multi-university project to prove the concept of technologies that could explore the underworld of buried pipes, cables and utilities beneath our feet. In the UK it is estimated that up to four million holes are cut into the UK road network each year to install or repair buried infrastructure. Failure to identify accurately the location of existing buried assets results in numerous practical problems, costs and dangers for utility owners, contractors and road users. The Mapping the Underworld (MTU) project, which arose from a seminal EPSRC Sandpit exercise (see pages 80-83), focused on developing the means to locate, map in 3D and record the position of all buried utility assets without excavation. This would be achieved through the development of a single shared multi-sensor platform. To meet the challenge, the team developed vibro-acoustics, low frequency electromagnetic fields, passive magnetic fields and ground penetrating radar technologies, combined with intelligent use of existing utility company records and ground databases. The project, led by Professor Chris Rogers, from the University of Birmingham, aimed to integrate the sensor and record information in a single, integrated, searchable database. The research led to the establishment of an industry-sponsored, co-created MTU Centre of Excellence, which opened up for the first time the possibility of a national certification scheme – something the industry had wished to see for some time. In 2010, the Mapping the Underworld project spawned a major archaeology


project to help scientists discover unknown historical treasures hidden beneath the UK landscape. The three-year £815,000 initiative was co-funded by EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under the Science and Heritage programme (see page 46). In 2011, Oxems, a company created to commercialise research arising from the MTU project, developed a unique low cost, low maintenance ‘asset tag’, which can be attached to exposed assets such as water pipes, sewers and cabling and detected when reburied by an ‘intelligent’ sensor device on the surface without the need for excavation. Oxems believes the technology could reduce the costs to utilities of streetworks by at least 40 per cent, and prompted John Divit, Leakage Best Practice Adviser at Severn Trent Water, to comment: “The Oxems product could have an impact as significant as barcodes.” In 2012, EPSRC invested £6.3 million in a multidisciplinary, multi-university research project led by Professor Chris Rogers focused on transforming the engineering of cities to deliver a low-carbon, resourcesecure sustainable future. The wide-ranging project draws on the social sciences and takes into account factors such as quality of life, social aspirations and engineering policy. Co-investigators on this project include University College London’s Professor Hélène Joffe (see pages 28-29) and Professor Nick Tyler, also from UCL. In 2013, EPSRC invested £5.8 million in the next phase of the Mapping the Underworld

May 24: North Korea bans mobile phones

initiative, Assessing the Underworld (ATU), which broadens the skill base of the MTU team by introducing leaders in climate change, engineering sustainability, robotics and pipeline systems. A main aim of the four-year project is to prove the concept of a single integrated assessment and modelling framework. The programme has more than 50 project partners and has attracted over £16 million of in-kind support. The programme’s intention is to realise a 25-year vision for sustainable streetworks. Also in 2013, Dr Nicole Metje, from the University of Birmingham, who coleads Assessing the Underworld, was awarded £241,000 by EPSRC as part of an Innovate UK-funded project to develop an inexpensive sensor-based pipeline leak detection system, which can be fitted to new water pipelines or retrofitted opportunistically during repairs or using keyhole excavation technology. The project, which is a collaboration with water companies and other industry stakeholders, aims to develop a commercial system that harnesses the technology. Chris Rogers says: “This sequence of funding has underpinned radical thinking on how cities should be supported in the far future and how existing infrastructure systems, some of which date back to the 1800s, can be integrated into the brave new world of smart and smarter cities.” In 2014, EPSRC invested in a Quantum Technology (QT) Hub (see page 79) at the University of Birmingham. Dr Nicole Metje, a co-investigator at the hub, will explore the use of QT sensors for pipeline detection, working alongside the MTU sensors.

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2005 Printer’s progress In 2005, Dr Adrian Bowyer, an engineering researcher working with the University of Bath’s EPSRC-funded Innovative Design and Manufacturing Research Centre, made a modest application to the centre for £20,000 to build a 3D printer based on reproductive biological principles which, with man’s help, would be capable of replicating itself.


“The sum I asked for was about half the cost of the cheapest 3D printing machine available on the market at the time,” says the recently retired University of Bath engineer. Not only would he try to run the whole project on this modest budget, he set himself “the challenge of turning a machine that costs £40,000 to buy into something that costs £400.”

best student project in the country, based on his work with Bowyer on the RepRap project. Ed Sells was to prove key to the development of the technology, and is now a senior research figure in one of the world’s leading 3D printing companies, 3D Systems.

The result was RepRap, a remarkable DIY 3D printer that achieved all the project’s stated goals.

For Dr Bowyer, the key to success was making the project open source – a free licence to the product’s design or blueprint, enabling subsequent improvements to it by anyone, anywhere.

To achieve this, Dr Bowyer had a secret weapon in the form of engineering doctoral student Ed Sells, who in 2005 came within an ace of winning the national Science, Engineering and Technology award for the

By 2007, Bowyer and Sells had established a global ‘virtual’ team of over 30 volunteer collaborators, from software developers to designers and mechanical engineers. Adrian Bowyer says: “The group were

November 30: John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York

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unimaginably helpful, and gave us a lot of bang for our buck.” By May 2008, within a few minutes of being assembled, the first ‘child’ RepRap machine had built the first component for a ‘grandchild’. Dr Bowyer estimates that by September 2008 over 100 copies had been produced around the world. In 2009, three RepRap volunteers from New York, Zach Smith, Bre Pettis and Adam Mayer, used the knowledge from the project to set up their own company, MakerBot. “They didn’t have a bean between them,” says Dr Bowyer who, “being horribly old”, did have a few beans to rub together and helped them with $25,000 dollars to form the start-up – and so, MakerBot was born. Within four years, the company had captured 20 per cent of the multi-million dollar US market in home-use 3D printers. In August 2010, Dr Ed Sells left Bowyer to join UK start-up Bits from Bytes, which, using modified RepRap technology, had gone from launch in January to a £2 million business by the end of the financial year. In 2011, open source hardware company, Aleph Objects, based in Colorado, established LulzBot to make 3D printers, parts and materials which, Aleph says, are “all developed as part of the RepRap project”. The company now has 540 employees, and exports worldwide.

In the same year, MakerBot raised a further $10 million from the likes of Facebook’s Sam Lessin and Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos. In October 2011, rising bioengineering star, Jordan Miller, of the University of Pennsylvania, and a core member of the RepRap project, used a RepRap Mendel and a Makerbot 3D printer to make blood vessels from sugar. His method later appeared in a special edition of Scientific American on the future of medicine. By 2012, MakerBot had generated annual income in excess of US$11 million and was selling more than 20,000 printers a year – including the MakerBot Replicator 2 – inspired by RepRap. In June 2013, one of the world’s largest 3D printing companies, Stratasys, made an offer MakerBot could not refuse. The company Adrian Bowyer helped create for $25,000 four years earlier was sold for the sum of $403 million, with an additional $200 million in potential performancebased bonuses. Dr Bowyer says he knew from the outset that RepRap had the potential to grow exponentially; but even he could not have predicted how an idea that began with a £20,000 EPSRC grant could have developed so fast, in so many countries, and evolved in so many diverse ways – with no sign of slowing down.

The additive manufacturing revolution Designed to ‘laser print’ products layer by layer, with virtually zero waste, additive manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as 3D printing, has the potential to revolutionise the way we make things. But there are still significant hurdles to overcome before successful commercialisation of the technologies. EPSRC-supported research groups across the UK are developing worldleading technologies and processes at the forefront of this research. In addition to individual AM projects, EPSRC-supported research groups include the £4.5 million EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Additive Manufacturing and the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing (CIM) in Additive Manufacturing, hosted by the University of Nottingham in partnership with Loughborough University. CIM projects include development of ways to deposit more than one material within a single build process, making it possible to print entire working systems (incorporating electronics, for example) in one go, instead of making individual parts or components – taking AM to the next technological level.

Main picture: It’s a rap: Dr Adrian Bowyer (left) and Vik Oliver, a member of the RepRap project, proudly show off a new addition to the family. All of the plastic parts for the machine on the right were produced by the almost identical machine on the left.

Top left: the original RepRap 1.0 ‘Darwin’ prototype.


December 11: The Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead, England, is rocked by explosions, causing a huge oil fire

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2005 Face value In 2005, Dr Chris Solomon and Dr Stuart Gibson, two physicists from the University of Kent, created their first version of an ‘electronic sketch artist’ that has changed the way UK police forces identify criminals. Their system, EFIT-V, allows victims and witnesses to select the best and worst matches from a group of computergenerated faces, helping identify suspected criminals in a new way. Based on the witnesses’ responses, the computer system eventually ‘learns’ what type of face they are after and displays options accordingly. Dr Solomon’s EPSRC-supported research led directly to the creation of spin out company VisionMetric Ltd. Fast forward to 2014 and VisionMetric’s facial composite products, EFIT-V and E-FIT, have become the preferred choice of 90 per cent of British police forces and are used in over 30 countries around the world. Computerised facial composite systems in the UK date back to the late 1980s and the original E-FIT system – which was developed by John Platten, a software engineer, and Peter Bennett, a former Metropolitan Police officer.

Dr Solomon says: “E-FIT has developed a reputation as a highly reliable and flexible system for feature-based composite construction. However, it relies on the witness’s ability to recall individual features, provide verbal descriptions and then select them from stored libraries of labelled features. This is a task which extensive psychological research shows that witnesses often find difficult. Through our early research in computer vision we began to suspect that a better approach could be taken. “The EFIT-V facial composite system is based on different principles, employing a holistic (whole face) approach to construction. In essence, the witness is shown a number of randomly generated faces and is asked to select the one that best resembles the target. A genetic algorithm is then used to breed a new generation of faces based upon the selected individual. This process is repeated until the user is satisfied with the composite generated.” Today, EFIT-V has evolved into what is widely accepted to be the most advanced facial composite software, enabling

the creation of near photo-realistic, colour images of criminal suspects from eyewitnesses’ testimony and is credited with helping to solve hundreds of crimes. Dr Stuart Gibson says: “The key advantage with EFIT-V is that the technology allows people to respond to faces they see rather than having to break it down into component parts. “Police forces using EFIT-V have reported sustained, correct naming rates up to 10 times the average success rate using feature-based systems. “EFIT-V is even effective when witnesses cannot provide good descriptions of the face but know that they would recognise the face if they saw it again.” EFIT-V is now in use globally, and has customers from as far apart as Europe, Australia, USA, Singapore and Chile. Among excellent customer reviews, a satisfied client from New Scotland Yard wrote: “I thought it would be appropriate to let you know as soon as possible about the new product. Put simply, I love it… This has led to six cases so far getting ‘near as damn-it’ likenesses.”

Spot the fakers: Only one of the pictures above is a real photograph; the others were created by EFIT-V.


August 29: Hurricane Katrina makes landfall along the US Gulf Coast, causing severe damage. At least 1,836 die in the aftermath

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Light touch In 2005, an EPSRCsupported team from the universities of Dundee and St Andrews, led by Dr Norman Alm, developed a simple touch-screen aid to help dementia sufferers recall their memories.

Young Researcher of the Year

The aid was simple to use and stimulated more enjoyable, rewarding conversation between sufferers and those who care for them. During development, the CIRCA system was tested on 40 dementia sufferers in day care, nursing home and family situations, with many carers reporting that sufferers seemed like their old selves.

CIRCA team member Dr Arlene Astell, of the University of St Andrews School of Psychology, says: “Dementia sufferers’ declining ability to hold normal conversations causes a lot of stress and frustration.

CIRCA exploits the fact that, while dementia sufferers find it hard to recall recent events, longer-term memory is less affected by their condition.

“Helping them access their memories makes living with dementia more bearable and less distressing for sufferers and their carers.”

The team secured further EPSRC funding from the EPSRC-led RCUK Digital Economy programme to develop an interactive multimedia activity system that dementia sufferers can use on their own.

The research led to the formation of Circa Connect Ltd, a spin out company, which brings together expertise in the fields of design, psychology and computer science to commercialise the work.

Challenging engineering In 2005, EPSRC launched its Challenging Engineering Awards programme, through which support is given to the most promising early career researchers. The highly successful programme was designed to identify and support individuals with the potential to become future leaders of engineering research, with the ambition of building a team around them over the course of a five-year period to achieve their research vision. In total, £35 million in Challenging Engineering Awards was invested in nearly 40 researchers in areas


such as materials, mechanical and medical engineering, information & communications technologies and process, environment & sustainability. In 2011, many of the features of the programme were incorporated into EPSRC’s new Fellowship framework.

Council forum In December 2005, EPSRC held its first Council Open Forum. The event, held at the Royal Institution, opened the floor to anyone wishing to put questions to members of EPSRC’s Council, its seniordecision-making body. Open forums have since been integrated into EPSRC’s ongoing programme of engagement with the research community.

April 27: The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France

In 2005, Dr Julie Macpherson, an EPSRCfunded researcher from the University of Warwick, won the influential Times Higher Education magazine’s inaugural award for Young Researcher of the Year. She received the award in recognition of pioneering research into single-walled carbon nanotubes, which made it possible to map the chemistry of surfaces at a molecular level, with potential applications in areas such as cell signalling processes and the detection of aircraft corrosion. Professor Macpherson is also recognised for her research into the development of new synthetic diamond electrochemical sensing devices and techniques. She co-leads the Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group, and is Taught Course Leader at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Science and Technology. The centre is working with companies such as De Beers Group and synthetic diamond specialist Element Six to help pioneer new diamond-enabled technologies. Professor Macpherson says: “Interfacing with and integrating diamond into electronic devices can solve some of the biggest research problems, such as effective cooling for faster and more reliable devices; and lasers that are more powerful and compact than current devices.” In May 2014, Professor Macpherson was awarded a four-year Royal Society Industry Fellowship in acknowledgement of her work in diamond electrochemistry. The fellowship will enable Professor Macpherson and her team to push forward the significant work already accomplished with Element Six.

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2005 Science and innovation awards In 2005, EPSRC launched its Science and Innovation Awards programme, a major tranche of funding focused on directly building the UK’s research base through large-value, long-term grants in strategically important research areas identified as being missing or ‘at-risk’ in the UK. Funded by EPSRC in partnership with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the projects, awarded annually for five years, created centres of excellence in their respective fields under the leadership of a principal professor. The scheme supported 29 programmes of research activity with a value in excess of £120 million. The diversity of the research activity is testament to the scope of the investment, with new centres of excellence emerging in

Winging it In 2005, a team of aerospace engineers at the University of Bristol, led by Dr Ian Bond, developed a revolutionary new technique that could enable damaged aircraft to mend themselves automatically, even during a flight. If a tiny hole or crack appears in the aircraft – due to fatigue or a stone strike


areas such as intelligent software; graphene and its applications in nanoelectronics, photonics and bio-sciences; synthetic biology and innovation; carbon capture related to fossil fuels; energy efficient cities; statistics underpinning science, technology and industry; and green chemistry. Among recipients of a Science and Innovation Award were Professor Martyn Poliakoff, from The University of Nottingham (see pages 16-17) and Professor Lynne Gladden from the University of Cambridge (see page 24).

Hands-on research: Asieh Kazemi, a researcher from the University of Bath’s Centre for Graphene Science, operates the ‘nano-factory’, which will allow researchers to build new devices onto a single graphene layer. The centre has been funded by strategic investments by the universities of Bath and Exeter into materials research, and by a £5 million award from the EPSRC/ HEFCE Science and Innovation Awards programme in 2008. Photograph courtesy: SWNS.com

– epoxy resin ‘bleeds’ from embedded vessels near the crack to quickly seal it and restore integrity. The resin and hardener enable the composite material to recover up to 80-90 per cent of its original strength, comfortably allowing a plane to function at its normal operational load. In addition to improving aviation safety, the technology, which mimics the healing processes found in nature, could also lead

September 12: Israel completes its withdrawal of all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip

to lighter aircraft, cutting both fuel costs and carbon emissions. In 2008, EPSRC awarded Professor Bond a further grant to continue the development of these techniques. In 2014, Professor Bond co-leads the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Composites for Innovation and Science at the University of Bristol.

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What lies beneath

piping, even if they are buried in sand or mud. The team, led by Professor Jonathan Bull, developed the first truly three-dimensional sub-seabed profiler called GeoChirp 3D, which they successfully demonstrated by imaging the skeleton of The Invincible, a Royal Navy ship that sunk into the Solent sands in 1758.

In 2005, a team from the School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) at the University of Southampton used EPSRC funding to create a device that could identify undersea objects such as shipwrecks, mines and

Developed with the help of GeoAcoustics Ltd, a manufacturer of sonar seabed survey equipment, the GeoChirp 3D is a surface-towed seismic system that works by firing sound waves at the sea floor and measuring the reflections as they bounce back from objects and different rock

Taking the heat In 2005, an EPSRC-supported team of specialists in fire chemistry, polymers and textiles, led by Dr Baljinder Kandola at the University of Bolton, developed a range of new, inherently flameretardant polymers. The breakthrough was a result of a 2003 project funded by EPSRC and the MoD to investigate the use of nano composites in synthetic materials. The multidisciplinary, multi-university team’s research was based around the belief that the barrier layer and char-forming properties of nano composites could improve fire resistance of synthetic fibres, while enhancing their physical and mechanical properties. The team later turned their attentions to creating a new generation of textiles with applications ranging from soft furnishings to soldiers’ uniforms.

layers beneath the seabed. The concept came from the petroleum industry, which uses seismic reflections to locate oil and gas fields. The system, which later went into production, is capable of imaging the upper tens of metres of the sub-surface in three dimensions and provides the perfect base for shallow-water engineering, archaeology, military and geological studies. GeoChirp has been successfully used during surveys in near-shore and harbour environments in the UK and internationally. Development of the GeoChirp system was funded by GeoAcoustics Ltd, EPSRC and English Heritage.

Blastproof concrete In 2005, a research team at the universities of Sheffield and Liverpool, led by Dr Steve Millard, began development of a new type of concrete that could help protect terrorist targets against car or lorry bomb attacks. The team’s Ultra High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) has needlethin steel fibres added to the concrete mix instead of or in addition to steel reinforcing bars to increase its tensile strength. Developed over four years, in partnership with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, UHPFRC was found to absorb a thousand times more energy than plain concrete and could therefore be used for bomb-proof litter bins and protection barriers. The concrete has been utilised in Australia in the design of slender footbridges and other specialised applications.

In 2014, Dr Kandola is a member of the FRBiocomp group at the University of Bolton, funded by Innovate UK, which aims to develop fire-retardant, environmentally sustainable composites using natural fibres and biopolymers. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

November 27: The first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France

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2006 Silent flight In 2006, building on previous EPSRC investments, the international Silent Aircraft Initiative (SAI), a collaborative venture between the University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), unveiled its revolutionary single-wing concept SAX-40 aircraft (pictured above). The highly-efficient design, which has neither flaps nor slats (a major source of aircraft noise), offered improvements of around 25 per cent in the fuel consumed in a typical flight compared to current aircraft and offered significant noise reductions compared to conventional aeroplanes. The academic/industry project, supported by EPSRC and the Cambridge-MIT Institute, focused on next-generation aeroplanes entering into service in 2030 and was led by Cambridge’s Professor Ann Dowling (pictured), a world authority on combustion and acoustics. Commercial partners of this multi-partner initiative included BA, RollsRoyce and the Civil Aviation Authority. Interviewed in 2006, Jim Morris, Vice President of Engineering & Manufacturing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

“This collaboration has stretched our imagination and generated noise mitigation ideas that we will be able to study for potential future use.” Colin Smith, Rolls-Royce Director of Engineering and Technology, said: “The study confirmed that the solution for extremely low noise must be a highly integrated combination of engine and aircraft design and operation.” In 2007, the Silent Aircraft Initiative led to a four-year EPSRC-supported project, jointly with MIT, investigating the development of embedded engines mounted above the wing to reduce noise on the ground and increase the aircraft’s efficiency. In 2008, Professor Dowling co-led a major EPSRC-funded project into energy efficient cities, led by Professor Lynne Gladden at the University of Cambridge. The findings of this project, funded by an EPSRC Science and Innovation Award (see page 18), influenced future government policy. In 2009, Professor Dame Ann Dowling, who received a DBE for services to science in 2007, became head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. In 2011, EPSRC funded a four-year project jointly with Caltech focused on reducing

the environmental impact of take-off noise from aircraft. The work, co-led by Professor Dowling, merges with and extends two highly successful earlier EPSRC-funded jet noise projects, specifically looking at aerodynamics and aero-acoustics of complex geometry hot jets and the dynamics of co-flowing jets. In 2014, Professor Dowling co-leads the new EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Gas Turbine Aerodynamics at Cambridge. In 2014, EPSRC invested over £10 million in a new National Wind Tunnel Facility. The investment, which includes £2.6 million from research partner the UK Aerodynamics Centre, will finance seven wind tunnels at universities throughout the UK. Professor Dame Ann Dowling, who in 2013 became Chair of the UK Aerodynamics Council, says: “The new wind tunnel facility will give researchers and industry access to the world-class facilities and instrumentation vital for the development of future quiet, ultra-efficient aircraft.” In 2014, Dame Ann was appointed President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the first woman in the role.

July 28: The Provisional IRA issues a statement formally ordering an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969

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Precious metals, such as platinum and palladium, are used extensively in a wide range of industrial chemical processes – providing a vital trigger or accelerator for chemical reactions. A current EPSRC-project, of which she is a member, is applying novel bionano-catalysts for upgrading heavy oils.

Full metal jacket In 2006, an EPSRC-funded project led by Professor Lynne Macaskie at the University of Birmingham demonstrated the commercial potential arising from ‘feeding’ a certain type of bacteria on high-sugar waste products, such as those produced by the confectionery industry. The bacteria give off hydrogen as they consume the waste, and the team used this gas to generate clean electricity via a fuel cell – potentially a valuable source of non-polluting energy in the years ahead. The waste was supplied by the team’s industrial partner, Cadbury Schweppes plc, whose factory is conveniently located just down the road. The waste would otherwise have been sent to landfill. Since 2006, Professor Macaskie has headed several EPSRC-supported projects to evaluate the potential for using bacteria to bio-manufacture precious metal catalysts.

Pipeline to success In 2006, Syrinix, a company formed in 2004 by Professor Paul Linford to commercialise his EPSRC-funded blue-skies research at the University of East Anglia, was named Business Initiative of the Year in the Times Higher Education Supplement 2006 awards. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

In 2006, a sister project to the sugarrelated research, led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), evaluated the potential for sourcing precious metals from wastes: together these projects have demonstrated a ‘one stop shop’ method to bio-manufacture active catalysts from waste. The combined research projects spawned a life of their own through a pioneering commercial venture launched by Dr Angela Murray (pictured), a bioscientist at The University of Birmingham. In 2009, Dr Murray, whose doctorate was supervised by Professor Macaskie, used a BBSRC Enterprise Fellowship Award to develop a way to recover precious metals from roadside waste, with the aim of producing new, cheap catalysts. This led to the creation of a spin out company, Roads to Riches. Macaskie and Murray are both directors of the company, which works closely with the Birmingham research teams. The catalytic converters in most modern cars are coated with precious metals,

The company’s awardwinning portfolio has developed ‘listening’ technology that can help reduce the 3.3 billion litres of treated water lost every day in the UK by making maintenance more cost effective. The technology uses vibro-acoustic signals from the water mains pipe and analyses these sounds to enable leaks to be detected in their early stages and pinpoint their location. Detection stops bigger, more devastating leaks from springing up and helps water companies prevent massive loss of water

April 23: YouTube, the popular video sharing website, is founded

including palladium, rhodium and platinum. Over time, tiny particles of these metals are ejected through the exhaust system, settling as highly valuable road dust. Rhodium, for example, sells for around £100 a gram. All UK councils are required by law to clean up and collect road waste, so this part of Roads to Riches’ operation is free. Next, the company uses natural separation techniques, such as magnetism, to sort out the metals from the organic road waste, which is processed into low grade building aggregates, rather than sent to landfill. What’s left is a metal concentrate, which traditionally would be sent for energyintensive smelting. The company has developed a greener option – it sends in the bacteria. The bacteria used in the process are already on their second life, having been used in the earlier process to create clean hydrogen from fermented food waste. After being added to the metal concentrate, the bacteria emerge wearing what Angela Murray has described as “tiny nanoparticle metal jackets”. The bacteria are then either dried into a fine powder to make a range of platform chemicals/catalysts or can be used in hydrogen fuel cells to generate clean electricity. In essence, the bacteria producing the hydrogen are the same ones recovering the precious metals.

and damage to roads and buildings surrounding the pipes. In 2013, Syrinix’s TrunkMinder technology was short-listed for the Most Innovative New Technology of the Year title at the Water Industry Achievement Awards. Also in 2013, the company secured £2.1 million in funding from a number of investors, including the EU-funded Low Carbon Innovation Fund, and the Angel CoFund, to accelerate national and international growth. In 2014, the company’s TrunkMinder devices are being commercially deployed in a major rollout by Thames Water for the £15 billion Crossrail project, one of the largest engineering projects in Europe. To avoid catastrophic pipeline failures, Syrinix worked closely with Crossrail to deploy the system on critical water mains, many of which have been in the ground for decades and some for in excess of 100 years.

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2006 Helping humans help themselves In 2006, Tissue Regenix, a medical devices company in the field of regenerative medicine specialising in human tissue regeneration products, was founded by Professors John Fisher and Eileen Ingham to commercialise their EPSRC-funded research at the University of Leeds. The company’s proprietary dCELL® technology platform works by removing all cells from the animal tissue, allowing it to be used to replace worn out or diseased body parts – without the need for antirejection drugs.

Because a patient’s own cells can populate the new biological scaffolds, they are accepted by the immune system and can be repaired like normal tissue. The dCELL® process can be used to make 20-30 different products.

Potential applications for the technology, which has been licensed for use in tissue banks in the UK and South America, include knee damage repair, heart valves and advanced wound care for leg ulcers. In 2010, Tissue Regenix’s first product – a vascular patch derived from pig tissue which repairs damaged human veins – gained its CE mark and was sold globally outside the USA. In 2012, the company, now listed on the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller growing companies (AIM), opened an office in the USA as a significant step forward in its commercialisation strategy. Today, the Tissue Regenix Group has a market capitalisation of over £60 million. The basic research that led to the company’s formation was funded by EPSRC in 2000, and Tissue Regenix continues to receive EPSRC support. Professor Eileen Ingham says: “The support from EPSRC and other funders, including the Technology Strategy Board, over many years has been crucial in enabling us to pursue the basic technology and then drive forward its potential. We were able to use these grants flexibly, enabling continuity of employment for key researchers.”

Walking the walk In 2006, a laboratory designed to make pedestrian environments safer and easier to use was set up with EPSRC support at University College London (UCL). The investment stemmed from a three-year EPSRC grant awarded to UCL’s Accessibility Research Group to create a new lab for investigating issues related to pedestrians and the pedestrian environment. The PAMELA (Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Laboratory) project, led by Professor Nick Tyler, led to the development of a ‘lab-based’ fullyconfigurable pedestrian walkway, enabling real-world conditions to be replicated in a controlled setting. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

May 1: The Human Genome Project publishes the last chromosome sequence

By monitoring and measuring all aspects of pedestrian behaviour – from their gait and biomechanics to how they perceive the world around them – the project has generated data leading to improvements in the design of pavements, footways and concourses, and will enable new ideas and products to be tried out. In 2014, among other EPSRC-supported projects, Professor Tyler, who has received over 20 EPSRC research grants, is a key member of the Transforming the Engineering of Cities project (see pages 16-17), and co-leads a team investigating the feasibility of a wholly new concept in exoskeleton design.

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Getting in gear In 2006, Magnomatics, a high technology company from the University of Sheffield, was set up to commercialise groundbreaking research by Dr Kais Atallah and Professor David Howe into magnetic transmission systems, high-torque electrical machines and electromechanical actuators and dampers. The inspiration to form the company came from an EPSRCsupported project to investigate the advantages of magnetic gears over their mechanical counterparts for a range of applications. Members of Dr Atallah’s original research group formed the core of the Magnomatics technical team. In 2012, the company, now active in a range of industries, including renewable energy, automotive, aerospace and defence, secured funding of £2.5 million to complete the development of its magnetically-geared motors for the electric and hybrid vehicle market. In 2014, Magnomatics has evolved into a clean technology company employing

over 30 people, with a strong focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Together with its various strategic partners, the company is developing a range of technologies, including high efficiency, ultra-compact generators for

biometric passports – and so could be used to help combat crimes such as identity theft, social security fraud, people trafficking and terrorism.

Making its mark In 2006, Warwick Warp, a spin out company from the University of Warwick, won the Research Councils UK Business Plan Competition for its unique software-based fingerprint identification system. Warwick Warp’s technology, which was substantially more reliable and faster than those available at the time, can be incorporated into identity cards and PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

In 2009, the system, which can identify partial, distorted, scratched, smudged, or otherwise warped fingerprints in just a few seconds, scored top marks in the world’s two toughest technical fingerprint tests. It was ranked best for overall accuracy by the UK National Physical Laboratory and placed third overall out of 36 in tests by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In 2013, the company’s fingerprint feature extractor was certified for use in India, where the Warwick Warp is being deployed in multiple government and civilian projects.

wind and tidal energy production; ultracompact and efficient marine propulsion systems; and wheel hub motors and continuously variable transmissions to be employed in commercial hybrid and electric vehicles.

EPSRC & SIP In 2007, EPSRC set up a new advisory panel to advise Council, its senior decision-making body, about how best to take account of public opinion and attitudes in policy development. The Societal Issues Panel (SIP) complemented the Technical Opportunities Panel (TOP), which mainly comprised academics, and the User Panel (UP), whose main component is industrialists. In 2011, EPSRC’s panel system, which had remained largely unchanged for nearly two decades, evolved into a more flexible Strategic Advisory Network (SAN).

March 21: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams found social networking service Twitter, officially launched later in 2006

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2007 Making waves In 2007, structural earthquake engineer, Professor Tiziana Rossetto, received an EPSRC Challenging Engineering award to establish the Earthquake and People Interaction Centre (EPICentre), based at University College London (UCL). She is also director of the centre. It was Professor Rossetto’s experience of surveying the sites of the 2004 earthquakes and tsunami in Sri Lanka and Thailand with the UK’s Earthquake Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) that led her to set up a multidisciplinary research group under EPSRC’s Challenging Engineering scheme. Launched in 2005, the scheme identified and supported individuals with the potential to become future leaders of engineering research, with the ambition of building a team around them (see page 20). The EPICentre team of earthquake engineers, social scientists, psychologists, coastal engineers and statisticians investigate and model risk from natural hazards to buildings and infrastructure and study their impact on populations. The team study disasters in the field, and their research covers earthquakes, tsunami, volcanoes, floods, risk reduction and risk representation. In 2009, with EPSRC support, EPICentre unveiled a unique wave-generation facility which can accurately model realistic tsunami waves. Developed by EPICentre and marine engineering specialists, HR Wallingford, the tsunami generator has a 70-metre long, four metre-wide flume, and includes a coastal slope and model beach to show how the coast, buildings and structures are affected.


Professor Rossetto says: “The main gap in our knowledge is about what happens when the tsunami wave approaches the near shore region and then runs inland. “These flow processes cannot be simplified using mathematical models because of the complex interaction that takes place with beaches, sediment, coastal defences and then in and around buildings.” The tsunami generator has been made available for use by researchers from all over the world. An example of a project that will use the tsunami generator is CRUST, funded in 2014 by EPSRC to develop a new assessment methodology to help risk management after earthquakes and tsunami. The CRUST team brings together expertise from the University of Bristol and UCL, and partners widely with industry and universities worldwide. In 2010, with support from EPSRC, EPICentre launched the Virtual Disaster Viewer (VDV), an innovative web-based portal that allows earthquake experts to pool knowledge quickly and effectively to help relief operations. The VDV captures before-and-after satellite images, videos, and real-time field data, enabling engineers and scientists to provide detailed damage assessments to help relief organisations target emergency supplies, prioritise repairs and plan reconstruction. The viewer was used in post-earthquake field investigations in China in 2008, Italy in 2009 and after the 2010 Haiti earthquake which killed an estimated 100,000 people.

January 9: Apple CEO, the late Steve Jobs, announces the launch of the first iPhone

In 2011, EPSRC funded a five-year project led by Newcastle University to enable UK scientists to visit an earthquake zone together with the EEFIT team in order to gather data immediately after an earthquake has struck. Researchers, including those from EPICentre, used the funding to visit the site of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the area devastated by earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, both in 2011. In 2012, Professor Rossetto led the firstever earthquake return reconnaissance mission to investigate building repair, strengthening and reconstruction after the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake in Italy. Before the grant ends in 2016, the team will have conducted five investigations in total. In 2013, EPICentre co-director Professor Hélène Joffe won the prestigious Lloyds Science of Risk award for her study of people living in highly seismic areas. Professor Joffe is a co-investigator in a major multi-university EPSRC-funded project led by Professor Chris Rogers from the University of Birmingham into sustainable future cities (see pages 16-17). In 2013, EPSRC funded a £1.6 million EPICentre project on earthquake and fire risk. The team are developing tools for damage evaluation in fire engineering and are planning an innovative study in Seattle, USA to get people to prepare and plan for the effects of earthquake and fire. This research builds on knowledge of risk representation gained in the course of Professor Joffe’s work.

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Pictures in descending order: Professor Tiziana Rossetto talks with locals from Khao Lak, Thailand, as part of an EEFIT mission after the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The Fast Flow facility at HR Wallingford, site of the world’s first tsunami generator. EPICentre team members visited the site of the devastating 2011 tsunami in Tohuku, Japan, capturing these dramatic images.


May 21: Cutty Sark, the last surviving tea clipper, is badly damaged by fire in Greenwich, England

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2007 In 2007, XenSource, a company formed by four EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, was sold to US company Citrix for $500 million. XenSource was set up in 2004 to help commercialise the team’s ground-breaking software, called Xen, which makes a single computer appear to be many similar, but smaller, computers. Among its key features, Xen enables several people to use the same computer server without being able to affect each other’s personal virtual machine – and without being aware of each other. Each virtual machine can run any operating system and any application. The notion of getting the most out of the least number of servers initially attracted companies that handled large amounts of data, such as Wall Street banks, which traditionally had hundreds of thousands of servers.


XenSource began as a consultancy service advising banks and other businesses on deploying Xen. The company’s creators soon realised there were further business opportunities in building and supporting an ‘enterpriseready’ version of Xen, and their work became instrumental in the development of cloud computing through which companies undertake large computing jobs. Amazon was also an early adopter, and used Xen software in one of the largest cloud computing bases. Researchers around the world have used Xen to develop further research and generate new applications. Cloud computing has become ubiquitous for both the corporate world and for individual consumers. In 2014, Citrix offers a suite of security software including mobile applications for iOS, Android and Windows smartphones and tablets.

June 27: Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

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Innovation nation In 2007, EPSRC launched a major initiative for academics to develop the commercial potential of their research alongside commercial businesses in university-based centres of excellence known as Innovation and Knowledge Centres (IKCs). Originally funded by EPSRC, and now cofunded with Innovate UK, with additional funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), IKCs were set up to accelerate and promote business exploitation of an emerging research and technology field.

Successful projects have developed new coatings and surfaces that can be used to turn buildings into power stations; enhanced jet engine efficiency; technologies to help the body heal itself, and systems to combat the threat of cyber attacks and terrorism.

The seven centres funded to date have developed ground-breaking work in areas such as manufacturing technologies for photonics and electronics; regenerative medical therapies and devices; and secure information technologies. They have quickly established both a global profile and an international reputation.

Spin out and spin in activity is integral to the IKC concept. Successful companies include Microsense, formed to commercialise research at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) IKC at Queen’s University Belfast (see page 35). The company’s award-winning wireless microwave fence was designed for use in critical installations such as airports, power plants and country borders, creating an invisible but sensitive detection curtain around a secure location. It is also able to distinguish between real targets and nuisance environmental disturbances.

The brief is simple: to ensure great ideas are swiftly translated into industrial development, products and jobs. In turn, the techniques and technologies developed are fed back into the research ecosystem.

IKCs have also developed successful partnerships with the Innovate UK-funded Catapult centres – a network of businessled technology innovation centres designed to advance innovation in specific fields


July 1: Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces

and to enable business to access the best research and technical expertise, infrastructure and equipment. Operating at an earlier stage than Catapult centres, IKCs are led by an expert entrepreneurial team and offer a shared space and entrepreneurial environment in which researchers can work side by side with potential customers and professionals from academia and business. Since 2007, IKCs have created 801 jobs, spawned 11 new spin out companies; filed 60 patent applications; initiated 12 licensing deals and brought 60 products and services to market. They have also trained 273 doctoral students and 213 MSc students. The IKC concept has gone down well with industry, attracting £132 million in additional research income and £43 million in business investment through over 180 partner companies and 340 collaborating businesses. You can find more about Innovation and Knowledge Centres in Pioneer 13, available to download from epsrc.ac.uk.

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2007 Beetle drive In 2007, an EPSRC-funded team of researchers at the University of Leeds showed that a species of beetle that squirts its predators with a high-pressure spray of boiling liquid could provide the key to significant improvements in aircraft engine design. Their research also inspired work to develop new types of nebuliser, needle-free injections, fire extinguishers and powerful fuel injection systems. The bombardier beetle squirts its fiery potion, which reaches 100 degrees Celsius, at 300 explosive pulses per second. The team, led by Professor Andy McIntosh, believed the beetle’s jet-based defence mechanism could help solve a problem that can occasionally occur to jet aircraft at high altitude – re-igniting a gas turbine engine which has cut out, when the outside air temperature is as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius.

“Nobody had studied the beetle from a physics and engineering perspective as we did – and we didn’t appreciate how much we would learn from it.” In 2010, the Leeds team won the prestigious Times Higher Education Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology Award, in recognition of their breakthrough in the discipline of biomimetics. In 2013, Swedish Biomimetics 3000®, which has a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with the University of Leeds for the µMist™ platform technology, formed a technical partnership with motorsport engineering specialists Cosworth to advance fuel injection systems inspired by the bombardier beetle’s defence mechanism.

The spray’s chemical and physical characteristics and the insect’s physiology were simulated using a scaled-up experimental rig in Professor McIntosh’s lab. The research, funded initially by EPSRC and subsequently by Swedish Biomimetics 3000®, led to the development of new technology, µMist™, which has the potential to become the platform for the next generation of eco-friendly mist carrier systems used in applications such as fuel injection, medical drug delivery systems and fire suppression. Interviewed in 2007, Professor McIntosh likened the beetle’s defence mechanism to a pressure cooker controlled by a complicated system of valves, saying: “Essentially it’s a high-force steam cavitation explosion. Using a chamber less than one millimetre long, this amazing creature has the ability to change the rapidity of what comes out, its direction and its consistency.


July 21: The final book in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released selling over 11 million copies in the first 24 hours

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Knowing the score In 2007, a consortium of five university research teams, led by Dr Paul Riley, from The University of Nottingham, received £1.6 million in EPSRC funding for a fiveyear project to develop a low cost, high-tech generator that could transform the lives of some of the world’s poorest people by turning sound energy into electricity. The process, known as thermo-acoustics, converts heat from biomass fuels into sound – and then into electrical energy. The creation of a Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity not only gave the project its name – the Score stove project – it also gave hope to some of the three billion people around the world who still cook on an open fire, resulting in at least four million premature deaths each year from smoke inhalation, according to the World Health Organisation. Dr Riley says EPSRC, which leads the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, set up to tackle global energy challenges, had identified rural fuel use in poor areas as a priority and had set up a workshop to discuss solutions. He explains: “I knew that thermo-acoustics has no moving parts, so it could be made cheaply. Following the workshop I assembled a multidisciplinary team of colleagues from several universities and brought them together

with the charity Practical Action to research and develop the technology.” In 2010, the first Score Centre was set up in Malaysia and ramped up its research with the aid of three doctoral students.

In 2012, an international conference was held to disseminate the work of Score, and people from five continents attended. In the same year, the Score stove project received a second round of EPSRC funding to install more devices in developing countries’ universities. Electricity generating stoves were sent to Kathmandu and Bangladesh universities, and Kenya installed 75 clean wood burning stoves. Kathmandu University, with the support of Dr Riley and his team, successfully used the stove to produce electricity and boil water. The Practical Action charity’s Teo Sanchez says: “Partnerships like this, which combine active involvement of academics and non-academics from north and south with effective exchange of knowledge and know-how, contribute to real solutions to help the poor to use technology to challenge their poverty.”

Twelve clean burning stoves (not electrically generating) were installed in Kenya and results published. In 2011, Score Centres in Bangladesh, at the University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), and in Nepal, at Kathmandu University, were set up. Field trials in Nepal and Kenya were reported, confirming the need for a technology that generated as little as 10 Watts of electricity. The main uses were seen as being for lighting, radio and charging mobile phones.

In 2013, Paul Riley and his team won Siemens’ Empowering People award for the Score stove technology and secured further funding to develop the technology in the field. Work has still to be done on developing a stove more adapted and appropriate to the local conditions. Dr Riley hopes that, by making it easier to build and more reliable, the Score stove will be transformed from highly promising device to life-saving invention.

Above: Score team members test out the stove in Kenya.


May 3: British child Madeleine McCann disappears from an apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal

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2007 Bricks from waste In 2007, Encos, a spin out company from the University of Leeds, was formed to develop carbon neutral masonry products made from waste products. The blocks literally lock carbon into the fabric of buildings. The research behind the company’s formation was developed by Dr John Forth and Dr Salah Zoorob, and funded by EPSRC. Dubbed Bitublock, the new building blocks used 100 per cent recycled and waste materials as the aggregate, bound together by bitumen, a heavy by-product of the petrochemical industry.

The smarter ambulance In 2007, EPSRC co-invested in a joint initiative with the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the Royal Academy of Art to create a new ambulance interior fit for 21st century healthcare. The project brought together frontline paramedics, clinicians, patients, academic researchers, engineers, designers and potential purchasers in a co-design process, specifically looking at ways to provide healthcare in the community, reducing hospital admissions and patient journeys. The new ambulance’s redesign focused on improving clinical efficiency and enhancing patient safety. Among the changes were better located equipment storage spaces and an easilycleaned interior, making infection control much simpler and more effective. The vehicles were also equipped with some of the latest mobile communications PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

technologies including patient vital signs monitoring and hospital data transfer to specialist stroke, cardiac or trauma units. Possibly the design change with the biggest impact was the decision to move the stretcher from its traditional position against the side of the ambulance and place it in the centre. This gave emergency teams 360 degree access to the patient. The new design proved a hit with staff. In 2011, a full-size mobile demonstrator of the new ambulance interior was formally launched and went on the road. Modular equipment packs containing specific treatment consumables were incorporated to aid clinical performance, infection control and stock control. In 2012, the 21st century ambulance project won the Industrial Designers Society of America Silver Award for Research at the International Design Excellence Awards.

Using a low-energy process, Encos’s products are manufactured from recovered aggregates and a patented vegetable oilbased binder, encosol™. The result is net carbon neutral bricks and building slips with the looks, strength and performance of their traditional counterparts, without the environmental impacts. In 2011, Encos commissioned a £200,000 test plant at Yorkshire Water’s Knostrop site in Leeds, where it began producing carbon-negative masonry from incinerated sewage. The bricks were subsequently used to build several test walls at Poundbury – the experimental urban development in Dorset designed according to architectural principles advocated by the Prince of Wales. In 2012, the award-winning company conducted successful full scale manufacturing trials working with independent construction materials manufacturer S. Morris Ltd in Somerset. In 2013, Encos began a partnership with Columbia Machine, a world-leading manufacturer of concrete products equipment, to bring its products to the mainstream market.

December 20: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom

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Inventor of the year In 2007, an EPSRCsupported Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) lecturer, Dr Maire McLoone (later O’Neill), was named British Female Inventor of the Year at the British Female Inventors and Innovators awards. She received the award for a product that enhances security mechanisms to protect the public from cyber criminals, such as hackers, and also helps to identify thieves.

Cool water In 2007, spin out company Arvia Technology was formed to commercialise EPSRCsupported research into water treatment at The University of Manchester by Dr Nigel Brown and Dr Ted Roberts. Arvia’s formation followed proof of principle funding from EPSRC in 2001, which later awarded follow-on funding to the company. Arvia’s patented water treatment method removes and destroys organic contaminants and oils using a procedure that is free of process chemicals, is energy efficient, and produces little solid or

liquid waste for disposal, using a unique adsorption material called Nyex®. Since its formation, the company has received a host of awards and commendations and in 2009 featured in The Guardian’s Global Cleantech 100 listing. In 2010, Arvia secured investments of £3.8 million to develop its nuclear and water business. In 2014, Arvia is collaborating with the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory on a project using its technology to destroy oils and solvents contaminated by high levels of radiation currently located at the Sellafield site.

In 2014, Professor O’Neill’s invention is used in more than 100 million TV set-top boxes, and she is widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading cryptography experts, helping enhance global data security. Also in 2014, she received the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal, one of only five engineers who have received the medal in national recognition of their contribution to society.

In print

in forensic evidence which will prove the presence or absence of illicit substances.

In 2007, Professor David Russell from the University of East Anglia founded a spin out company, Intelligent Fingerprinting Ltd, based on his EPSRC-supported research into the detection of drugs and drug metabolites in fingerprints.

In 2012, Intelligent Fingerprinting received an investment of £2 million from US backers, and over the next 15 months secured almost £700,000 in governmentfunded grants.

The company specialises in the development of non-invasive diagnostic screening technology for fast and convenient point-of-care testing using fingerprints. The company has attracted worldwide interest in its technology for a wide range of drug-screening applications including criminal justice, drug rehabilitation, prisons and the workplace. The technique has potential for many other uses including healthcare diagnostics and homeland security applications. In 2009, Professor Russell received followon funding from EPSRC to develop biomolecules that specifically bind to residues PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Maire O’Neill went on to become the youngest ever professor to be appointed at Queen’s at the age of 32. She was instrumental in the creation of the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), an EPSRC Innovation and Knowledge Centre (see page 31) at QUB, which has established strong links with global security organisations.

In 2014, Intelligent Fingerprinting secured £750,000 in funding from a consortium of private US-based investors to support the final stages of development of the world’s first handheld fingerprint-based drug screening device, which is able to screen for multiple drugs and provides results in less than 10 minutes. Simple to operate and totally noninvasive, the device is ideal for a variety of drug screening applications including drug rehabilitation services, offender management and criminal justice. The product is currently in development and will be available in 2015. The global market for drug screening was recently estimated to reach US$2.6 billion by 2015.

April 3: French TGV high speed passenger train breaks the speed record of the fastest conventional train, clocking 357.2mph

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Picture courtesy Surrey Satellite Technology Limited

2008


September 15: Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, laying the catalyst for the global financial crisis

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Space aces In 2008, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL),a company set up in 1985 to commercialise EPSRC-funded research led by Professor Martin Sweeting at the University of Surrey, was sold to space technology giant EADS Astrium for £40 million.

The company, whose Group Executive Chairman is Professor Sir Martin Sweeting FRS, continues to work closely with the University of Surrey, mainly through the Surrey Space Centre, a dedicated facility borne out of research at the university.

Today, SSTL is the world’s leading small satellite company, with over 500 staff and export sales of over £150 million. The company designs, manufactures and operates high performance satellites and ground systems for a range of applications including Earth observation, science and communications – at a fraction of the price normally associated with space missions.

In 2013, in a world-first space mission destined to make space exploration more accessible, a University of Surrey research team, led by Dr Chris Bridges, formerly an EPSRC-supported doctoral student, in collaboration with SSTL, developed the STRaND-1 nano-satellite – made from an unmodified Google Nexus smartphone and built using advanced commercial off-theshelf components.

Since 1981, SSTL has built and launched over 40 satellites, and has developed an innovative approach that is changing the economics of space. It also provides training and development programmes, consultancy services, and mission studies for the European Space Agency, NASA, international governments and commercial customers.

The satellite made its maiden voyage aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, and is currently orbiting the Earth at around 16,000 miles per hour. It will be the first test of whether commercial elements and components found in everyday devices can survive in the extreme conditions experienced in space.


July 28: The historic Weston-Super-Mare Grand Pier burns down for a second time in 80 years

The satellite’s onboard computer checks which components of the phone are working normally and relays images and messages back to Earth via a radio system. In phase two of the programme, the STRaND-1 team hope to switch the satellite’s in-orbit operations to the phone, testing the capabilities of a number of standard smartphone components for a space environment. Among the pioneering technologies developed for the mission is its WARP DRiVE (Water Alcohol Resistojet Propulsion system), a novel new propulsion system that will help the satellite to perform manoeuvres. In 2014, SSTL supplied navigation payloads for the first two Galileo Full Operational Capability spacecraft launched for a landmark European satellite navigation programme led by the European Space Agency (ESA). Galileo is Europe’s own global satellite navigation system. Ultimately, it will consist of 30 satellites and their ground infrastructure.

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2008 Healthy relationships

In 2008, EPSRC co-invested in two major healthcare initiatives with two new Strategic Partners, Cancer Research UK and the Wellcome Trust. With Cancer Research UK, EPSRC co-invested £45 million in medical imaging research to support the development and introduction of the latest cancer imaging technologies. The investment included £5 million from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department of Health for England. Four large cancer imaging centres were established to serve as focal points in techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography. Five cancer imaging research programmes were also set up to concentrate on a specific area of imaging research. In six years the multidisciplinary centres have established themselves as world-leading facilities in cancer imaging, whose breakthrough technologies include new techniques to enable noninvasive assessment of disease progression. The £45 million co-investment with the Wellcome Trust led to the creation of four UK Centres of Excellence in Medical Engineering in June 2009. The centres, which are based at Imperial College London, the University of Leeds, the University of Oxford and King’s College London, focus on finding new solutions for arthritis; medical imaging; personalised healthcare; new medical devices and regenerative therapies. In 2013, EPSRC strengthened its Strategic Partnerships with CRUK and the Wellcome Trust with two new major investments. With CRUK, £35 million was invested in four university-based centres to develop cutting-edge imaging technologies for basic and PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

clinical cancer research. The total investment is now £116 million. With the Wellcome Trust, £30 million was invested in a range of leading-edge research projects including computer-guided ultrasound technologies, and ways to transform the safety and efficacy of foetal surgery. The total co-investment is now £75 million.

The partnership principle Since 2000, EPSRC has forged a network of Strategic Partnerships with blue-chip global industries and other ‘research users’, such as major charities and UK Government departments. Strategic Partnerships provide a key link between the needs of research users, such as industry, and long-term academic research. They also provide joint funding of UK universities to support research, training and other activities in gap areas of strategic importance to UK economic and social wellbeing; and enable clear routes to exploitation. Beyond the major Strategic Partnerships, such are the benefits of working with collaborators from industry and other sectors that 45 per cent of EPSRC’s research portfolio is collaborative. EPSRC works with around 2,800 companies and partner organisations. By ensuring the early engagement between industry and the research base, the fruits of EPSRC’s investments can be maximised, helping to keep the UK at the forefront of global research and innovation.

August 16: Usain Bolt sets a new 100 metres dash world record of 9.69 seconds at the Beijing 2008 summer Olympics

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Tag team In 2008, a multidisciplinary EPSRC-funded research team, led by Professor Paul Sermon, a nanomaterials engineer at Brunel University, devised an ingenious new bullet tagging technology that could make it much harder for criminals who use firearms to evade justice in future. The tags primarily consisted of naturallyoccurring pollen, a substance that evolution has provided with extraordinary adhesive properties. The tiny tags, which are invisible to the naked eye, are designed to be coated onto gun cartridges. They then attach themselves to the hands or gloves of anyone handling the cartridge and are very difficult to wash off completely. Crucially, some of these ‘nanotags’ also remain on the cartridge even after it has been fired. This research helped paved the way for ways to establish a robust forensic link

between a cartridge fired during a crime and whoever handled the cartridge. The project was a joint collaboration between Brighton, Brunel, Cranfield, Surrey and York universities. In 2012, the team came up with a refined version of the technology. After years of testing, they hit on a technique that could also stash away skin cells of any person touching the bullets, to increase the probability of obtaining useful associative evidence. To label the hands of anyone who touches the bullet, they took the sticky pollen grains from the Easter lily, and coated them in titanium dioxide (TiO2) before dropping them in liquid plastic. This solution was used to coat the bottom of the bullet casing. While the pollen is not uncommon, and TiO2 is found in paints and sun lotions, together they form a unique tag, says Professor Sermon. When tested on coatings on bullets from a nine millimetre Browning pistol, the team found that 53 per cent more viable DNA could be harvested from these bullets than from uncoated ones.

In 2008, wheels were set in motion to build the fastest car in the world, Bloodhound SSC, capable of 1,000mph – 30 per cent faster than any car that has gone before.

Bloodhound SSC is a jet and rocket powered car weighing over seven tonnes. Its engines produce over 135,000 horsepower – six times the power of a combined starting grid of Formula 1 cars. The only other manned vehicles capable of exceeding 1,000 mph within Earth’s atmosphere are military fighter jets, although none can do this speed close to the ground where the air is thicker. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

In 2008, EPSRC-supported engineers at the University of Leeds co-developed a device to help some of the most impoverished farmers in Africa maximise crop yields. The device gathers data on air temperature, humidity, air pressure, light, soil moisture and temperature – information crucial to making key agricultural decisions about planting, fertilisation, irrigation, pest and disease control and harvesting. The research team, led by Professor Jaafar Elmirghani, worked with two Kenyan villages to develop the technology, funded under the Research Councils UK Digital Economy Programme, led by EPSRC.

The 1,000 mph super car

In addition to setting a new World Land Speed Record, the project has two other goals: to inspire the next generation about science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and to share an iconic research and development programme with a global audience.

Crop logic

An EPSRC-funded aerodynamics team at Swansea University have played a vital role in the project, which EPSRC has sponsored since launch. Swansea’s Dr Ben Evans says: “Wind tunnels have massive limitations. Bloodhound is a car, so it’s rolling on the ground. There are no wind tunnels where you can simulate this with a car travelling faster than the speed of sound. Our job is to make sure the vehicle stays on the ground, and that the drag is as low as possible.” In 2015, the Bloodhound team, led by Richard Noble OBE, will begin its attempt on the World Land Speed Record.

The devices fed back information via a wireless network to a central hub, or server, located at the village school, which was then sent to agriculture experts to assist farmers’ decision-making. The data was also fed into agricultural teaching at Kenyan schools. This project was led by the London Knowledge Lab, and involved UK researchers working with the University of Nairobi, and with rural communities in Kenya. In 2014, Professor Elmirghani leads the £6 million INTelligent EneRgy aware NETworks (INTERNET) research project in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Cambridge and a number of major industrial players. The five-year project is funded by EPSRC.

September 10: The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind, is powered up in Geneva

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2008 of an industry and academic partnership producing world-class research for the benefit of the environment and the car buyer. “The most important part of the project is that the technologies developed are available and affordable and, as we have already shown, can be easily implemented into next-generation models to produce lower emissions.”

Hotfire In 2008, a multidisciplinary collaboration between EPSRC-supported engineers and industry partners resulted in a concept car engine that reduces fuel consumption by 15 per cent. The award-winning system, which sprays fuel directly into the cylinders of a petrol engine rather than using a fuel/air mix, attracted interest from a number of major car manufacturers. The project, led by Professor Nicos Ladommatos, from University College London (UCL), was a collaboration between UCL, Loughborough University, Lotus Engineering and Continental Powertrain. Interviewed in 2008, Mike Kimberley, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus Plc, said: “The project is an excellent example

The affordable technology caught the interest of the car industry, and also won the Automotive category at The Engineer magazine’s Technology and Innovation Awards 2008. In 2009, the work on the Hotfire project was completed, and some of the technologies developed were taken forward by Lotus Engineering in subsequent engine development. In 2015, Professor Ladomattos and colleagues at UCL begin a new EPSRCfunded project, working with the University of Brighton, investigating ultra efficient engines and fuels. A project partner in the research is UK car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) with which the university has had a long-term collaboration, supporting its advanced engine research programmes.

RCUK India In 2008, a major collaborative research partnership between Research Councils UK and Indian agencies was launched. The initiative set up a dedicated Delhibased programme, RCUK India, which was set up to address major global challenges. EPSRC is heavily involved in the initiative, which spans energy security, food, arts, humanities, social sciences, water & climate change, chronic disease and sustainable crop production. Projects co-funded by EPSRC include research into advanced manufacturing; smart energy grids and storage; and sustainable energy. In just six years the joint research programme had gone from an almost zero base to close to £150 million in jointly-funded UK-India projects.

Early warning In 2008, at the age of 27, Olga Kubassova, a former EPSRC-sponsored doctoral student at the University of Leeds, founded medical software company Image Analysis to commercialise her research.

High performance HECToR In 2008, EPSRC launched HECToR, the largest and most advanced supercomputing facility in the UK. Based at the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Computing Facility, the £113 million service ran for six years and was managed by EPSRC on behalf of the UK Research Councils. The new supercomputer, which was capable of making 63 million, million calculations per second – 10,000 for every person on the planet – provided a worldclass, internationally accessible service for UK-based academic research. HECToR also supported the development of innovative computational technologies PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

and encouraged industry and commerce to make effective use of high-end computing. As one of the largest and most advanced supercomputers in Europe, HECToR played a key role in keeping researchers at the forefront of their fields. Its work included forecasting the impact of climate change, modelling fluctuations in ocean currents, projecting the spread of epidemics, designing new materials and developing new medicinal drugs. In 2014, HECToR was decommissioned and replaced by the ARCHER supercomputer, one of the fastest on the planet. You can find out more about HECToR in Pioneer 12, covering 1994-2003.

The company’s image analysis platform, Dynamika, allows clinicians a vital window of opportunity to treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases in its early stages. It does this by turning the abstract concept of algorithms into innovative software to enable repeatable and reliable early diagnosis. The software is now used in hospitals and clinical departments across Europe, and Image Analysis has grown to employ 25 staff. In 2012, Olga Kubassova (pictured) was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Everywoman in Technology Awards, and in 2014 Image Analysis was featured as Wired magazine’s Start-up of the Week.

August 17: Michael Phelps surpasses Mark Spitz in Gold Medals won at a single Olympics, winning eight in total

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Cell mates The year 2008 marked the highly significant fourth anniversary of an enduring research partnership between four scientists from different disciplines: Professors Lee Cronin, from the University of Glasgow, Natalio Krasnogor and Cameron Alexander, from The University of Nottingham, and Ben Davis from the University of Oxford, who met during a 2004 EPSRC-sponsored ‘Sandpit’ creative workshop aimed at promoting bluesky, curiosity-led research. The Sandpit, one of the first in a new generation of creative workshops, focused on the potential development of synthetic chemical-cells, or CHELLS, a phrase coined at the workshop and now adopted in many scientific and popular articles on synthetic biology. Following on from the Sandpit, Professors Alexander, Krasnogor, Davis and Cronin co-authored a discussion piece in Nature Biotechnology with fellow Sandpit participants proposing a ‘thought experiment’ to determine whether an artificial cell is alive. This led to a thoughtprovoking film with designer James King, The Imitation Game. And so the Chellnet network was born. The film was the first product of a remarkable multidisciplinary collaboration between the four scientists, which, through individual and joint research projects, took three approaches to the CHELL concept: polymeric, chemical biological and inorganic. These projects explored, in different and complementary directions, ways to understand how cellular structures might imitate a living system, and the profound impact this might have. All four scientists have since contributed important advances in synthetic, chemical and computational biology research. In 2008, chemist Cameron Alexander, who has steered his research towards medical uses for CHELL technology, working with doctoral student George Pasparakis, took some initial steps towards creating a PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

synthetic copycat of a living cell, using long-chain molecules to mimic the surfaces of the real thing.

steps towards creating ‘life’ from inorganic chemicals, potentially defining the new area of ‘inorganic biology’.

The EPSRC-supported research could one day lead to new targeted drug delivery systems, where the artificial cell capsules carry drug molecules to attack specific diseased cells in the body, while leaving healthy cells intact. It could thus offer a new weapon in the fight against superbugs.

The inorganic cells, which can store electrons similar to a battery, and also harvest solar energy, could potentially be used in numerous medical applications in medicine, as sensors or to confine chemical reactions. By taking a ‘minimal’ approach to the assembly of inorganic CHELLS they hope to understand how living systems can spontaneously emerge in the ‘inorganic’ world.

In 2009, supported by an EPSRC Platform Grant, chemical biologist Professor Ben Davis and Paul Gardner, from the Davis research group, constructed a lipid-bound ‘protometabolism’ that synthesises complex carbohydrates from simple raw materials. This encapsulated system may represent the first step towards the realisation of a synthetic chemical cell that displays complex behaviours such as communication with natural cells. All four founding members of Chellnet provided input into this research; Davis has also worked with Cameron Alexander on the development of polymer CHELLS. In 2011, Natalio Krasnogor, at the time working at The University of Nottingham’s School of Computer Science, began an ambitious EPSRC-funded project that takes a synthetic biology approach to developing a biological cell equivalent of a computer operation system. If successful, the research will lead to a ‘re-programmable cell’ within a living organism. Not only would this revolutionise synthetic biology, it would pave the way for scientists to utilise biology as a next-generation platform from which to build a ‘biological computer’.

The Cronin group’s aims are ambitious: to engineer/discover routes to artificial life. These routes may also be relevant to determining the origin of life on Earth and to understanding how easy (or hard) it could be for the emergence of life elsewhere. In December 2014, Cronin’s team reported it had succeeded in creating an abiotic evolving chemical system for the first time. The process uses a robotic ‘aid’ and could be used in the future to ‘evolve’ new chemicals capable of performing specific tasks. All stemming from a creative thinking workshop (see pages 80-83) the like of which none of the four scientists had experienced before, and which set them on a journey of discovery which could lead to new forms of life – but not quite as we know them.

Now at Newcastle University, where he is professor of computer science and synthetic biology, Krasnogor’s expertise in synthetic biology has helped to unify the diverse projects conducted by the Chellnet. In 2011, Lee Cronin and his team of EPSRC-supported scientists took their first tentative

November 11: The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) set sail on her final voyage to Dubai

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2009 Investing in future talent In 2009, in a bold new approach to doctoral student training, EPSRC invested £250 million in 44 all-new Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). It was the biggest-ever single investment in training scientists and engineers and led to comprehensive ‘cohort-based’ training for over 2,000 doctoral students, tackling some of the biggest problems facing the UK and the planet, such as climate change, energy, an ageing population and high-tech crime. Such has been the success of the initiative, EPSRC has continued to develop the programme, particularly through a major new tranche of investment in 2014. There are now 115 new CDTs in 33 universities, training over 7,000 postgraduates on specific research challenges, such as cybersecurity, renewable energy, robotics and applied photonics. Based on a series of successful pilot schemes in ‘cohort-based’ doctoral training, begun in 2002, the initiative created communities of researchers, bringing together diverse areas of expertise to train engineers and scientists with the skills, knowledge and confidence to tackle today’s evolving issues. Centres for Doctoral Training create new working cultures, build relationships between teams in universities and forge lasting links with industry, providing clear pathways and opportunities for businesses and universities to work together. Today there are 1,000 partner companies – from


global megabrands such as P&G and Tata Steel to SMEs. Combined governmental and partner funding for CDTs is now £962 million, including £31 million in capital investment. It is the UK’s largest investment in postgraduate training, in areas of key importance to the UK economy and society, representing perhaps the biggest industry-educational trans-sector training investment in Europe. EPSRC Associate Director, Dr Alison Wall, says: “Cohort-based training such as this brings people together to look at real-world problems. They don’t just focus on areas of concern to GSK or Rolls-Royce, they will often have 10-20 companies working on problems. They see commonalities of approach, which are usually multidisciplinary, and they develop multiple solutions. “More than 40 per cent of CDT studentships are collaborative with a company from the very start. Students work with business and other mentors and some may spend most of their time in a company. “We also help to provide students with the skills that might lead them to become entrepreneurs. This is training for the business environment. “Nearly half of all EPSRC-supported students go into business straight after their doctorate, and most will end up working in business and government for their longer-term career.”

January 3: Israeli ground forces invade Gaza

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January 20: Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the United States’ first African-American president

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2009 Green speed


June 1: Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, en route from Rio de Janeiro, killing all 228 on board

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In 2009, an EPSRC-supported team from the University of Warwick, led by Dr Kerry Kirwan, an EPSRC Challenging Engineering award holder, designed and built the world’s first fully sustainable Formula 3 racing car. The WorldF3st (pictured) is made from woven flax, recycled carbon fibre, recycled resin and carrot pulp for the steering wheel. It runs on biofuel made from chocolate and animal fats and is lubricated with plant oils. It is both environmentally friendly and fast, and can achieve 0-60 in 2.5 seconds before reaching a top speed of 175 mph. The car was launched at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed, showcased at the British

Grand Prix and later demonstrated at the European Grand Prix. In 2009, WorldF3st was featured as one of TIME Magazine’s Top 50 Global Inventions. In 2010, the research team were short-listed for Times Higher Education magazine’s award for Outstanding Engineering Research Team of the Year. In 2013, EPSRC funded further research at Warwick to develop recycled composites and flax-reinforced composites for the LolaDrayson all-electric prototype racing car, demonstrating the potential of sustainable technologies in the motorsport industry.

The car later broke the World Land Speed Record for a lightweight electric car, hitting a top speed of 204.2 mph at a racetrack at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire. Also in 2013, a multidisciplinary, multiuniversity team led by Dr Kirwan began a £3 million, three-year EPSRC-funded project aimed at using plants and bacteria to recover useful materials, such as platinum, nickel and arsenic, from contaminated land. Working with a University of Edinburgh team, led by Dr Louise Horsfall, the team use fungi and bacteria to degrade the plant biomass, a process which unlocks the metals the plants have accumulated. The bacteria ingest the metals, forming metallic nanoparticles for later extraction. With the fungi the bacteria also produce chemicals and other products for the pharmaceutical industry. The idea for the project emerged from an EPSRC ‘Sandpit’ (see pages 80-83) involving scientists from Newcastle, Birmingham, Cranfield, Edinburgh and Warwick universities. In 2014, Dr Kerry Kirwan is Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing at the University of Warwick. He is also Strategic Director of the Industrial Doctorate Centre and Head of the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Research Group within Warwick Manufacturing Group. Dr Kirwan also leads the university’s Global Research Priority in Innovative Manufacturing.


June 25: The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief

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2009

Putting life back into stone In 2009, EPSRC-supported scientists and preservation experts joined forces to help save historic York Minster Cathedral from decay and erosion. Researchers co-funded by EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) at the Universities of York and Cardiff used advanced X-ray techniques to investigate the composition of the limestone and historic mortars used to build York Minster, and the ways in which these have decayed as a result of weathering and pollution over time. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Through their research, the project team, led by Dr Karen Wilson from Cardiff University, were able to provide crucial advice to conservation experts on how best to treat the stone to prevent further decay. They also advised on the most suitable materials to be used in the restoration of York Minster’s East Front. In 2012, a team led by Dr Karen Wilson and her fellow Cardiff colleague, Professor Adam Lee, developed a new treatment that could help protect historic limestone buildings from erosion.

Working on York Minster’s iconic magnesian limestone cathedral, the team developed a new treatment, utilising hydrophobic surface coatings, which protects limestone from erosion by acid rain and atmospheric pollutants, while allowing the stone to ‘breathe’. Findings from the project, which was funded through the Science and Heritage Programme co-funded by EPSRC and AHRC, could now be used to help conserve other historic limestone buildings around the world.

January 19: The UK Government confirms a £300-billion bailout package for the United Kingdom’s banking industry

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50 after 50 In 2009, EPSRC-funded researchers at the University of Leeds embarked on the 50 Active Years after 50® healthcare technologies initiative, focused on regenerative therapies such as joint and organ replacements. Its aim was to help ensure people can live as actively up to 100 years of age as they did up to 50 years. The group’s work includes developing longer-lasting joint replacements for the hip, knee and spine; bio-regenerative scaffolds for tissue regeneration in areas such as heart valves, blood vessels, meniscus and ligaments; enhancing the quality and reliability of devices such as implants and biomaterials and advancing stem cell therapies. Based within the prestigious Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering at Leeds, the research team, led by Professors John

Fisher and Eileen Ingham, is addressing these challenges through seven major centres and EPSRC Programme Grants. The centres include the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine; the EPSRC/Wellcome Trust-supported WELMEC Centre of Excellence in Medical Engineering; and the EPSRC-supported Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) in Regenerative Therapies and Devices. With his team, Professor Fisher, a member of EPSRC Council, its senior decision-making body, has pioneered work on longer-lasting joint replacements, revolutionary spinal interventions and a new generation of biological scaffolds for tissue repair that grow with the body.

Successful IKC projects have included a portable heart scanner, new surgical technologies and an award-winning product that can reverse early-stage tooth decay. The research that led to this product was funded by EPSRC, beginning in the 1990s.

The Medical Technologies IKC alone has attracted over £90 million in research and innovation funding, as well as over £50 million in private sector investment in product development (see page 31).

In 2013, the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices was inaugurated at the University of Leeds. The centre dovetails with the Medical Technologies Innovation and Knowledge Centre.

Called to account In 2009, EPSRC introduced its Knowledge Transfer Account programme, which saw investment of £55 million in 25 university-led projects focusing on grants to help further exploit the outputs of EPSRC-funded research. Universities were given the flexibility to use their KTA funding in areas such as proof-of-concept funding, entrepreneurship training, networking, people exchange, business relationship-building and start-up generation.

Trump card In 2009, cutting-edge computer modelling software brought an extinct, trumpet-like instrument back to life – allowing a work by Bach to be performed as the composer intended for the first time in nearly 300 years. No one alive had heard, played or even seen a picture of the lituus – a two-metre long horn made from beech. It was recreated thanks to software developed by Dr Alistair Braden, an EPSRC-supported doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh. Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, a Swissbased music conservatory specialising in PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

early music, used Edinburgh’s designs to build two identical examples of the longlost instrument. Both were later used in an experimental Bach performance. The research opened up the potential for tailor-made musical instruments to suit the individual needs of musicians. The project also has potential applications in structural engineering. For example, acoustic signals could be sent through hardto-reach pipework and ducting in buildings such as power stations to reveal their condition accurately.

January 21: Toyota surpasses General Motors to become the world’s largest car maker

Among many successful projects, a team from Newcastle University used their Knowledge Transfer Account funding to develop an ultra low-cost pre-natal scanner that uses pulses of high frequency sound to build up a picture of the unborn child on a computer screen. Conventional ultrasound scanners can cost up to £100,000, but the device can be manufactured for as little as £40. In 2012, Knowledge Transfer Accounts were replaced by Impact Acceleration Accounts, which build on the KTA concept.

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2009 Synthetic science In 2009, following a successful blue-sky thinking ‘Sandpit’ exercise (see pages 8083), EPSRC and the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) co-invested £6 million in five new collaborative research projects between UK and US researchers in the emerging field of synthetic biology – a new approach to engineering biology.

Still in its infancy, synthetic biology could revolutionise how we make things – from innovative biofuels to a new generation of antibodies and vaccines – and the research projects launched under the initiative covered areas ranging from biological and chemical engineering to plant biology and sociology.

In 2009, EPSRC and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), held a year-long series of public workshops and stakeholder interviews on the science and issues surrounding synthetic biology, and helped to articulate some important questions for those developing the field.

The Sandpit concept was subsequently adopted by the NSF and by other UK research councils – inspired by the creative thinking it unlocked.

In 2009, EPSRC co-invested in the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial College London under its Science and Innovation Awards initiative (see page 18). The centre is developing the foundational tools for synthetic biology and using these to generate innovative biological applications in healthcare and industry. In 2013, EPSRC invested in the SynbiCITE Innovation and Knowledge Centre (see page 18), led by Imperial College London. With funding from BBSRC and the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK), the centre aims to serve as a national resource integrating university and industry-based research in synthetic biology and to accelerate this into industrial processes and products. It also functions as a vehicle for the support of UK SMEs and startup companies. Since its formation, the centre has generated over £4.5 million in additional research income. In 2014, a multidisciplinary UK/US research team published Synthetic Aesthetics, a book resulting from their project of the same name emerging from the 2009 Sandpit event. The book explores synthetic biology and the design of living systems, using design and art as a way to open up the discussion.


October 2: Rio de Janeiro is elected as host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics

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commissioned by EPSRC and Dstl, which includes research into converting and storing other sources of energy such as solar power and body heat. In 2011, Professor Bell and colleagues at Leeds launched Ionix Advanced Technologies Ltd to commercialise the research.

Sky science In 2009, research by EPSRC-sponsored engineers at Queen’s University Belfast’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), led by Raymond Dickie, an Engineering Doctorate student funded by EPSRC, developed a high performance filter that will allow weather forecasters to make more accurate predictions. The filters will be installed in European Space Agency satellites for launch between 2018 and 2020, and will enable more accurate global weather forecasts to be compiled. The filters will also help to provide important new insights into climate change. ECIT’s research on Frequency Selective Surface structures has led to major advances in the design and manufacture of the next generation of Earth observation satellites.

The company focuses on a range of devices based on high-temperature piezoelectric materials which could transform industry’s ability to electronically monitor and interact with extreme environments. The products’ potential market in industries such as aerospace, oil and gas and nuclear power is estimated at more than £500 million per annum. In 2014, Ionix received funding from Innovate UK to accelerate the commercialisation of its products.

The thick of it In 2009, an EPSRCfunded team at Imperial College London’s Department of Chemistry Cancer Cells, led by EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Marina Kuimova (pictured), showed how cancer cells become ‘gloopy’ or viscous as they die – a discovery which could lead to a better understanding of how to treat cancer. In 2009, Dr Kuimova won the Roscoe Medal for Chemistry at the SET for Britain awards, a national competition aimed at raising the profile of early-stage researchers. In 2010, Dr Kuimova was awarded a five-year EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship to continue her viscosityrelated research.

Zappy feet In 2009, a team of engineers at the University of Leeds, led by Professor Andrew Bell, developed a system to convert foot power into battery power for use by foot soldiers. The system could reduce the weight of troops’ packs by up to 10 kilogrammes. The devices use high-tech piezoelectric transducers to convert mechanical stress into electricity. The project was part of a larger programme of research called the ‘battery free soldier’, PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

In 2012, she received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize for her pioneering studies in the spectroscopy and imaging of biological materials. In 2014, Dr Kuimova was awarded the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics C6 Young Scientist Prize in recognition of her exceptional achievement in the field of biological physics.

February 1: The wreck of the British warship HMS Victory is discovered in the English Channel

Cleared for take off In 2009, one of the most sophisticated aircraft simulators ever created – designed to mimic the flight deck of supersonic aircraft Concorde – was officially recommissioned at Brooklands Museum in Surrey, four decades after the first British Concorde made its maiden flight. The simulator was brought back to life thanks to an EPSRC-supported public engagement project led by a team from the University of Surrey and involving experts from XPI Simulation and dozens of museum volunteers. Today, the simulator helps explain to visitors the roles played by advanced technologies, and especially airframe and engine aerodynamics, in making Concorde the world’s only successful supersonic passenger transport. The simulator, one of only two in the world, cost £3 million in 1975 (equivalent to over £30 million today).

Well above average In 2009, a three-year study of over 7,000 academic journal articles showed that EPSRC-supported researchers achieve a higher than average citation rate of 1.6 compared to a UK average of 1.4 and a world average of only 1.0. The higher rating reflected the impact that EPSRC-supported researchers have and also highlighted how competitive EPSRC-funded research is internationally.

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2010 Anti-heroes In 2010, after years of research, Professor Mike Charlton (pictured) and his team in the Physics Department at Swansea University made the firstever direct measurement of an atom of pure antihydrogen – the simplest form of antimatter. This was no easy task. When matter and antimatter come into contact they instantly annihilate each other, making it very tricky to keep an atom of anti-hydrogen around long enough to look at it. But the team, part of the wider ALPHA experiment at CERN seeking to make detailed observations of anti-hydrogen, developed a technique using magnetic fields to trap anti-atoms for up to half an hour (“an eternity for physicists” according to Mike Charlton), and easily long enough for them to be studied. At stake in all this is nothing less than an understanding of why the universe exists at all. The picture that we have of how the universe began suggests that there should have been equal amounts of matter and antimatter created in the Big Bang. The lack of antimatter that we can see in the universe is a mystery. By studying antimatter atoms, we may come to discover some of the tiny but fundamental asymmetries between particles of matter and antimatter, which may explain why they didn’t just cancel themselves out after the Big Bang, leaving a universe with nothing in it.


The ALPHA project breakthrough came after a period of more than 15 years, during which EPSRC supported teams from the physics departments of the universities of Swansea, Liverpool and Manchester. Mike Charlton says: “This was the culmination of many years of effort for the Swansea team and our colleagues. EPSRC support helped us to put our teams together and also paid for specialist equipment. EPSRC has been by far the largest source of support for this work in the UK.” In 1996, EPSRC was the first national research council anywhere in Europe to commit to the ATHENA project at CERN, which aimed to produce large amounts of anti-hydrogen atoms for the first time. Mike Charlton says: “EPSRC took a chance in funding this highly speculative project in 1996. But its support acted as a catalyst, persuading other countries to contribute to the ATHENA consortium. EPSRC’s faith in the project was key to the success of this international collaboration.” Given that CERN was the only place where research in this area could be carried out, EPSRC’s support included a large number of travel grants, in addition to capital and other investments. In 2002, the ATHENA consortium, within which Mike Charlton’s team played a pivotal role, achieved the world’s first controlled production of anti-hydrogen atoms. Though the atoms only lasted for a fraction of a second before annihilation, this paved the

way for the later trapping experiments and now the detailed studies of their properties. The 2002 breakthrough had been made possible thanks to EPSRC support for the Swansea team over the previous six years, particularly through the development of a positron accumulator – a vital piece of equipment that enabled the breakthrough. Built in the UK before being shipped over and installed at CERN, the accumulator was able to collect around 100 million positrons every three minutes, for use in anti-hydrogen experiments. In 2013, EPSRC announced further support for Mike Charlton’s team, this time for Dr Niels Madsen, a Reader in Physics at Swansea University’s College of Science. A £1.66 million grant will fund experiments to trap anti-hydrogen atoms for still longer periods of time, and to carry out further precision measurements of them. EPSRC support for the Swansea team’s research will continue at least up to 2017. Antimatter has long been a staple of science fiction. We may not be about to see Star Trek-style warp engines any time soon, but thanks to Mike Charlton’s team we may soon be able to understand some fundamental aspects of the universe. Mike Charlton says: “The epoch of EPSRC support for this project, and its farsightedness in backing it when there was no guarantee that anyone else would, is a remarkable story in itself.”

January 4: The US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removes HIV infection from its list of communicable diseases of public health significance

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February 24: News reports indicate that Europe risks a double-dip recession after bad results emerge from France, Germany and Italy, with the Eurozone only growing by 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2009

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2010

Graft masters In 2010, ApaTech, an award-winning spin out company launched to commercialise EPSRC-supported research by medical materials engineer Dr Karin Hing and Professor William Bonfield at Queen Mary, University of London, was acquired by global healthcare company Baxter International for US$330 million. The company was formed in 2001 with an initial investment of £3 million to commercialise pioneering research into synthetic bone substitutes. The research, which led to a form of bone graft with enhanced structure and chemistry to boost healing, was developed at the EPSRC-supported Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials at Queen Mary, University of London. ApaTech became an object lesson in how


innovative technology from a UK university can be developed and commercialised on a global scale. Several successful venture capital investment rounds underpinned significant expansion of the business including new manufacturing capacity. These enabled it to continue the development of its lead products, particularly its bone graft substitute, Actifuse, which was successfully marketed in Europe, the United States and other select sectors around the world.

In 2009, by now an acknowledged leader in synthetic bone materials for orthopaedic and dental applications, with a major manufacturing plant in the UK and growing sales world-wide, ApaTech generated sales of around US$60 million. In the same year, the company was ranked number two in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 Fastest Growing Private Medical Technology Companies listing.

In 2007, ApaTech won the Business Initiative Award at the Times Higher Education Supplement awards.

In 2009, ApaTech was named fastestgrowing company in its category by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 for Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

In 2008, ApaTech received the Research and Development Award at the Tech Track awards, in recognition of the innovative and ground-breaking research which has underpinned the company’s growth.

In 2011, Dr Karin Hing, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, received a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for her role as the ‘technical linchpin’ behind ApaTech.

April 20: The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers, resulting in one of the largest oil spills in history

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Manufacturing the future In 2010, the first three state-of-theart EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing (CIMs) were launched under a new £70 million EPSRC investment to help UK businesses develop the technology products of the future and underpin manufacturing growth. Specifically the centres were tasked with enabling the commercial development of the key discoveries in university-based manufacturing research. Based at Southampton, Loughborough and Brunel universities, the EPSRC Centres focused respectively on research into photonics, regenerative medicine and liquid metals for reuse and recycling. The new EPSRC Centres built on the success of the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMRC) funding model, in place from 2001 until 2009, which saw 18 university-based centres receive an initial block grant for five years, with potential for up to a further five years. By 2014, the number of EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing across the UK had grown to 16, covering subject areas ranging from liquid metal manufacturing to additive manufacturing. Many of these

Pee power In 2010, EPSRC awarded a four-year Career Acceleration Fellowship to Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos, from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), a University of Bristol/ University of the West England research facility, to develop his research into how waste could be used by microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to generate energy. Live microorganisms inside the fuel cell process the waste to produce electricity. By 2010, the BRL team had already launched the third generation of EcoBot, a robot which can power itself by digesting waste. The early stage work of this research was funded by EPSRC. A unique aspect of the team’s research is the use of urine as a waste material to power the MFCs. Every day, around PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

centres’ directors hail from industry, or have a strong industrial background. Some CIMs are focused on future products such as composites, food and pharma that will be especially important to the UK, and some investigate production technologies and how they scale up, such as additive manufacturing and automation. EPSRC works very closely with Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board). The CIMs and Innovate UK’s Catapults – technology innovation centres – have a particularly close symbiosis, often overlapping. The Catapults tackle the problems of today, EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing research the solutions of the future. Between them, the CIMs and Catapults cover more than 20 core fields of science, engineering and business. Together they are tackling key challenges for modern industry, including automation, the digital economy, future cities, continuous pharmaceutical manufacture, food, satellites, industrial sustainability, graphene engineering, sustainable feedstocks and much more.

EPSRC currently invests £80 million every year in UK manufacturing research – mainly through its Manufacturing the Future initiative. This programme has a portfolio of 230 projects representing an investment of over £350 million in cuttingedge work at the UK’s leading universities, and through collaboration with over 600 companies, which have contributed a further £136 million. Together, the manufacturing researchers supported by EPSRC and the business partners they work with help decide which products and production methodologies the UK should focus on, and work out how to link the UK’s network of people and manufacturing processes.

38 billion litres of urine are produced by humans and farm animals worldwide – the energy from which, they have shown, could potentially be harnessed by scaling up MFCs into stacks. Another aspect of the research is the use of waste from oxygen-producing organisms, such as algae, within a self-sustaining system through which the bacteria use their own waste to produce energy. In 2013, claiming a world-first, Dr Ieropoulos and BRL colleagues used urine to produce electricity to charge a mobile phone, generating enough power to enable the phone to be used to make a brief call, send text messages and browse the internet. In 2014, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded US$100,000 to BRL under the Grand Challenges Explorations Scheme to fund the Urine-tricity project

investigating generating electricity from urine and wastewater for countries of the developing world. The project is also funded by EPSRC. Dr Ieropoulos says: “Not only is the technology we are developing a means of electricity generation, it can also improve sanitation. The work carried out under the EPSRC grant is primarily focused at developing this technology for the developed world.”

May 15: Aged just 16, Australian teenager Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world solo

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2010

State of the art In 2010, the hidden secrets of some of the world’s most famous paintings were revealed, thanks to a partnership between EPSRC and the National Gallery. A state-of-the-art gas chromatographymass spectrometer (GC-MS), funded by EPSRC, helped specialists in the National Gallery’s science department study the organic chemistry of old master paintings to understand how paintings were made and how they have changed over time. In painstaking investigations, the scientists used GC-MS to study the characterisation and composition of paint binding media, additions to paint media such as resins, and the composition of old varnishes. The ground-breaking project culminated in the first major exhibition of its kind in summer 2010 and also featured in Pioneer. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

In 2014, the partnership between EPSRC and the National Gallery led to EPSRC funding the purchase of a new state-ofthe-art high-tech easel that makes it possible to examine great works of art in unprecedented detail. The computer-controlled easel is capable of safely holding a very large painting and moving it in minute steps to make the most of the latest digital technology. Identifying the materials used as pigments provides information on aspects such as the age of a picture and the painting technique used. Scientists and other researchers at the National Gallery are using digital imaging to build up a high resolution image of paintings to learn about their structure, the way they are made and what needs to be done for their preservation. The easel will open up opportunities to try out new types of research.

Ashok Roy, Director of Collections at the National Gallery, says:“We expect we will be able to acquire very high resolution images in various parts of the spectrum that would be unobtainable without this technology, so it is a real advance in our imaging capabilities.” The easel helped inspire part of the 2014 Making Colour exhibition, through which National Gallery visitors were able to get involved in an interactive experiment that will feed into future research on human colour perception.

Nobel achievement In 2010, Professor Andre Geim and Dr Konstantin Novoselov, who were the first to isolate wonder-material graphene, in 2004, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. (see pages 4-7).

January 4: Anti-government protests in Tunisia and later other Arab nations begin. These protests become known collectively as the Arab Spring

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Calculating carbon They also used the process with mayonnaise – creating a five per cent fat version which tastes as good as the full-fat one – and with porridge.

Chocolate heaven In 2010, EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Birmingham, overseen by Professor Ian Norton, previously Chief Scientist at Unilever, created a low-fat chocolate which is 60 per cent water – claiming it tastes as good as a normal bar. The team replaced fat in foods with caloriefree substances such as water, air or gel.

The low-fat chocolate bar, which melts at 32-34 degrees Celsius, was created by bonding water particles with crystals of cocoa butter. A similar technique was used as a way to lower salt content in foods by up to 80 per cent. While at Unilever, Professor Norton was an inventor on more than 60 granted patents leading to many new and innovative products, including Flora Light and Chicken Tonight. In 2014, Professor Norton holds four EPSRC food-related grants. He also coleads the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food and the Centre for Sustainable Energy use in Food Chains.

Icy attraction In 2009, an EPSRCsupported team at the London Centre for Nanotechnology at University College London (UCL), led by Professor Steve Bramwell (pictured), discovered ‘magnetricity’ – the magnetic equivalent of electricity. By proving the existence of currents of atom-sized ‘magnetic charges’, that behave and interact just like electric charges, the UCL team won the Research Project of the Year prize at the 2010 Times Higher Education awards.

The research dates back to 1997, when Steve Bramwell, working with Mark Harris, from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, discovered the unusual magnetic material ‘spin ice’, drawing attention to certain similarities found within water ice. In 2010, Professor Bramwell was awarded the Holweck Medal and Prize for pioneering new concepts in the experimental and theoretical study of spin systems. Two years later he was a co-recipient of the prestigious Europhysics Prize for condensed matter physics, for the prediction and measurement of magnetic monopoles in spin ice.

In the same year, Professor Bramwell was named by The Times on its list of the 100 top UK scientists.

In 2014, Professor Bramwell led an EPSRC-supported team who demonstrated the surprising properties of thin films of spin ice.

The pioneering research, which revealed an unexpected symmetry between electricity and magnetism, could lead to new and unusual magnetic material properties, with potential applications in technology, such as in ‘magnetic memory’ storage devices or for use in future computer memory.

The team’s research opens up new possibilities for the control and manipulation of magnetricity and magnetic monopoles in spin ice. This could lead to a number of applications; for example, magnetic technology in computer hard disks is often based on thin magnetic films.


May 20: Scientists announce they have created a functional synthetic genome

In 2010, a carbon calculator software tool developed by chemical engineers led by Professor Adisa Azapagic at The University of Manchester won major awards from the chemical industry, including the Outstanding Achievement in Chemical and Process Engineering prize at the IChemE 2010 awards. The team’s CCaLC carbon calculator helps companies measure and reduce their carbon footprint at minimum cost and has been developed in collaboration with a range of industry partners. Professor Azapagic, who leads the Sustainable Industrial Systems research group at The University of Manchester, is world-renowned for her work on life cycle sustainability analysis. In 2011, CCaLC won the GSK Innovation Award, from the prestigious Chemical Industries Association. In 2013, Professor Azapagic is co-director of the newly-formed £7.5 million Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains, funded by the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, led by EPSRC. In the same year she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Critical chemistry In 2010, a report by leading economic forecasting consultancy Oxford Economics, commissioned by EPSRC and the Royal Society of Chemistry, revealed that one in every five pounds in the UK economy is dependent on developments in chemistry research. Industries reliant on chemistry contributed £258 billion to the UK economy in 2007 – equivalent to 21 per cent of UK GDP – and supported six million jobs, accounting for at least 15 per cent of the UK’s exported goods and attracting significant inward investment.

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Bright lights In 2011, UK semiconductor manufacturer, Plessey, purchased University of Cambridge spin out company, CamGaN, founded by Professor Sir Colin Humphreys to commercialise his ground-breaking research into gallium nitride (GaN), a remarkable man-made material with enormous potential. Plessey then set up a factory in Plymouth to make millions of GaN LEDs every week, using a process developed at the EPSRCsupported Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride to make a new generation of lowcost, low carbon, long-life LED lighting bulbs which could have a dramatic impact on carbon emissions, among other applications and benefits. Professor Humphreys says: “If everyone switched to GaN LEDs, we would halve the amount of electricity used in lighting. This would reduce the world’s total electricity consumption by 10 per cent. GaN LEDs also have a longer lifetime and typically only need replacing after 60 years of household use.” As is often the case, getting to the point where GaN LEDs can be made commercially has largely been about getting costs down. The Cambridge centre’s breakthrough was in working out a way of growing GaN-based semiconductors for LEDs on silicon wafers, which are much less expensive than the sapphire that was used before. Getting to that point depends upon a profound understanding of how GaN behaves, built up over years of research. In 1997, an EPSRC grant helped Professor Humphreys to identify the particular potential of gallium nitride, among a number of other promising semiconductors. He says: “EPSRC should be congratulated on seeing the importance


of gallium nitride. In 1997, that wasn’t at all clear.” In 2000, Professor Humphreys was instrumental in setting up The Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, which EPSRC has supported ever since, with grants jointly to him and to Professor Phil Dawson at The University of Manchester. The centre works with UK universities and a range of industrial partners to investigate GaN’s unusual properties and develop its myriad possible applications. In specialist applications, GaN could have a transformative effect. New cancer therapies are being developed which will use GaN devices to show where the edges of tumours are, so that X-rays can be focused on them much more accurately. GaN could also be instrumental in developing new therapies which use protons, rather than X-rays, to zap cancer cells. This work has been initiated by Professor Bruce Hamilton at The University of Manchester in collaboration with Professor Humphreys. Deep ultra-violet GaN light could be used for water purification in the developing world, as it has been shown to kill all known viruses and bacteria. In hospitals, it could be used to wipe out bacteria such as MRSA. Shining a GaN ultra-violet light around a ward could be enough to kill any bugs lurking there.

LED light beam, opening up a new field of complementary wireless networking technology with numerous advantages, including energy efficiency and security. The term li-fi was coined by its inventor, Professor Harald Haas, an EPSRCsupported scientist at the University of Edinburgh and recipient of a 2014 EPSRC RISE leadership award in recognition of his achievements. Professor Martin Dawson at the University of Strathclyde has an EPSRC Programme Grant to develop li-fi, in collaboration with Professor Humphreys. Colin Humphreys says: “We had no idea of some of these applications even 12 months ago. Gallium nitride is a good example of a material where its possible uses can mushroom, once you have a proper understanding of how it behaves. “For example, just by mimicking sunlight, GaN LED lights have positive effects. We know that patients on the sunnier side of a ward get better quicker. And schools with higher quality lighting get better results.” In 2014, the Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by Japanese scientists Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura for their invention of blue LEDs. Colin Humphreys and his team are building on this important work. The deal with Plessey is an integral part of the vision.

In the world of computing, gallium nitride could be deployed in the optical computers of tomorrow, which would use photons rather than electrons, making much faster processing speeds possible.

Commenting on GaN LEDs’ potential for affordable low-carbon lighting, Professor Humphreys says: “It’s very important to us that this research will be exploited in the UK. If we had stopped at the research stage, our work would probably have been picked up and commercialised overseas.

With the extraordinary growth of wi-fi, the current wavelengths it uses will soon be saturated. But GaN could be used to create a kind of ‘li-fi’ – wi-fi provided through an

“This way, we can create more jobs in a low-employment part of the country and potentially turn Britain into a major centre for better, greener lighting.”

January 15: Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia, turns 10 years old

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2011 Autonomous thinking

Tag team In 2011, Dr Sithamparanathan Sabesan and Dr Michael Crisp, from the University of Cambridge, won prizes at the inaugural ICT Pioneers competition. The annual competition, which EPSRC coordinates on behalf of sponsor companies such as Microsoft, recognises the most exceptional UK doctoral students in topics related to Information & Communications Technology (ICT). The duo went on to receive a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) ERA Foundation Entrepreneurship Award, together with project partner Boeing, for research into a low-cost location-sensing system that could save airlines and retailers millions of pounds. The team’s research, which uses a form of radio tagging, was developed as part of the five-year The INtelligent Airport (TINA) project, funded by EPSRC and Boeing.

In 2011, Autonomy Corporation plc was sold for £7.1 billion to US computing giant Hewlett Packard. It was the largest takeover of a FTSE 100 company since Kraft bought out Cadbury for £13 billion early in 2010. Founded in 1996 by Dr Mike Lynch to commercialise his EPSRC-funded PhD thesis in mathematical computing at the University of Cambridge, in 16 years Autonomy became the UK’s biggest pure software company, with nearly 2,000 employees in the UK, and a world leader in allowing computers to harness the full richness of human information. Over 90 per cent of Fortune 1,000 companies are Autonomy customers and more than two billion people rely on the company’s software every day. Dr Lynch (pictured), who held a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

while at Cambridge, served as CEO of Autonomy for over 15 years and is widely regarded as Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneur. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a scientific adviser to the UK Prime Minister. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 2014. In 2012, Dr Lynch was inducted into the Digital Hall of Fame, alongside Tim Berners-Lee, Warren East and Stephen Fry. In the same year he joined the advisory board of Tech City’s Investment Committee. He is also an adviser to the Prince’s Trust Technology Group. In 2013, Dr Lynch co-founded Invoke Capital, a technology fund vehicle dedicated to unlocking the potential of European technology. In 2013, Invoke made its first investment, in Darktrace, a cyber-security company based on ground-breaking mathematical research at the University of Cambridge.

The TINA project focused on the development of a next-generation advanced wireless network to meet the requirements of future ‘intelligent’ airports for both fixed and mobile appliances.

Brightest light In 2011, the brightest gamma ray beam ever created – over a thousand billion times more brilliant than the sun – was produced in EPSRCsupported research led by Professor Dino Jaroszynski at the University of Strathclyde. The device, which can produce laser pulses lasting a quadrillionth of a second, is smaller and less costly than more conventional sources of gamma rays, a form of X-ray. Potential uses for the device include applications in medical imaging, radiotherapy and PET scanning.

March 11: A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the east of Japan, killing 15,840 people and leaving another 3,926 missing

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Life savers

EPSRC sponsorship of the project began in 2006, but the windpipe for Andemariam Beyene was ‘designed’ and grown in just two weeks. Professor Seifalian’s team worked around the clock to build the polymer windpipe. It was then taken by doctoral student Claire Crowley, a key member of the development team, to Karolinska University in Sweden where it was ‘seeded’ with the patient’s own cells by a team led by Professor Paolo Macchiarini.

In 2011, surgeons in Sweden carried out the world’s first synthetic organ transplant using a windpipe ‘grown’ from the patient’s stem cells.

The full biological trachea was grown in a bioreactor specially designed for the procedure by Harvard Bioscience.

Without the new windpipe, the patient, Andemariam Beyene, from Eritrea, whose own windpipe had been blocked by an inoperable tumour the size of a golf ball, would have died. He had been given just two weeks to live – not long enough to find a donor.

The artificial trachea was successfully transplanted during a 15-hour operation by Professor Macchiarini, who holds an honorary appointment at University College London, and who worked with Professor Seifalian on the design and development of the trachea scaffold using a material known as a novel nanocomposite polymer.

The artificial organ was designed and developed by a multidisciplinary team led by Professor Alex Seifalian at University College London.

Over the past two decades, with funding from EPSRC and the Wellcome Trust, and drawing inspiration from natural structures such as butterfly wings, Professor Seifalian

Whisky a no-go

another. By analysing the collection of light scattered from the whisky, the researchers were able to diagnose the sample.

In 2011, using a ray of light the width of a human hair, a team of researchers at the University of St Andrews developed a new method for testing whether

Using this sample, the team were able to investigate and discriminate single malt Scotch whiskies based on brand, age and even which cask had been used. The chip used in the study was originally employed to detect bio-analytes in biomedical studies.

a whisky is genuine. The method can work out the brand, age and even which cask was used to create a single malt, from a sample no bigger than a teardrop.

His materials have been used in a range of world-firsts, including transplants of trachea, nose, ear and tear duct. They are also poised to find application in artificial blood vessels, opening up potentially vast markets. In 2013, Claire Crowley visited Andemariam Beyene in Iceland, where he was alive and well and in his final year as a PhD geology student at the national university. In 2014, Professor Seifalian (pictured, with Claire Crowley) began work on two threeyear EPSRC-supported projects in the field of regenerative medicine, in partnership with Pharmidex Pharmaceutical Services. One project in particular, in partnership with Biomer Technology Ltd, includes building a custom-made 3D bio-printer with multi-printing heads and an environmental chamber which can print ‘live’ tubular organs with trachea as an exemplar. This project has paved the way to printing a range of artificial organs to meet individual patient needs.

of making stainless steel surfaces become resistant to bacteria, and also stronger. By introducing silver or copper into the steel surface (rather than coating it on to the surface), the researchers developed an innovative technique that not only kills bacteria but also makes the surface very hard and resistant to wear and tear during cleaning. Bacteria resistant surfaces could be used in hospitals to prevent the spread of superbug infections on stainless steel surfaces, as well as for medical equipment, for example, instruments and implants. The technology developed by Professor Dong and his team could also be adapted for use in the food industry and in domestic and professional kitchens.

The patented research, subsequently presented to the drinks industry, which loses millions annually to counterfeit producers, was carried out by physicists Praveen Ashok, Kishan Dholakia and Bavishna Praveen. The project involved researchers placing a tiny amount of whisky on a transparent plastic chip no bigger than a credit card.

Steely resolve

Using optical fibres the width of a human hair, the whisky sample is illuminated by light using one fibre, and collected by

In 2011, materials scientists at the University of Birmingham, led by Professor Hanshan Dong, devised an innovative way


has developed a new generation of strong, flexible biocompatible polymers suitable for use in human patients.

In 2013, Professor Dong was awarded a £230,000 grant from the Commission of the European Communities to develop innovative plasma surface alloying technologies. In 2014, Professor Dong is director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Innovative Metal Processing based at the University of Birmingham.

September 22: CERN scientists erroneously announce their discovery of neutrinos breaking the speed of light

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2011 The car that drives itself In 2011, EPSRC-sponsored researchers from the University of Oxford equipped a modified Bowler Wildcat off-road vehicle (pictured) with technology to help it ‘see’ the world around it, and enable it to drive itself, without any human intervention. One day this technology could help cut down on road accidents and traffic congestion, which cost the UK economy more than £4.3 billion a year, or £491 per car-commuting household. The project is part of research at the university’s Mobile Robotics Group (MRG) coled by Professor Paul Newman, an EPSRC Leadership Fellow, and Professor Ingmar Posner, who say the low-cost technology enabling the vehicle to drive itself could one day be a feature on all cars. The research group use the mathematics of probability and estimation to enable computers in cars and robots to interpret data from cameras, radars and lasers, aerial photos and road plans. The group have been at the cutting edge of research into infrastructure-free navigation (i.e. navigation without GPS) for over a decade, and are acknowledged leaders PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

in this area. Paul Newman puts things succinctly: “If it moves, mobile autonomy has a role to play.” The team’s innovative navigation software can be applied to surveying, mining, warehousing and agriculture, and it has already been licensed for use on the European Space Agency’s ExoMARS project. MRG’s initial research into autonomous vehicles, co-sponsored by EPSRC Strategic Partner BAE Systems, used a Bowler Wildcat, based on a Land Rover Defender. Now, working with Japanese manufacturer Nissan, the team have installed their latest technology in a Nissan Leaf electric car, which gives a glimpse of what driving an ‘autonomous’ car of the future might be like. The car’s low-cost in-car navigation system uses 3D laser mapping, and can recognise its surroundings using small cameras and lasers discreetly built into the vehicle’s body and linked to a computer in the boot. Unlike the automated technology that has already found its way into some production cars, the system does not rely on GPS for

October 31: The world population reaches seven billion inhabitants according to the United Nations

the cars to find their way. The researchers explain that such systems cannot provide the coverage, precision and reliability autonomous cars need to safely navigate. Crucially, GPS also fails to tell a robotic car anything about its surroundings. The technology is controlled from an iPad on the dashboard, and at any time a tap on the brake pedal returns control to the human driver. In 2014, Professors Newman and Posner formed a spin out company, Oxbotica, to commercialise their research, and to exploit the Mobile Robotics Group’s suite of intellectual property and know-how developed over a decade of research. In the same year, Professor Newman was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2014, Innovate UK (formerly known as the Technology Strategy Board) invested £250,000 in Oxbotica to develop a production-feasible prototype of a low cost, infrastructure free (without GPS), 3D imaging device.

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3D chocolate heaven

Slope sensors In 2011, an early warning system to warn of landslides, developed by an EPSRC-supported team at Loughborough University led by Professor Neil Dixon, won The Engineer magazine’s Civil Engineering Award at its annual awards. Thought to be the first of its kind in the world, the Slope ALARMS detection system, developed through a collaboration between Loughborough University, Geotechnical Observations and the British Geological Survey, is a network of sensors buried across the hillside or embankment that presents a risk of collapse. The sensors, acting as microphones in the subsoil, record the acoustic activity of the soil across the slope and each transmits a signal to a central computer for analysis.

In 2011, to showcase ground-breaking 3D printing technology, a team of scientists at the University of Exeter, led by Dr Liang Hao, unveiled the world’s first chocolate printer using know-how that could revolutionise the retail industry. As well as the life-saving implications for countries prone to disastrous landslides, the technique can be used in monitoring the condition of potentially unstable slopes built to support transport infrastructure, such as rail and road embankments, in developed countries such as the UK. In 2012, Professor Neil Dixon received a follow-on EPSRC research grant to develop a revised lower power design of the Slope ALARMS sensor. In 2013, Professor Dixon began work on a multidisciplinary, multi-partner EPSRCfunded project investigating the sustainable management of embankment slopes. The project is led by Professor Stephanie Glendenning from Newcastle University, a key member of the Assessing the Underworld project (see page 17).

Twitter tracks flu In 2011, a study by researchers at the University of Bristol used social media, such as Facebook and microblogging services like Twitter, to track events or phenomena such as flu outbreaks and rainfall rates. The research geo-tagged user posts on PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

the microblogging service of Twitter to investigate two scenarios: levels of rainfall in a given location and time using the content of tweets; and regional flu-like illness rates from tweets to find out if an epidemic was emerging.

An EPSRC-produced YouTube video of the printer in action has since received 650,000 hits. Dr Hao and his team were the first to develop a way of applying 3D printing to chocolate, which is a challenging material to work with because it requires accurate control of viscosity and temperature conditions. Dr Hao says: “In future this kind of technology will allow people to produce and design many other products such as jewellery or household goods. Eventually we may see many mass-produced products replaced by unique designs created by the customer. We also envisage consumers owning their own 3D printers.” In 2012, Dr Liang Hao founded Choc Edge Ltd, to develop and sell its unique 3D chocolate printer developed under the research project. Interviewed in 2012, Dr Hao said: ”The initial worldwide interest in creative and bespoke 3D chocolate products was enormous… By next Easter, consumers will be able to order their own, personalised Easter eggs along with other chocolate gifts.” In 2013, the company launched Choc Creator V2, a more sophisticated and efficient design, and created a chocolate printer hub to develop a community of people engaged in 3D chocolate printing.

Professor Nello Cristianini, who led the research, says: “Twitter, in particular, encourages its 200 million users worldwide to make their posts publicly available as well as tagged with the user’s location.

The technology featured on popular TV show The Gadget Man, hosted by Stephen Fry, who held a high-tech dinner party for friends.

“Our research has demonstrated a method, by using the content of Twitter, to track an event when it occurs and its scale.”

In 2014, Choc Creator V2 was highly rated in a special Christmas party edition of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show.

April 29: An estimated two billion people watch the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey

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2012 The art of science

In 2012, Dr Simon Colton, an EPSRC Leadership Fellow based at Imperial College London, was nominated for a prestigious World Technology Arts Award for his work with The Painting Fool, a computer programme he developed that paints original artwork inspired by what it sees. The pictures in this article are examples of the Painting Fool’s handiwork.


Dr Colton (pictured), an Artificial Intelligence researcher specialising in questions of computational creativity, who today leads Goldsmith University’s Computational Creativity Group, has programmed the Painting Fool to recognise human emotions and create original paintings, in a variety of styles. The hope is that one day it will be taken seriously as an artist in its own right. Dr Colton’s work has been covered widely by the UK and international media, both

February 6: Queen Elizabeth II marks her 60th anniversary as British monarch

in print and on television, including BBC’s Horizon and newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, El Pais and El Mundo.

The Observer carried a wide-ranging feature on the Painting Fool, whose work has been exhibited in five group exhibitions in London, Brussels, Paris and Lisbon. In 2013, The Painting Fool turned his creative talents to poetry, drawing his inspiration from news stories.

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February 28: Discovery of the largest prehistoric penguin, Kairuku grebneffi, at nearly 5ft tall

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2012 Meet the MASER In 2012, pioneering research by EPSRC-sponsored scientists revived the fortunes of the MASER (Microwave Amplification Stimulated Emission of Radiation), a cousin of the ubiquitous laser, first developed nearly 60 years ago. Despite predating the laser by five years, the maser has had little technological impact – primarily because it was inconvenient to use. Masers, which use concentrated beams of microwaves rather than intense beams of light, require high magnetic fields and subzero conditions to work. Hence for so long they were left out in the cold, only able to operate at temperatures close to absolute zero, minus 273 degrees Celsius – the same temperature as interstellar space. Masers are used only in very specialised applications such as atomic clocks and as amplifiers in radiofrequency telescopes, but the results can be spectacular. For example, masers were responsible for the stunning images of the solar system taken by the Voyager spacecraft. The researchers, from Imperial College London, led by Professor Neil Alford (pictured), and Dr Mark Oxborrow, formerly of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and now at Imperial, demonstrated new


technology that makes it possible for the maser to function at room temperature, and without the need for an external magnet. The breakthrough meant the cost to manufacture and operate masers could be dramatically reduced. This paves the way for their widespread adoption. Potential applications for the maser include more sensitive medical scanners; chemical sensors for remotely detecting explosives; advanced quantum computer components; and better radio astronomy devices for potentially detecting life on other planets. Professor Alford says: “When lasers were invented, no one knew exactly how they would be used; yet they are now ubiquitous. There’s a long way to go before the maser reaches that level, but our breakthrough does mean this technology can start becoming more useful.” The research was funded by EPSRC and, at NPL, through the UK’s National Measurement Office, and builds on over 20 years of consistently innovative EPSRCsupported materials science research by Professor Alford. Professor Alford says: “The work really started with my first EPSRC grant, in 1995, enabling me to carry out research into low microwave loss dielectrics. This was followed by a small feasibility study, also funded by EPSRC, which ultimately led to the maser.” Over 20 years Professor Alford has been supported by more than 40 EPSRC grants, including consecutive Platform Grants,

from 2004-2009, to investigate microwave dielectric materials, and a six-year Programme Grant in 2009 to develop nanostructured materials for energy efficient refrigeration, energy harvesting and production of hydrogen from water. In 2005, among notable achievements related to his microwave-based research, Professor Alford led the development of technology that uses heat delivered by microwaves to destroy liver tumours. The EPSRC-funded research team, from London South Bank University and the University of Bath, found that by heating cancer cells to around 80 degrees Celsius (much higher than previous microwave treatments) a large region of necrosis – cell death – can be generated. In 2007, Professor Alford was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship; in 2010, he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry; and in 2013 received an MBE. In 2013, Professor Alford received a followon EPSRC grant to construct a maser that can work at room temperature and in the Earth’s magnetic field. The research team are exploring new materials that will miniaturise the maser, which will also require very low power input to achieve the threshold required for masing. As director of materials at Imperial, Professor Alford’s knowledge is sought after, and in 2013 he advised Apple on suitable screen materials for its iPhone 6 mobile phone.

April 10: Apple claims a value of US$600 billion, making it the largest company by market capitalisation in the world

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July 27–August: The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London

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2012 Steel resolve In 2012, The Engineering Doctorate (EngD), EPSRC’s innovative doctoral training programme where students spend the majority of their time working in industry, turned 20 years old. The EngD is a doctoral level qualification that involves a taught component and a large, four-year research project defined by industry. In addition to developing a new generation of industry-savvy doctoral students, the relationship between university and industrial sponsor provides a level of access to industry not normally available to academics; it also enables companies, sectors and policymakers to be guided by the results of the research. On receiving his Engineering Doctorate at Swansea University in 1997, Dr Martin Brunnock (pictured) joined British Steel, the company which sponsored his EngD. A year later he was supervising a new crop of five research engineers from the EngD scheme. He has since risen through the company’s ranks. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

British Steel, which became Corus Group, was later sold to Tata Steel, one of EPSRC’s Strategic Partners. Interviewed in 2002, Martin Brunnock said: “The benefit of still being involved in the scheme is that I can help mentor and encourage new research engineers with my previous experience. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to be involved with new research projects which are generally at the forefront of technology.” In 2012, EPSRC co-funded the new COATED EngD centre at Swansea University, providing funding to recruit 21 EngD students between 2012 and 2014. The range of research projects at COATED includes boron steel processing, car chassis fatigue performance, solar cell development, life cycle analysis and recycling. The initial investment was followed two years later by further EPSRC funding for the COATED 2 initiative, which will create 40 research doctorate posts at Swansea University, focusing on generating energy through new coatings for materials. In 2013/14, the Swansea Tata plant received over 200 major international orders for its lightweight armour steel, Pavise,

formerly known as super-bainite, the brainchild of Professor Harry Bhadeshia at the University of Cambridge. Professor Bhadeshia’s research has been supported by EPSRC and its predecessor, the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) for over 20 years. His work with British Steel led to the unique alloys used to make the rails for the Channel Tunnel, Europe’s busiest rail link. Pavise, developed by Tata Steel in partnership with the University of Cambridge and the MoD, is twice as strong as the current product on the market. Martin Brunnock says: “The technical expertise behind this material is nothing short of brilliant.” In 2014, Martin Brunnock is Technical Director of Tata Steel’s Strip Products UK division based in Port Talbot and Llanwern, Wales, one of the largest in Europe, producing five million tonnes of liquid steel per annum, and with a turnover of over £2 billion. The powertrain picture illustrating this story is an award-winning photograph by former EngD Steel Technology Research Engineer Ed Carter, who designed, drew and rendered up the image himself.

July 30-31: In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power

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transfer experts. When a university and an SME identify an opportunity to work together, the IAA’s flexibility enables the university to react very quickly with the company and start the work right away, by drawing on IAA funding dedicated to them. A recent example of impact arising from IAA funding is a research project at the University of Bath. The team used their Impact Acceleration Account to accelerate the development of technology that could help monitor blood glucose control in diabetes patients and an array of age-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s.

Accelerating impact In 2012, EPSRC invested £60 million in UK universities to help the country’s most pioneering scientists and engineers create successful businesses from their research, improve industrial collaboration and foster greater entrepreneurship. The three-year initiative awarded ‘Impact Acceleration Accounts’ (IAAs) ranging from £600,000 to £6 million to over 30 universities across the UK. The funding helps support the universities’ best scientists and engineers to build even stronger collaborations with industry,

Clothing cleans

bridge the gap between the lab and the marketplace and help them become better entrepreneurs. IAAs replaced EPSRC’s highly successful Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) and Knowledge Transfer Secondment (KTS) schemes, which saw a step-change in knowledge exchange and collaboration between universities, business and other parties and generated significant material contributions from business. To exploit EPSRC’s research and training portfolio, universities employ knowledge

The additive contains microscopic pollution-eating particles, and clothes need to be washed in it just once, as the nanoparticles of titanium dioxide grip onto fabrics very tightly. When the particles come into contact with nitrogen oxides in the air, they react with these pollutants and oxidise them in the fabric. The nitrogen oxides treated in this way are odourless, colourless, and pose no pollution hazard. The method removes 5g of nitrogen oxides every day – equivalent to the daily amount produced by the average family car.

In 2012, a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and London College of Fashion, with initial support from EPSRC, led to a revolutionary liquid laundry additive to help make the clothes we wear purify the air as we move around in them. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Project co-leader, Professor Tony Ryan OBE, of the University of Sheffield, says: “If thousands of people in a typical town like Sheffield washed their clothes in the additive, there would be no pollution problem caused by nitrogen oxides at all.”

Working with leading medical device company, glySure Ltd, the Bath research team demonstrated a new technique that could be used in blood tests to detect levels of ‘glycated proteins’ in blood and tissue samples. The team’s method allows scientists to identify signature profiles of glycated proteins linked to particular diabetic conditions. In the future the same method could be applied to new technologies to screen for diseases like Alzheimer’s. In 2014, at the end of their first year there were 457 IAA projects, 152 secondments, 291 new company partners and 38 joint academic publications. Contribution from business and other partners was £22 million, in addition to the £20 million invested by EPSRC.

High energy investment In 2012, EPSRC spearheaded a £40 million investment under the RCUK Energy Programme, which is led by EPSRC. The investment included £20 million jointly with the National Natural Science Foundation of China in ‘smart’ power grids, which manage the supply and demand of power through the national distribution network. EPSRC also led one of the biggest Research Council low carbon energy investments; contributing £26 million in five new End Use Energy Demand research centres. The centres are investigating the complexities of energy use across society and explore how energy can be both saved and used more efficiently. The investment included a further £13 million from industrial partners.

May 5: Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970

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2012 Birth of the cool In 2012, energy storage research co-developed by EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Leeds, led by Professor Yulong Ding, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Science, and commercial partners led to the creation of a joint EPSRC-supported international research institute with over 45 researchers working on more than 20 projects.

The initial project, funded under the EPSRC-led RCUK Energy Programme, was an international academic/industry collaboration. The Leeds team joined forces with commercial partner, Highview Power Storage, the UK-based developer of large-scale long duration liquid air energy storage (LAES) systems, and Chinese colleagues to co-design and lab test a novel cryogenic energy storage system that stores off-peak energy, using liquefied air as the storage medium.

During discharge, the system can simultaneously convert low grade waste heat into power, further increasing the overall efficiency by producing additional power.

Ambient air is drawn from the environment where it is cleaned, compressed and liquefied at sub-zero temperatures; 700 litres of ambient air become one litre of liquid air. The liquid air can be stored in an insulated storage tank at low pressure for extended periods of time without significant losses.

Using pioneering combined heat and power systems such as this, one day homes could have their own domestic electrical energy storage system, providing heating, power, refrigeration and air conditioning.

The formation of the institute, which focuses on next-generation energy storage systems, followed the project’s runaway success at The Engineer magazine’s 2011 Technology and Innovation Awards, winning both its category and the grand prize.

When power is required, liquid air is drawn from the tanks, pumped to high pressure and heated. This process produces a highpressure gas, which is then used to spin a turbine which drives the generator to produce electricity.

£16 million for robotics

such as deep sea installations and nuclear power plants; and aerial vehicles that can monitor national borders or detect pollution.

In 2012, EPSRC invested £16 million in 22 university-based research projects to develop smart robots and autonomous systems such as unmanned aircraft – considered vital to many areas of UK industry, from oil and gas exploration to advanced manufacturing. Led by EPSRC, the project involves an eight-strong group of partners, including BAE Systems, Sellafield Ltd and the UK Space Agency, investing over £4 million in support. The projects include ‘nursebots’ that assist patients in hospitals; safe ways of monitoring in dangerous environments PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

August 6: Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission’s rover, successfully lands on Mars

The system uses established technology, can be built anywhere, and can easily be scaled up. A pilot facility near Slough (pictured) began providing electricity to the National Grid in April 2010, and can meet the power needs of several hundred houses for up to eight hours.

In 2014, Professor Yulong Ding joined the University of Birmingham as the newly appointed Highview Power Storage/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Energy Storage. To support Professor Ding in his work, Highview is relocating its 350kW/2.5MWh LAES pilot plant to Birmingham.

Regeneration nation In 2012, EPSRC co-invested with other research councils £25 million in the fast emerging discipline of regenerative medicine. A key part of the investment, which will produce a set of research priorities for UK regenerative medicine research and development, is a new cross-research council UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, to work in close partnership with the £50 million Innovate UK Cell Therapy Catapult Centre. Co-investors are: the Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council and Innovate UK.

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Picture courtesy Agnese Sanvito

The team have since developed 3D concrete printers fitted to a gantry and a robotic arm.

Efficiency drive

The printer can make things which cannot be manufactured by conventional processes such as complex structural components, curved cladding panels and other architectural features.

In 2012, EPSRC-supported scientists developed 3D computer software that can create and test automation systems before they’re even built, potentially saving manufacturers millions of pounds while increasing their competitiveness.

The 3D concrete printing research was funded by EPSRC from 2007-12.

3D concrete printing In 2012, a team of EPSRC-sponsored engineers at Loughborough University, co-led by Dr Richard Buswell and Professor Simon Austin, developed an innovative 3D printing technique to create customised panels for large-scale buildings. The process was developed at the EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) at Loughborough.

Dr Buswell says: “Freeform gives architects and builders the creative freedom to design and build hitherto unfeasible concrete ‘components’, such as curved panels, while reducing the high cost penalties associated with traditional methods.” With further funding from EPSRC, the team are collaborating with industry partners to commercialise the process, which could capture a significant share of the US$450 billion global concrete and cement market.

The software, which builds up a virtual representation of the automated system, allowing engineers to get their fingers dirty in 3D, was developed by a team at the EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) at Loughborough University. The tool is aimed at helping manufacturers save money, increase efficiency, improve prototype safety and accelerate the process of getting their products to market. The research focused on applications in automotive engine assembly but can potentially be used across the manufacturing sector. Commercialisation of the software tools and services developed by the project has begun through the licensing of the software by the university to project partner Fully Distributed Systems Ltd. The project, known as Business Driven Automation, was led by Professor Robert Harrison. He says: “Conventional automation systems are slow and complex to service, reconfigure and integrate. The software we’ve developed gives a quick, accurate, virtual 3D prototype view of assembly machine behaviour before the machines are physically built. “We aim to make these tools much easier and faster to develop and use, and we want to see them used throughout the machine lifecycle, not just at initial build.”

Wheel deal In 2012, an EPSRC-sponsored team from the University of Lincoln, led by Professor Paul Stewart, showed how the aircraft of tomorrow could self-contribute to their power needs by harnessing energy from the wheel rotation of their landing gear on the tarmac.

The feasibility project showed how the energy produced by a plane’s braking system during landing – currently wasted as heat produced by friction in the aircraft’s disc brakes – would be captured and converted into electricity by motorgenerators built into the landing gear.

Early detection

10 times more sensitive than the current gold standard methods for measuring biomarkers, which are used to indicate the onset of diseases such as prostate cancer and infection by viruses including HIV.

In 2012, a team of EPSRC-funded scientists at Imperial College London, led by Professor Molly Stevens, developed a prototype ultra-sensitive sensor that would enable doctors to detect the early stages of diseases and viruses with the naked eye. The visual sensor technology is PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

The sensor could benefit countries where sophisticated detection equipment is scarce, enabling cheaper and simpler detection and treatments for patients.

September 12: Apple unveils its iPhone 5 and iOS 6

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2013 Investing in the future In 2013, EPSRC invested in a host of major projects and centre-based initiatives across its portfolio – including manufacturing, engineering, robotics, advanced materials and information & communications technology (ICT).

£39 MILLION FOR UK ENERGY CENTRES

£45 MILLION FOR MANUFACTURING

In 2013, EPSRC co-funded one of the biggest Research Council investments to support UK energy efficiency policy, reduce carbon use and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2013, EPSRC invested £45 million to develop innovative new manufacturing technologies, techniques and systems. The investment includes:

Five new End Use Energy Demand research centres received a total of £39 million from EPSRC, which leads the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and industrial partners, which contributed £13 million.

•

£21 million for four new Centres for Innovative Manufacturing

•

£12.2 million towards six flexible manufacturing projects

•

Six information & communications technology (ICT) research projects for UK manufacturing competitiveness

The funding enables the research centres to look into the complexities of energy use across society and explore how energy can be both saved and used more efficiently.

The projects demonstrate the collaborative nature of manufacturing research and bring together nine universities and over 70 manufacturing partners.

£32 MILLION FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS

£47 MILLION FOR ENGINEERING

In 2013, EPSRC invested £32 million in three major Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRCs) that could help revolutionise healthcare. The research focuses on developing new information & communications technology (ICT) applications and systems to tackle increasingly pressing problems, such as an ageing population and severely overstretched hospitals. The investment, spanning 10 universities and 18 industry and academic partners, brings together multidisciplinary researchers from areas including pathology and electrical engineering to develop technologies such as sensors in patients’ clothing that monitor their condition, and smartphones that can diagnose and track the spread of infectious disease. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

In 2013, EPSRC invested £47 million in new engineering projects to tackle global challenges such as climate change; improving healthcare; and meeting basic needs, including access to clean water. The investment included £25 million in five frontier engineering projects in areas such as nature inspired engineering; synthetic biology applications to water; individualised multi-scale simulation; and simulation of open engineered biological systems. EPSRC invested a further £20 million in large Programme Grants to four UK universities, focusing on resilience, health and technology and growth. ADDITIONAL INVESTMENTS In 2013, EPSRC invested £85 million in a range of projects to support and

strengthen research in the areas of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Advanced Materials and Grid-scale Energy Storage. The research, involving 20 UK universities, will underpin key sectors of the UK economy, including automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, energy and healthcare. £39.4 million will be invested in robotics and autonomous systems (£25 million from EPSRC; £8.4 million from higher education institutions; and £6 million from industrial partners) £47.2 million will be invested in advanced materials (£30 million from EPSRC with additional funding of £11.7 million from higher education institutions and £5.5 million from industrial partners) £45.6 million will be invested in grid-scale energy storage (£30 million from EPSRC with additional funding of £9.8 million from higher education institutions and £5.8 million from industrial partners) £10 MILLION WITH JLR In 2013, EPSRC and Jaguar Land Rover co-invested £10 million in the first phase of a 20-year strategic project led by four leading UK universities to advance the UK’s role in developing virtual simulation technologies. The investment will give engineers a more realistic perception of what a design might achieve, as well as access to more powerful computers as part of a package that could put the UK at the leading edge of virtual simulation globally.

January 17: Japan unveils plans to build the world’s largest wind farm near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

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funding from EPSRC and Sellafield Ltd. Tom Scott, project lead and Director of the Interface Analysis Centre in the University’s School of Physics, says: “By using lightweight and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles, we can immediately and remotely determine the spread and intensity of radiation following any such event.

In the zone In 2013, an unmanned aerial drone which monitors radiation levels after a nuclear incident was developed by an EPSRCsupported University of Bristol team. The drone was inspired in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 after helicopter pilots risked radiation exposure as they mapped the disaster area. Oliver Payton, James MacFarlane and John Fadoulis, from the University of Bristol’s Interface Analysis Centre, developed the remote controlled Advanced Airborne Radiation Monitoring (AARM) system, with

“The systems have sufficient inbuilt intelligence for deployment following an incident and are effectively disposable if they become contaminated.” The drone uses laser distancing to enable safe flight in narrow spaces. It can map the 3D environment with millimetre precision and also capture high resolution images. The team are also developing thermal imaging, gas and acoustic sensors for the drone. The on-board microcomputer integrates multiple sensor streams to provide radiation mapping with excellent spatial resolution and sensitivity.

walking to school with one or two adults) during the school run.

Walk smart In 2013, the universities of Salford and Lancaster won a Modeshift national transport award for a smartphone app developed for parents to keep track of their child’s walking bus (a group of children PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Salford psychologists Dr Sarah Norgate and Nikki Jones teamed up with researchers Chris Winstanley, Mike Harding and Professor Nigel Davies from Lancaster University to develop the app. Dr Norgate says: “Walking school buses are an effective way to promote children’s independent mobility and road sense. With this new application, parents can track the safe arrival of the walking school bus at the school gates.” Families at Westwood Park Primary School in Eccles trialled the app with one of the

February 5: The House of Commons votes in favour of same-sex marriage

The software is controlled from a laptop, and attachments can be plugged in according to the task in hand. The drone’s rotor arms fold back so that the system can be fitted into a standard travel case, making it easy to take on a plane and rapidly deploy. In 2014, the drone was used to map radiation surrounding the Fukushima site to help the clean-up before people can return to their homes. In April 2014, the AARM team, led by Tom Scott, provided Sellafield’s first ever drone survey of any type, demonstrating the team’s radiation mapping technology combined with aerial photography. James Moore, who leads on UAV technologies at Sellafield, says: “This system, to the best of our knowledge, represents the current state of the art for radiation-mapping UAS systems.” In 2014, the Royal Academy of Engineering awarded James MacFarlane and Oliver Payton the ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award. The prize is helping them develop the drone commercially for use in disasters, routine radiation monitoring at nuclear sites and mining operations. Spin out company Imitec has been set up to take this forward.

walking school bus coordinators, Trish Kiernan (pictured). Head Teacher Sara Walker says: “Children are motivated to see the arrival of the walking school bus on the screen, and to join other pupils on the school run.” Mark Mountcastle, Head Teacher at St Hugh of Lincoln RC Primary in Stretford, which also helped to trial the app, agrees. He says: “It’s a brilliant way to encourage the children not only to walk to school but to use technology in a creative and practical way.” The project is funded by the RCUK Digital Economy programme, led by EPSRC, and is part of the Sixth Sense Transport initiative between the University of Salford, Lancaster University, the University of Southampton, the University of Edinburgh and Bournemouth University to develop apps that will encourage more sustainable travel options.

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2013 acoustics to quickly locate blockages and structural defects, and to determine the pipe length and the serviceability of the pipe, won a multitude of awards.

Sound affects: SewerBatt™ technology being demonstrated in Singapore for PUB, the national water company.

Pipeline to success In 2013, Acoustic Sensing Technology Ltd, a spin out company from the University of Sheffield, was formed to commercialise the EPSRC-supported research of Professors Kirill Horoshenkov and Simon Tait, who previously worked at the University of Bradford.

The technology builds on 15 years of EPSRC-supported work by Professors Horoshenkov and Tait at the universities of Bradford and Sheffield.

Since its launch in 2013, SewerBatt™, the idea for which was conceived by water industry pioneer Richard Long, has received glowing praise from water industry experts, leading Piers Clarke, Thames Water’s Commercial Director, to describe it as “a phenomenal technology”.

Sweet success In 2013, a new technique that uses MRI scans to detect cancer by imaging tumours’ consumption of sugar was unveiled by EPSRC-supported scientists led by Dr Simon Walker-Samuel at University College London. The breakthrough could provide a safer and simpler alternative to standard radioactive techniques and enable radiologists to image tumours in greater detail. The new technique, called ‘glucose chemical exchange saturation transfer’ (glucoCEST), is based on the fact that tumours consume much more glucose (a type of sugar) than normal, healthy tissues in order to sustain their growth. The researchers found that sensitising an MRI scanner to glucose uptake caused tumours to appear as bright images on MRI scans of mice.

In less than 12 months, the company’s first product, the SewerBatt™, which uses

In 2014, SewerBatts were adopted into Yorkshire Water’s five-year plan, and the company began installing them in areas vulnerable to sewer flooding.

In the future, patients could potentially be scanned in local hospitals, rather than having to be referred to specialist medical centres.

Chicken coup

protein and other feeds given to chickens bred for meat production.

bioethanol produced.

In 2013, an academic/industry partnership supported by EPSRC led to a biofuel production process that also yields a viable poultry feedstuff as a ‘by-product’.

With project supervisor Dr Emily Burton, of Nottingham Trent University, Dr Williams secured funding for Dawn Scholey, a doctoral student at Nottingham, to join the team under an EPSRC CASE studentship.

With around 80 billion litres of bioethanol fuel produced each year from fermented cereals, the team’s findings are by no means chicken feed. The project was borne out of the vision of biofuels pioneer, Dr Pete Williams of AB Agri, the agricultural division of Associated British Foods. Williams was convinced valuable material was being overlooked when cereals were fermented to make bioethanol. The team showed that Yeast Protein Concentrate (YPC) made during the fermentation process could be a costcompetitive alternative to soya-based PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

By examining the composition of the newly isolated and patented YPC, Dawn showed it could be both separated from the cereal matter and was a viable alternative nutrient readily digested by chickens. A project at a US bioethanol facility is already demonstrating the performance of the process at factory scale. The new process separates the dried distiller’s grains (DDGs) into three fractions: fibre, a watery syrup and YPC, allowing annual global production of almost three million tonnes of supplementary highquality protein alongside current levels of

Dr Burton says: “One concern with bioethanol is the perception it will compete with food crops for limited farmland. Our new work shows how the two can live side by side.” Dr Pete Williams says: “We couldn’t have got this development started without the EPSRC CASE studentship that allowed us to establish the proof of concept, and to confirm the value-creation potential of our innovative separation process.”

March 13: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected the 266th Pope, whereupon he takes the name Francis

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Knight of the web

Unlike airport scanners, the device (pictured) does not produce an image of the subject but only analyses radar signals reflected from the person. The machines work at a distance of up to 25 metres using low power millimetrewave radar signals that reflect off a weapon and back to the scanner, but without compromising people’s privacy or health.

Hide and seek In 2013, a team of scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University unveiled a hightech radar scanner which automatically detects hidden bombs and guns on people. The scanner works in real time using radar waves and complex computer programs, and is destined to revolutionise security at airports, shopping centres, stadia and transport hubs. The technology is designed to rapidly scan individuals in a crowd as they pass through areas such as public spaces, gates or entrances and instantly alert officials as soon as a threat is detected.

The portable, battery-powered devices include a handheld system for mobile use in the street and a larger, extended range static version suitable for checkpoints or vehicle mounting. The prototypes are currently being turned into commercial versions ready for security services around the world with customers already lined up to test the technology. Project Leader, Professor Nick Bowring, started to develop the system in 2004 after initial funding from EPSRC, followed by the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office. He says: “The technology is a combination of a radar system and an AI-based computer system. It would have been unthinkable to make it just five years ago because the computing power and hardware were just not there.”

thumb-type 34 per cent faster on tablets than when using a QWERTY keyboard.

Thumbs up for new keyboard

Dr Kristensson’s EPSRCsupported research at St Andrews includes the development of technology that could lead to much faster and easier synthetic voice systems, such as that used by Stephen Hawking.

In 2013, an international research team co-led by Dr Per Ola Kristensson, from the University of St Andrews, created a new keyboard that enables faster thumb-typing on touchscreen devices.

In 2013, Dr Kristensson, who holds an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, was recognised by the respected MIT Technology Review as one of 35 top young innovators ‘most likely to change the world’. Previous winners include the founders and designers of Google, Facebook, Apple and Tumblr.

The KALQ keyboard minimises thumb travel distance and maximises alternation between thumbs, enabling people to

In 2014, Dr Kristensson joined the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.


In 2013, Nigel Shadbolt, from the University of Southampton, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and one of the world’s leading experts in web science, was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to science and engineering. Professor Shadbolt’s research has taken in a broad range of topics, from natural language understanding and robotics to computational neuroscience and memory through to the Semantic Web and linked data. Professor Shadbolt, who has held over 20 EPSRC grants over more than 25 years, is founding director of the Open Data Institute, with World Wide Web pioneer Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee. From 2000-2007, Professor Shadbolt led and directed the widely influential EPSRC-funded Advanced Knowledge Technologies Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC). The IRC produced some of the most important Semantic Web research of the period, such as how diverse information could be harvested and integrated and how semantics could help computer systems recommend content. In 2009, the Prime Minister appointed Professors Shadbolt and Berners-Lee as Information Advisers to transform access to Public Sector Information. The work arising from this project led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site which now provides a portal to thousands of datasets. In 2012, Nigel Shadbolt was awarded a £6.2 million, five-year EPSRC Programme Grant to lead the SOCIAM (Social Machines) project, which is researching pioneering methods of supporting purposeful human interaction on the World Wide Web. The aim of the SOCIAM project is to enable us to build social machines that solve the routine tasks of daily life as well as its emergencies.

November 27: Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all time, starring Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell, is released

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2014 Slide rules In 2014, Lizzy Yarnold sped to gold medal success in the skeleton bobsleigh event at the Sochi Winter Olympics. But her achievement was not just a reward for her dedication and athleticism, it was also a triumph for UK engineering design. Yarnold’s achievement at the Sanki Sliding Centre came thanks, in part, to a sled designed by engineers Rachel Blackburn and James Roche (pictured) who work with McLaren Applied Technologies, an offshoot of the Formula One company. James and Rachel were EPSRCsponsored students studying for Engineering Doctorates at the University of Southampton when they designed ‘Arthur’, the sled that carried Amy Williams to gold medal victory in Vancouver in 2010. They were also key members of the British Skeleton support team at Sochi 2014, and were there to witness Lizzy Yarnold’s triumphant gold medal-winning run.


Rachel Blackburn says: “The skills we learned from the Engineering Doctorate programme at Southampton, coupled with the ideas and knowledge of the British Skeleton and UK Sport support staff, gave us a good grounding for implementing engineering solutions. Working with the athletes themselves helped us put our ideas into practice.

supporting Amy, Lizzy and their fellow athletes in their respective successes. “EPSRC funding was the catalyst that allowed Rachel and myself to pursue an academic and latterly engineering career in such a unique and challenging field.” Picture courtesy UK Sport

“The project also allowed us to develop new skills – from track testing, data analysis and prototyping through to full roll-out production of the sled.” Since 2010, James and Rachel have been working with McLaren in Woking, Surrey to bring further improvements to the design of the sled, which they now call Mervyn Blackroc – after an early sponsor and a fusion of their surnames. James Roche says: “It was a fantastic honour to be able to work with British Skeleton over the past eight years,

June 12-July 13: The 2014 FIFA World Cup is held in Brazil, and is won by Germany

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September 27: The West African death toll from the Ebola virus reaches 3,000 lives

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2014 contaminated wastes involves cement encapsulation, a process which typically increases the overall volume. The research project found that mixing plutonium-contaminated waste with blast furnace slag and turning it into glass reduces its volume by 85-95 per cent. It also effectively locks in the radioactive plutonium, creating a stable end product.

Heart of glass In 2014, researchers from the University of Sheffield, sponsored by EPSRC and Sellafield Ltd, developed a way to significantly reduce the volume of some higher activity nuclear wastes – reducing the cost of interim storage and final disposal. The UK spends more than £80 million every year storing plutonium-contaminated nuclear waste safely. The current treatment method for non-compactable plutonium-

Lead researcher, Professor Neil Hyatt, a co-investigator at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Nuclear Fission at the University of Sheffield, says: “The overall volume of plutoniumcontaminated wastes from operations and decommissioning is enough to fill the clock tower of Big Ben seven times over. Our process would reduce this waste volume to fit neatly within just one tower.” Also in 2014, EPSRC invested £4.9 million in a national research programme looking at ways of dealing with Britain’s nuclear waste. The £8 million project, funded under the RCUK Energy Programme, led by EPSRC, involves 10 UK universities, led by the University of Leeds, and brings together

the nuclear industry, the UK Government’s nuclear advisers and the country’s leading academic researchers. More than 40 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers will work over the next four years on issues including how best to handle different types of spent fuel, packaging and storing waste, and dealing with nuclear sludges in ponds and silos at nuclear power stations. Professor Simon Biggs, who leads the initiative, says: “The project is primarily focused on developing new technologies and providing confidence in the safe storage and disposal of legacy waste. “The UK is a technology leader in this field and the core aim of this project is to maintain and further develop that skill base. “This project will be a truly interdisciplinary effort. We have civil engineers, chemists, chemical engineers, robotics experts, radiochemists, mechanical engineers and material engineers all working together on 30 different projects.” In addition to the £4.9 million invested by EPSRC, funding and support for the project, which builds on an earlier EPSRC-funded 2007 research programme, will come from the universities and industry partners.

Antibodies exposed In 2014, an internet service which allows scientists to find antibodies for use in their research became the largest antibody search engine in a US$2 billion industry, and ranked number one by Google. The CiteAb service was founded in 2013 by Dr Andrew Chalmers at the University of Bath following funding from an EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Account. Antibodies – proteins produced by the immune system in response to the introduction of a foreign body – have a variety of uses in basic research, diagnostic tests and therapeutics. Dr Chalmers says: “One of the biggest problems for a researcher is being sure PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

that the antibody they’re about to spend hundreds of pounds on is going to work. They can waste time and money buying the wrong one, CiteAb solves this problem. “We rank antibodies by academic citations as these are the best guide to whether an antibody is likely to work in the laboratory – citations are independent and easily verifiable, and no one can pay to be the top hit.” The CiteAb team work in collaboration with Bath-based Storm Consultancy and are currently exploring ways to use the data CiteAb generates to ensure the longterm success of this research as a commercial enterprise.

October 21: Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to five years in prison for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

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The research team, from the University of East Anglia’s schools of Mathematics and Environmental Sciences, created a computer simulated pattern of ocean circulation on a hypothetical ocean-covered Earth-like planet. Professor David Stevens, from UEA’s School of Mathematics, says: “We found that heat transported by oceans would have a major impact on the temperature distribution across a planet, and would potentially allow a greater area of a planet to be habitable. “Mars, for example, is in the sun’s habitable zone, but it has no oceans – causing air temperatures to swing over a range of 100 degrees Celsius.

Cosmic waves In 2014, EPSRC-funded researchers at

Until now, computer simulations of

the University of East Anglia (UEA) made

habitable climates on Earth-like planets

an important step in the race to discover

have focused on their atmospheres. But

whether other planets could develop and

the presence of oceans is vital for optimal

sustain life.

climate stability and habitability.

“Oceans help to make a planet’s climate more stable so factoring them into climate models is vital for knowing whether the planet could develop and sustain life. “This new model will help us to understand what the climates of other planets might be like with more accurate detail than ever before.”

Power prosthetics In 2014, EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Salford moved a step closer in developing technology to enhance the mobility of people with above-knee amputations.

When walking with a single prosthetic leg, above-knee amputees typically use up to 60 per cent more energy than people who are able-bodied, causing fatigue and a 40 per cent slower walking speed.

Their solution lies in improving the energy efficiency of prosthetic legs.

These difficulties can hinder an amputee’s mobility and thus affect their quality of life.

The energy storage and return capabilities of prosthetic legs are crucial to improving an amputee’s gait and mobility, but most prostheses only store and return significant energy below the knee and in an uncontrolled way. To overcome these problems the team of engineers and prosthetists, working with leading prosthetics manufacturer Chas A Blatchford, are exploring the potential for using hydraulic technology to harvest and store energy from the parts of the prosthesis that absorb power, and then return that energy to the parts that do useful propulsive work. The results will be used to develop new prosthetic leg designs which have increased functionality and require less energy from the amputee. Project leader, Professor David Howard, says: “This is an opportunity for truly transformative research, leading to more biomechanically-efficient prosthetic legs, enabling amputees to walk faster for longer and therefore lead more active lives.”


November 12: The Rosetta spacecraft’s Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object

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2014 The study shows that NMT is involved in a wide range of essential processes in the parasite cell, including the production of proteins that enable malaria to be transmitted between humans and mosquitoes, and proteins that enable malaria to cause long-term infection.

Malaria demultiplied

The team are working to design molecules that inhibit NMT’s function, and hope to start clinical trials of potential treatments within four years. The discovery is the culmination of a fiveyear project by a consortium of researchers from Imperial College London, the National Institute for Medical Research, The University of Nottingham, the University of York, and Pfizer. It is funded by EPSRC, the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Light fantastic

In 2014, EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Cambridge, led by EPSRC Leadership Fellow Professor Julian Allwood, revealed that the construction industry is using almost double the amount of steel in buildings than is required by safety codes, which is having a dramatic impact on carbon emissions.

the required amount of the material to meet safety standards it would save 1,027 tonnes of steel.

Since 1989, EPSRC has invested over £20 million in the ORC, building on research led by its founding director, Professor Sir David Payne. Blue-sky research by Professor Payne’s team led to the invention of the world’s first telecommunications optical amplifier, a key device for internet expansion, and 15 years ahead of its time.

The team analysed 10,000 structural steel beams in 23 buildings across the UK and found that, on average, they were only carrying half the load they were originally designed for.

The research was conducted by the UK INdemand Centre, led by Professor Allwood and funded under the RCUK Energy Programme, led by EPSRC.

In 2014, a consortium of UK scientists made an important step towards new malaria treatments by identifying a way to stop malaria parasites from multiplying. The research team showed that the activity of an enzyme called NMT is essential for the survival and viability of the most common malaria parasite.

Supporting act

Buildings covered by the study were ‘typical’ UK steel-framed buildings constructed within the last five years, mainly schools, offices and residential buildings. The study estimates that if the design of the 23 buildings were optimised to include only PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

When scaled up to apply to the 290 million tonnes of steel used worldwide to construct buildings each year this would save 106 million tonnes of steel annually, averting 214 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The centre, comprising the University of Cambridge, the University of Leeds, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Bath, focuses on ways to significantly reduce the use of both energy and energy-intensive materials in industry. Professor Allwood is also a co-investigator at the EPSRC-funded Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, based at the University of Cambridge, and is a senior staff member at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment at Cambridge.

In 2014, the EPSRC-supported Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The ORC is now acknowledged as a world leader in photonics, optical telecommunication and high-power lasers, and has spawned a cluster of photonics companies to commercialise the research, generating revenues in excess of £100 million and creating more than 500 jobs. It has also produced over 700 doctoral-level alumni holding senior positions in industry and academia worldwide. Ideas generated at the ORC help power the global internet, navigate airliners, cut steel, mark iPads, and manufacture life-saving medical devices. Professor Sir David Payne, who in 2012 was knighted for his services to electronics, says: “Thanks to long-term backing from EPSRC, the University of Southampton has been a world leader in photonics research for 40 years, enabling the ORC to build ‘critical mass’ rare in academia.”

November 8: US President Obama authorises deployment of 1,500 additional troops to help train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting IS militants

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Fields medal In 2014, Professor Martin Hairer, from the University of Warwick, became the first UK-based mathematician to win the prestigious Fields Medal since 1998. Professor Hairer, who held an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship from 20062012, was recognised for his ‘outstanding contributions to the theory of stochastic partial differential equations, and in particular for the creation of a theory of regularity structures for such equations’. The Fields Medal, internationally regarded as the world’s most prestigious award in mathematics, is awarded every four years and recognises the outstanding achievements of mathematicians aged under 40. Previous winners include Sir Michael Atiyah (see page 13), in 1966.

Fat friends In 2014, an EPSRC-funded team from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh came a step closer in developing a way to make low-fat cheeses and cakes as tempting as their full-fat equivalents. The team, led by Dr Steve Euston of Heriot-Watt University, produced modified proteins that easily break down into micro-particles and therefore closely mimic the behaviour of fats during food manufacture. The proteins will enable manufacturers to remove much of the fat used in their products without compromising on product quality. Protein-for-fat substitution is not a completely new idea, but to date it has been restricted to products such as yogurts. The team has achieved particularly promising results in using proteins to replace eggs, an ingredient commonly used as a gelling agent in bakery items. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Genius of invention In 2014, Chris Toumazou, Regius Professor of Engineering at Imperial College London, was named Inventor of the Year in the Research category at the European Patent Office’s awards for his work on a lowpower USB stick that decodes a patient’s DNA within minutes. Thanks to his work, DNA can be analysed outside a lab environment – helping medicine take a big step from healing illnesses to preventing them. Invention for Professor Toumazou is in his blood. In the 1980s he developed the low-power processor vital to multi-channel cochlear implants invented by Erwin and Ingeborg Hochmair.

Substituting eggs for proteins not only cuts fat content, it could also reduce the cost of products and encourage consumers to eat more healthily. The research is being taken forward by project partner Nandi Proteins, which is using the findings to extend its range of proteins with a view to food manufacturers incorporating them in new low-fat products that could start reaching the shops within two years. Lydia Campbell, Chief Technology Officer for Nandi Proteins, says: “EPSRC funding allowed the scientific investigation of the underlying science of Nandi technology, and the outcomes will add significantly to the confidence with which the technology can be deployed across the UK and internationally. “They will also serve to broaden the innovation of our product range, and to compete with international companies.” As part of an Innovate UK-supported Knowledge Transfer Partnership, the research team is now also developing a computer model to help food manufacturers pinpoint the optimum level of protein-for-fat replacement for particular products.

November 15: World leaders gather in Brisbane for the G20 Summit, focusing on economic growth

These implants have restored hearing to more than 300,000 people since their introduction in 1986, the year Professor Toumazou received his first EPSRC research grant – he has since been awarded over 20 more. At the age of just 33, Chris Toumazou became the youngest professor ever to teach at Imperial College London – an achievement all the more remarkable for someone who left school at 16 with no qualifications. At Imperial, he focused on ways of combining electrical engineering and microchip technology with biomedicine. In 2014, Professor Toumazou, who has launched several highly successful companies to commercialise his work, co-leads the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in High Performance Embedded and Distributed Systems at Imperial.

Quantum network In 2014, EPSRC invested in a new £120 million national network of Quantum Technology Hubs to explore the properties of quantum mechanics and how they can be harnessed for use in technology. Quantum technologies offer potentially transformative impacts in key areas such as quantum metrology and sensors; quantum simulators; quantum computers and quantum secure communications. The new network will involve 17 universities and 132 companies and will be funded by EPSRC from the £270 million investment in the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme announced by the Chancellor in 2013. The network will consist of four hubs, selected after a competitive peerreviewed process, led by the universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Oxford and York. Sponsors of the new national network include Innovate UK, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, National Physical Laboratory, GCHQ, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and the Knowledge Transfer Network.

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Digging thinking As EPSRC’s Sandpit workshops celebrate 10 years of thinking differently, Pioneer takes a look at their impact. According to Einstein, logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere. This sentiment, of using creativity to push science beyond the boundaries, is at the core of EPSRC’s ‘Sandpit’ initiative – blue-sky thinking workshops with funded research programmes the reward for the very best ideas. By compressing a research process that traditionally takes months or years into one week, and then sparking intense debate and discussion, the Sandpit concept, introduced in 2004, has created an explosion of ideas and given rise to entirely new scientific disciplines. Sandpits work by bringing together diverse and dynamic groups to focus on a realworld problem. Academics from different disciplines, industry representatives and the people who face the problem on a daily


basis are locked together for a week – and no idea is off the table. Through facilitated discussions, creative sessions and site visits, the problem is methodically deconstructed and preconceptions are dispelled along with traditional approaches. The subjects discussed, which have included everything from locating underground utilities without any digging (see pages 16-17) to synthetically building new life, are then re-mapped and scrutinised from every angle. Over the course of the Sandpit, new research groups are formed and ideas are formulated and developed. The very best ideas then go through rigorous scrutiny before funding is awarded based on the excellence of the proposal and the resources needed.

Lee Cronin, Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow and head of the world-renowned Cronin Lab, is looking for the origin of life itself. In 2004, Cronin, at the start of a distinguished career, took part in one of the very first Sandpits. He says: “For me, Sandpits have had a profound effect on the way I think about cross-disciplinary

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research. They rank amongst some of the most exciting things I have done. The EPSRC Sandpit model is the model of how I often try to do innovation in science now.” Cronin has taken part in six Sandpits over the past decade and has adapted the method to spark creativity within his own lab at Glasgow. He is not alone. The Sandpit model has been used by UK universities and by research teams in Mexico, New Zealand and Norway. It has also been adopted by the National Science Foundation, the United States’ main government funding agency. Even NASA is using it to widen its horizons. But it was very different when Cronin walked through the door of a Derby conference centre in January 2004 to take part in the Chemical Craftwork Sandpit. The Sandpit method was new, untested and a radical departure from the funding mechanisms that academia and research councils had grown comfortable with. “It was immensely exciting, with the promise of money, of new collaborations and a really fascinating concept,” says Cronin. “But I was also very tense. I wanted to find teams to work with and I was worried I would be Billy No-Mates.”


It is an important point. Group dynamics play a vital role in the success of a Sandpit. Organisational psychologist Bharat Maldé has been involved in assessing participants’ Sandpit suitability from the start, drawing early inspiration from tribal behaviour and the Apollo space programme. Most Sandpits are hugely oversubscribed, and the selection process has evolved, taking into account a candidate’s expertise and interests alongside their personal approach or outlook. So who are the perfect participants? “Personally and interpersonally, they would be inspirational, unselfish individuals with the facility to enthuse others as well as be enthused themselves; to hold their own without being ‘loud’ or pushy; keen and curious but in control of their senses or their worst urges; and blessed with the freedom to engage with intellectual play without fear of failure or embarrassment,” says Maldé. There have been lessons along the way. Maldé adds: “In one Sandpit, we did so well at picking affable, positive individuals that no sparks flew and the event risked becoming an extended, happy social activity

rather than a stretching but fun intellectual exercise. “Sandpits thrive on diversity: of expertise, outlooks, disciplines, approaches and life experience. If there is a unifying quality, it is the participants’ abiding zest for quest pursued in the company of curiosity-driven individuals wishing to push the boundaries.” Cronin’s fears of being Billy No-Mates proved unfounded. Chemical Craftwork connected Cronin with a group of likeminded researchers, including computer scientist/synthetic biologist Professor Natalio Krasnogor, chemical biologist Professor Ben Davis, and chemist Professor Cameron Alexander – and the CHELL Network in Chemical Cells was born (see page 41). Work from this project led to an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship (2009-2014) for Professor Alexander, who leads the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Targeted Therapeutics & Formulation Sciences at The University of Nottingham. The project also led to enhanced links at Nottingham with leading pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, Boots, GSK and Pfizer.

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(Continued from page 81) Lee Cronin later received an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship, from 2006-2011 and in 2014 holds an EPSRC RISE Leadership Fellowship. Professor Natalio Krasnogor holds an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship at Newcastle University. Lee Cronin says: “Sandpits, for me, have given me exposure to other disciplines and a whole suitcase of problems that I could translate into ideas. I could work with people and develop whole new research fields.” It is a glowing endorsement for a concept whose reason for being was to spark imagination. The Sandpit process was a response to a recognised need to invigorate academic adventure in UK research. At the turn of the millennium, EPSRC faced two parallel challenges that would test its ability to stimulate change within the UK research portfolio. A number of international reviews had noted that UK research was very scholarly but that it lacked adventure. Support for transformative research was highlighted as an issue by a major Government review: Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014: Next Steps, summarised as: ‘How the UK can best support high risk, high impact research in novel fields of scientific enquiry’. The general feeling was that it was not UK scientists and engineers who were uncreative, but more the funding system which had led to a conservative culture. In parallel was the drive to increase the amount of multidisciplinary research teams, to cross-pollinate academic expertise and create brand new ideas and approaches to global challenges such as energy security and climate change. The simple approach – asking research teams to be more adventurous through explicit funding calls – did not inspire change. It became clear that a much more radical intervention was required, and the Sandpit was born. Ten years later, Cronin is in no doubt that EPSRC’s Sandpit concept has addressed the issue. He says: “You need a portfolio of approaches, and Sandpits have enabled us to do things we would not otherwise be doing today. “Sandpits demand true innovation and give people the incentive to rise to this challenge. “For example, my team’s approach to embodied robotics exploring the origin of life


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would not have happened without Sandpits. It is too disruptive. “I enjoy doing research in the UK and this mechanism has uniquely allowed me to work in a way that is not possible elsewhere. There isn’t the mechanism. I recognise EPSRC’s part in using its initiative to allow me to think differently.” A decade on, and the concept continues to break new ground. In addition to a raft of organisations adopting the model, EPSRC continues to use and learn from the approach with great success and has used it to foster international partnerships – and to create science with no boundaries at all.

Sandpits have had a profound effect on the way I think about cross-disciplinary research. They are some of the most exciting things I have done. The EPSRC Sandpit model is the model of how I do science now.


Five days, 30 people, no limits, funded research How is it possible that Sandpits are able to create ambitious, adventurous and innovative science from scratch in less than 120 hours? The Devil is in the detail, including expert facilitation and a fivestage process: Interact: Give people time to discuss skills, experiences and areas of interest. Sessions create an atmosphere where all feel confident in exploring diverse and unconventional ideas. Facilitators are careful to ensure groups and ideas are not formed too early. Result: Mission statement created. Clarify: The group focus on the specific issue of the Sandpit. Issues are debated with those who have real-life experience of the problem to build a comprehensive picture of the situation. This can include a site visit. Mapping the problem begins to highlight specific technology, knowledge and research gaps that could hold the key

to future solutions. Result: Problem statement created. Create: The group begins to form ideas in response to the problem. Drawing on the discussions, experiences and site visits, smaller groups begin to form around emerging ideas, self-selecting the skills and expertise needed for success. Result: Task forces created. Develop: The newly-formed research groups develop, test and refine ideas. The proposals are repeatedly put under the microscope by the rest of the group. At this stage, groups begin to look at funding issues such as the level of resources required. Result: A framework for research. Implement: At the final stage, proposals are short-listed and ranked in priority order by the group as a whole before a final funding decision is made. Result: New research programmes, new teams, new thinking.

Son(s) of Sandpit Since developing the Sandpit workshop concept as part of its Ideas Factory 10 years ago, EPSRC has continued to develop new ways of ensuring UK science can push the boundaries on convention; this has led to a number of initiatives inspired by the Sandpit concept. These include:

The Big Pitch: 18-month grants of £250,000 awarded to individual researchers to encourage bold, radical thinking.

Dream Fellowships: Awarded to help researchers with a creative approach to develop pioneering ideas and ambitious research directions that enable discovery. They support individuals with the potential to profoundly impact or transform an area of research. A high degree of risk in their approach is expected.

Creativity@Home: A relatively new initiative to generate and nurture creative thinking, aimed specifically at those leading large programmes of research.

New research directions are expected to be pursued which have the potential to lead to high impact outcomes.

Groups can use funding to learn creative problem-solving tools and techniques or explore future research vision and crossdisciplinary opportunities.

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EPSRC Science Photo Competition 2013-14 EPSRC’s 2013-14 Science Photo Competition, open to all EPSRCsupported researchers and doctoral students, attracted nearly 300 entries, and provided them the opportunity to share their research through pictures. Entrants were asked to submit their images in five different categories: Innovation, Discovery, Equipment, Weird and Wonderful, and People. Not only are the 15 winning images stunning in their own right, they help to reflect the exciting research in physical sciences and engineering going on right now in the UK.

PIONEER 2014 PIONEER 14 12 Winter Summer 2014

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1st Weird and Wonderful Comedy Lab: Human vs robot A robot walks into a bar: A robot programmed with novel social intelligence algorithms performs a stand-up routine at London’s Barbican Centre. Robothespian, a robot created by specialist robotics company Engineered Arts, was reworked with computer vision and audio processing technology to tailor its repartee to specific individuals in the audience and improve its gag delivery. These live experiments explore what makes a good performance and how technology can help or hinder it. Toby Harris, a doctoral student at Queen Mary University of London’s Cognitive Science Research Group, won the Weird and Wonderful category for this photograph, and also won the grand prize for best in show. By Toby Harris, Queen Mary University of London

2nd

The Gömböc equation Meet the Gömböc, the world’s only artificial self-righting shape. Unlike Weebles and inflatable toys, which use a strategically-placed weight to pull them upright, the Gömböc has no energy source. No matter how it’s placed on a flat surface, the Gömböc, borne out of complex mathematical theory, will right itself. The equation defining the Gömböc appears in the background of the photograph. By Professor Alain Goriely, University of Oxford

Weird and Wonderful

3rd

Surprise! Wrinkles simulated The modelling and simulation of soft tissue is helping researchers to produce detailed facial animations for computer graphics applications. Such simulations could also be used with, for example, soft-tissue studies in biomechanics and surgical applications.

Weird and Wonderful 12 Winter Summer 2014 PIONEER 14 2014

By Mark Warburton, University of Sheffield

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From nano-molecules to mega-structures

1st Discovery Rayleigh-Taylor instability This image, of salt water accelerating into fresh water, illustrates what is known as Rayleigh-Taylor instability – which mixes two fluids of different densities. During this phenomenon fluids form unpredictable patterns. Mixing is of great interest to oceanographers in their quest to understand the ocean and its effect on climate. By Megan Davies Wykes, University of Cambridge

2nd

Graphene sunrise Among its many unique properties, the electrons in ‘wonder material’ graphene behave as massless relativistic particles. This image, taken jointly by Professor Sir Konstantin Novoselov and Dr Daniel Elias, depicts the scientists’ measurements of graphene’s electrical capacitance (its ability to store an electric charge) when subjected to a magnetic field. By Professor Sir Konstantin Novoselov and Dr Daniel Elias, The University of Manchester

Discovery

3rd

Discovery

Subterranean sampling Fieldworkers from The University of Manchester collect fossil samples in a deep cave system on Cayman Brac in the Caribbean. The researchers collected over 5,000 fossilised bones from rare vertebrate remains found within the newly explored cave systems, in a tropical environment typically not associated with exceptional preservation. Working with the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Diamond Light Source, a kind of giant microscope, the research team are now using the latest non-destructive imaging techniques, shining light brighter than a million suns to recover the chemical ghosts from these subterranean samples. By Dr Phil Manning, School of Earth, Environmental & Atmospheric Science, The University of Manchester


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1st Equipment Microfluidics – huge advances on the microscale A micromixer designed to advance the production of liposomes used in vaccine formulations. The design of the channel has been tailored to improve the mixing speed. So-called lab-on-a-chip based technologies are making important advances in microsystems for chemical, biological and medical applications. By Elisabeth Kastner, Aston University

2nd

From nano-molecules to mega-structures A giant drill emerges from a borehole on a London construction site. While drilling, the borehole was supported by a synthetic polymer solution comprising tiny polymer molecules. The solution changes its viscosity according to how fast it flows: it’s thick when sitting still, liquid when flowing fast. The image highlights the range of scale sizes that engineers and scientists deal with in their work.

Equipment

By Dr Carlos Lam, The University of Manchester

3rd

3D bronze This picture shows a complex hollow component being 3D-printed in bronze metal. The component was later fired in a kiln to produce a solid bronze part. By Esteban Schunemann, Brunel University

Equipment PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

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1st Innovation Lung cancer cells taking up carbon nano-needles Resembling tropical islands seen from space, this electron microscope image depicts a pioneering new drug delivery system. The green islands are lung cancer cells, captured in the process of taking up carbon nanotube nano-needles (coloured gold), which could one day be used to deliver targeted drug therapies exactly where they are needed, minimising harmful side effects. By Dr Khuloud Al-Jamal and Izzat Suffian, King’s College London

2nd

FloorPlay A demo of an interactive floor display in the engineering building at University College London. Each of the lights in the floor can be independently lit in one of millions of different colours, allowing the display to be used as a platform for many different projects. By Daniel Harrison, University College London Interaction Centre

Innovation

3rd

Manufactured with light Using laser colour marking it is possible to create intricate patterns on tiny surfaces. There is growing interest in this process in the creative industries, and for security/identification purposes. This picture, of a delicate pattern ‘laser written’ into a tiny 2x2cm piece of titanium by forming a thin oxide film on the surface, shows why.

Innovation PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

By Dr Svetlana Zolotovskaya, Dundee University Materials and Photonics Systems (MAPS) Research Group

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1st People Mathematical analysis can make you fly Mathematics Masters student Joana Grah appears to fly in front of an equation that explains how the trick is done. Digital inpainting (think Photoshop) uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to retouch digital images. Here it was used to remove the stool on which Joana was sitting originally. By Dr Carola-Bibiane Schoenlieb, Joana Grah and Kostas Papafitsoros, University of Cambridge

2nd

Discovering, designing, developing together Forest-dwelling Mbendjele Pygmies in Republic of the Congo use a picture-based smartphone app to map their local resources and record evidence of illegal logging activity. By Gill Conquest, Extreme Citizen Science research group, University College London

People

3rd

Playing machine learning charades Academics and software engineers take time out to enjoy a machine learning version of charades, as part of the Robozoo project, a week-long retreat to experiment with 3D-printed robots for use in cognitive robotics research. By Dr Chrisantha Fernando, Queen Mary University of London

People


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Picture courtesy Markus Unsold, Waldrappteam

V-signs In 2014, the mystery of why birds fly in V-formations was finally solved with the help of lightweight sensors, fitted to the back of migrating birds. The results from the project will prove useful in a variety of fields, for example aerodynamics and manufacturing. A study of 14 Northern Bald Ibises showed that each bird synchronises its flapping to maximise the aerodynamic benefit of upwash from the wings of the bird in front. The birds’ formation is so precise they are also able to avoid downwash from the birds ahead. PIONEER 14 Winter 2014

Dr Steve Portugal, lead researcher at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, says: “The intricate mechanisms involved in V-formation flight indicate remarkable awareness and ability of birds to respond to the wingpath of nearby flock-mates. “Birds in V-formation seem to have developed complex phasing strategies to cope with the dynamic wakes produced by flapping wings.” These aerodynamic accomplishments were previously not thought possible for birds because of the complex flight dynamics and sensory feedback required.

The custom-built technology, developed with funding from EPSRC, captured the movements of every bird within the flock, recording its position, speed, and wing-flap during 43 minutes of migratory flight. UK scientists worked together with conservation group Waldrappteam, which trained zoo-bred birds to follow a microlight to teach juvenile birds migration routes. The research featured on the front cover of Nature and appeared in the international print media. Dr Portugal was also interviewed for national and local radio including the Chris Evans Show on BBC Radio 2.

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About EPSRC

Total value of EPSRC’s research portfolio:

£4 billion

Total invested by business and other partners to date:

£1.74 billion

Total invested in research and training annually:

£800 million

Number of partner organisations:

2,800

Percentage of research portfolio collaborative with business and other partners:

45%

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC is committed to excellence and impact, supporting a research base and skills portfolio that meets key challenges of the 21st century, such as supporting an ageing population and meeting the need for sustainable energy. To this end, EPSRC has pioneered ways to stimulate research and encourage multidisciplinary collaboration. EPSRC works with around 2,800 companies and partner organisations. Fortyfive per cent of supported research is collaborative with industry and other research users. By ensuring the early engagement between industry and the research base, the fruits of EPSRC’s investments can be maximised, helping to keep the UK at the forefront of global research and innovation. You can find out more about EPSRC and how you can work with us by visiting our website: Pioneer is made by: works alongside other Research Councils www.epsrc.ac.uk as well as keeping up to date byEPSRC following us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ which have responsibility in other research areas. Editor: Mark Mallett ([email protected]) epsrc Design: Rachael Brown ([email protected]) Contributors: Chris Buratta; Grace Palmer; John Yates; Matt Shinn; [email protected] Contact: 01793 444305/442804


The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. To provide feedback on this magazine, and to subscribe to print and/or electronic versions of Pioneer, please e-mail [email protected] Pictures courtesy of thinkstock.com unless otherwise stated.

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Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Leading edge

09

10 UK infrastructure

Engineering Engineering and and Physical Physical Sciences Sciences Research Research Council Council

the next 50 years

Spotlight on the research leaders of tomorrow

The pulling power of the PhD Bug magnets

Smartphones in space The lensless microscope Peer review – why it works Science minister on engineering the future

Alf Adams, godfather of the internet The train that runs on hydrogen

For back issues or to subscribe to Pioneer for free, email: [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: twitter@EPSRC www.epsrc.ac.uk