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Issue 93 February 2019

This issue: 1 Next-generation digital healthcare: apply for funding 3 DIH Roadshow for Academics & Healthcare Professionals 4 Study of the Universe could help improve global security – Antineutrinos can help monitor nuclear power plants and other activity 6 Using space technology to tackle air pollution caused by farming 8 Millions of osteoporosis sufferers could be helped by bone-growing technology 9 The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) 10 UK scientists and engineers working to reduce food waste in developing countries 12 UK will have simulation capabilities like never before with powerful quantum learning machine 13 Smartphone app to help farmers with pest control 14 STFC speeding up analysis of experimental data by using AI technologies 15 EnergyTec cluster grows 17% in less than a year 16 Ground breaking 'Virtual driving assistant' for seniors gets a test drive across Merseyside 18 Design completed of the networking 'backbone' of the world's largest ever radio telescope 19 Ground-breaking gravitational waves expert granted knighthood 20 External Innovations Team and Innovations Club contacts

InnovationsClub

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Next-generation digital healthcare: apply for fundingUK businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop new digital health products through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund

Advancing new and novel digital technologies can significantly improve outcomes for patients and reduce costs for healthcare providers.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, has up to £5 million to invest in projects through the digital health technology catalyst – a programme that aims to accelerate the development of digital health innovations.

The competition is part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to deliver leading-edge healthcare in the UK.

This £181 million fund will transform how we develop and manufacture medicines and other healthcare products, such as digital technologies, to get the right drugs and treatments to patients when they need them.

Find out more about the leading-edge healthcare challenge

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Using real-world data

This competition is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which will provide successful projects with its real-world data advisory services, DataLab.

DataLab aims to connect expertise across the NHS and academia through the institute’s data research. It is a collaboration between NICE, the University of Manchester and Health Innovation Manchester.

Successful applicants in the competition will be able to work with DataLab to get advice and consultancy across 4 main areas:

• the application and use of real-world data

• ensuring health data is secure

• how to evaluate digital health interventions

• additional scientific advice from NICE, and how to demonstrate the value of a project to the UK and international health systems

Advancing health care through digital solutions

Previous digital health technology catalyst winners include Neurofenix, whose tool helps patients that have had a stroke to recover.

Read more about digital health and medicines manufacturing projects that have recently received funding

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Better healthcare solutions

The competition is for collaborative research and development projects that span a variety of technologies, markets and healthcare needs and demonstrate the potential for significant innovation.

Competition information

• the competition opens on 11 February 2019, and the deadline for applications is midday on 10 April 2019

• to lead a project, you’ll need to be a UK-based small or medium-sized business (SME)

• total costs can be between £300,000 and £1 million

Find out more about this competition and apply

Issue 93 February 2019

Next-generation digital healthcare: apply for funding

InnovationsNewsletter

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DIH Roadshow for Academics & Healthcare ProfessionalsHealth Data Research UK is leading the delivery of the Digital Innovation Hub Programme – a UK-wide initiative to enable the safe and responsible use of health-related data at scale for research and innovation. The Programme is funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), receiving £37.5M, and is part of the Data to Early Diagnosis and Precision Medicine Challenge.

We are organising are a series of eight engagement events across the UK aimed at innovators, research leads and data users across academia, healthcare and industry settings. In England, these events are being run in partnership with the AHSN Network.

We expect significant interest in these events, so please register your interest and await confirmation.

For more details and to register please go here

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The existing STFC Boulby Underground Laboratory, at 1.1km depth at Boulby mine already hosts a range of deep underground science studies from astrophysics (the search for Dark Matter in the Universe) to studies of geology, geophysics, climate, the environment, life in extreme in environments on Earth and beyond. Credit: STFC

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The United Kingdom government is investing nearly £10 million in a joint project with the United States to harness existing particle physics research techniques to remotely monitor nuclear reactors.

Expected to be operational from 2022, the Advanced Instrumentation Testbed (AIT) project’s 6,500 tonne detector will measure the harmless sub-atomic particles called antineutrinos that are emitted by an existing nuclear power plant 25 kilometres away.

The project will test whether the technique could be scaled up in the future for more distant monitoring of nuclear sites, with the potential for non-proliferation applications.

The AIT detector is called WATCHMAN, an acronym for the WATer CHerenkov Monitor of ANtineutrinos. It will be constructed 1.1 kilometres underground at the ICL Boulby mine in North Yorkshire – the deepest operating mine in Europe. AIT-WATCHMAN will be supported by the Boulby Underground Laboratory, an existing multidisciplinary deep underground science facility operated by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Abundant throughout the Universe, and created by our own Sun and other stars, neutrinos are among the most difficult fundamental particles to study, as they carry no electrical charge and rarely interact with ordinary matter. Studying the properties of neutrinos and antineutrinos is an important component of wider physics research into the origins of the Universe, especially the apparent imbalance between matter and antimatter.

Professor Mark Thomson is Executive Chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council overseeing the UK delivery of the project. He said: “The UK and US have a long history of scientific collaboration, especially in translating the techniques used for basic science to solve real world

problems. Not only will this project help improve global security cooperation, it will also provide a boost to joint research efforts into neutrinos and antineutrinos – research which could help solve some of mysteries around the creation of the Universe.”

Study of the Universe could help improve global security – Antineutrinos can help monitor nuclear power plants and other activity

Researchers in the underground lab Credit: STFC

Study of the Universe could help improve global security – Antineutrinos can help monitor nuclear power plants and other activity

Issue 93 February 2019

Dr Adam Bernstein from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California is the AIT-WATCHMAN Project Director. He said: “The ICL-Boulby site for AIT, with its proximity to an existing reactor complex, is the ideal location for our experiment. WATCHMAN and AIT give the physics and non-proliferation communities a rare opportunity to work together to harness neutrino detection for the practical purpose of non-intrusively monitoring nuclear reactors.”

Within the UK, physicists from the Universities of Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Liverpool have been working with national defence and security agencies, including the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), on the AIT-WATCHMAN project.

Dr Matthew Malek of the University of Sheffield said: “The beauty of AIT-WATCHMAN is that it enables us to learn more about the universe on so many levels, while also supporting an innovative programme of non-proliferation. We will study one of the fundamental building blocks of Nature, the neutrino, and we will use it to search for supernovae in other parts of our galaxy. At the same time, we are developing new techniques that will have a positive impact on Britain and the rest of the world.”

Dr Jonathan Burns from the Atomic Weapons Establishment said: “Identifying nuclear reactors from the emission of antineutrinos at a distance of tens of kilometres will provide a key capability in supporting the UK government’s nuclear non-proliferation mission. The AIT project is an excellent example of detector technology, developed by the physics research community in the UK and internationally, being used to address global security challenges.”

Professor Sean Paling, the head of the existing STFC Underground Science Laboratory at ICL Boulby Mine said: "It is great to be having this world-class research project come to the UK and the North East region. Boulby is a special place for science in the UK and already supports a range of pure and applied science studies from astrophysics to studies of life on Earth

and beyond. This new project will compliment and enhance the existing programme and increase the laboratory’s standing in the international science community.”

In the U.S., the participating institutions are Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Boston University, Iowa State University, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Pennsylvania State University, and the Universities of California (at Berkeley, Davis, and Irvine), Hawaii, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

UK funding is provided through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Fund for International Collaboration, and the Ministry of Defence. US funding is provided through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and by the Office of High Energy Physics within the DOE Office of Science.

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Manure spreading Credit: ADAS

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Issue 93 February 2019

A team of UK scientists are applying technology developed for space research to help tackle the amount of ammonia that the farming industry releases into the atmosphere and try to make farming more efficient.

Agriculture is a vital multi-billion pound industry for the UK, but faces challenges in the ever-increasing demand for food and dwindling land resources. To meet these challenges and remain competitive, farmers have had to intensify production with increasing reliance on chemical fertilisers – but these measures have increased the amount of pollution caused by agriculture.

A main contributor is ammonia, a gas which is generated by livestock and released from fertiliser use directly into the atmosphere. As a pollutant, it is having a growing impact upon the environment.

A research team, led by Professor Brian Ellison from the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s RAL Space facility, working in association with scientists at environmental consultancy firm ADAS, is working to create a reliable way of monitoring and analysing the ammonia emissions so that mitigation procedures can then be introduced. This will not only help the environment by cutting emissions, it will also support farmers by lowering production costs, for example by reducing expensive fertiliser use.

They are investigating a technique for Continuous Ammonia Monitoring for Agriculture – known as the CAMAG project. The instrument concept uses a gas sensing method that was originally developed for radio astronomy research and satellite-based Earth observation to detect the microwave signals given off by the ammonia.

Professor Ellison said: “By combining the knowledge of scientific and technical experts within RAL Space and ADAS, we are developing a sensing system that can provide a real-time measurement of an ammonia output from the ground and within the farm location. The benefit of using this technology is that it is passive, non-invasive, and thus does not damage the ‘product’, and is affordable. Its application will help reduce climate change and also support the agricultural industry by enhancing production efficiency.”

Atmospheric ammonia pollution is of concern to agricultural and atmospheric scientists across the globe. When ammonia combines with other pollutants in the atmosphere it can form dangerous particles which, when inhaled, may pose a threat to human health. As global leaders attempt to introduce measures to mitigate the human impact on the natural world, international targets have been introduced alongside practical measures to try to reduce the amount of ammonia emission.

Using space technology to tackle air pollution caused by farming

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Issue 93 February 2019

“Our preliminary scientific and technical evaluation indicates that it is possible to use our proposed instrument to sense and monitor ammonia,” Professor Ellison said. “Now we need to assess the accuracy of the method and compare its performance to alternatives to fully establish its effectiveness.”

Using space technology to tackle air pollution caused by farming

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The research project has been funded by the STFC Food Network+, which brings together researchers from STFC and different disciplines in the agri-food sector with the aim of solving some of the world’s greatest food sustainability challenges.

Find out more about the network and the other projects being funded here

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Project co-leads Dr Sylvie Coupaud and Professor Stuart Reid Credit: Credit: University of Strathclyde

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Issue 93 February 2019

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UK scientists have launched a clinical investigation which could eventually help millions of osteoporosis sufferers by harnessing pioneering ‘nanokicking’ technology – using tiny vibrations to turn stem cells into healthy bone.

More than three million people in the UK are estimated to have osteoporosis, which causes around 500,000 broken bones every year.

Funded by STFC, this new study will apply nanoscale vibration to patients with spinal injuries in an attempt to slow down and reverse the effects of a condition called ‘disuse osteoporosis’. This condition affects patients who have been paralysed, as the lack of use of the paralysed limbs results in insufficient stresses and strains on the bones, which weakens them and makes them more susceptible to fractures.

Loss of bone density can be extremely fast for people who have suffered severe sudden paralysis, so developing treatments to minimise fractures is vitally important. Although there are existing techniques to persuade stem cells to become bone, they involve complex and expensive engineering or chemicals.

The ‘nanokicking’ technique takes sophisticated measurement technology, based on the sophisticated laser interferometer systems designed in the UK for the recent Nobel Prize-winning gravitational wave detection, to turn stem cells into bone cells.

Professor Stuart Reid, of the University of Strathclyde, along with Matthew Dalby, professor of cell engineering at the University of Glasgow, first revealed their findings on ‘nanokicking’ in 2017, when they showed it was possible to use the technology developed to detect gravitational waves to grow human bone in a lab. This precise measurement technology first made for the gravitational wave detectors was created through funding from STFC.

Millions of osteoporosis sufferers could be helped by bone-growing technology

Now, this study – the first clinical study using ‘nanokicking’ technology directly on patients – has received funding of almost £350,000 from STFC, who are part of UK Research and Innovation, an independent part of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). STFC funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy.

Science Minister Chris Skidmore said: “Osteoporosis can be a devastating condition for the three million people that suffer from it across the UK. This research shows enormous promise of slowing down and even reversing the disease. The Government’s modern Industrial Strategy aims to harness medical innovations to help people have the most advanced treatment and meet the needs of our ageing society.”

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The research team will apply the same type of vibration they have been applying to single cells in the laboratory to patient’s legs. Around 15 volunteer patients from the National Spinal Injuries Unit based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow will be invited to take part in the project over the coming two years.

The project’s co-lead Dr Sylvie Coupaud, who has experience of rehabilitation interventions in patients with spinal cord injuries, said: “There is currently no effective approach to treating osteoporosis in these patients - it is diagnosed but not treated. Working closely with the spinal injuries unit, we have already developed robust methods to identify the onset of osteoporosis within weeks of injury, and we are now looking forward to producing effective interventions for patients, to slow the bone loss before a fracture occurs.”

The experiments could mean that the technology could be used to develop new therapies to help those who already suffer from the condition and also prevent those at risk from ever developing it.

Professor Reid added: “If we get positive results then there will be an immediate scale up of the project and we will see how we can roll this out for the benefit of the wider population and not just those with spinal injuries.”

The technology could also eventually be used for astronauts on the International Space Station, who similarly lose bone density because of reduced gravity and the associated lack of loading on their bones.

More information is available on the Strathclyde website

Millions of osteoporosis sufferers could be helped by bone-growing technology

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STFC Food Network+ workshop in India Credit: Dr Sonal Choudhary

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Issue 93 February 2019

Scientists and engineers in the UK are working to use ideas from advanced space technology to improve the lives of farmers and reduce food waste in developing countries.

Due to a warmer climate and a lack of technology, expertise and infrastructure, up to 40% of food in developing countries can be wasted, with much of this waste being fresh produce. This is because the farmers are unable to insulate and cool or refrigerate produce after it is harvested – and on the journey between the farm and the consumer, the food can become spoiled.

A research team, led by Dr Sonal Choudhary of the University of Sheffield, is working on utilising STFC’s expertise in space science and cryogenics, thermal engineering and analysing large datasets to improve the efficiency of the cold food supply chain in India and so reduce the amount of waste, both in terms of food and energy. The project is being undertaken as part of STFC’s Food Network+ research programme.

UK expertise in cryogenics, the science of extremely cold temperatures, and of thermal engineering could hold the key to bolstering the food chain by reducing the amount of loss from farm-to-fork and by doing so, helping farmers raise their income.

Dr Choudhary said: “There are a number of practical and logistical challenges for farmers in developing countries. Once they have harvested the fruit or vegetables, how can they keep it fresh before it reaches the consumer? They are often unable to afford refrigerated vehicles, and rely solely on traditional methods such as transporting the produce through open trucks, rickshaws, motorcycles and even bicycles. Given the ambient temperature of 40-45°C in many parts of India, a good thermal insulation along with cryogenics technology could provide us with a viable option to reduce food loss from farm-to-fork and improve the cold chain efficiency.”

Dr Bryan Shaughnessy is head of the Thermal Engineering Group at STFC RAL Space and also a participant in this project. “We design systems to withstand the harsh extremes of temperature in space. By taking the technology and expertise we apply in developing instruments for use in space missions and instead looking at how to apply it in assisting in keeping food cooler in warm climates I believe we have an opportunity here to find fairly low cost solutions to what can be a very expensive problem.”

Dr Choudhary added: “Thanks to the STFC Food Network+ we have the chance to work with experts in cryogenics, thermal engineering and data science, alongside stakeholders from the supply chain to really iron out some of the logistical challenges and get one step closer to making this solution a reality.”

The project has been funded by the STFC Food Network+, which brings together researchers from STFC and different disciplines in the agri-food sector with the aim of solving some of the world’s greatest food sustainability challenges.

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UK scientists and engineers working to reduce food waste in developing countries

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UK scientists and engineers working to reduce food waste in developing countries

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The team have utilised participatory workshops and focus groups to predict any challenges in implementing STFC space science and technologies in India, where the gaps in the infrastructure exist, and what interventions are needed at different stages of the food supply chain from farmers to retailers and end consumers.

“We have met with farmers, retailers, academics, government officials and other invested parties to try to really understand the issues the sector faces and to come up with ways to meet those challenges. Early studies have shown that it is certainly possible to increase farmers’ livelihood by

decreasing food loss from farm-to-fork,” Dr Choudhary said, “Now we need to demonstrate how this could be achieved at a low budget utilising STFC space science and technologies.”

The team is made up of both academia and industry, with representatives from Sheffield University Management School (SUMS), Hull University Business School (HUBS), STFC’s RAL Space and commercial cryogenics firm Cryox.

Find out more about the network and the other projects being funded here

Alison Kennedy from Hartree Centre with Andy Grant from Atos Credit: Atos

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UK will have simulation capabilities like never before with powerful quantum learning machine

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UK researchers and industry will soon be able to process unprecedented amounts of data and harness powerful simulation capabilities, thanks to the arrival of a new Quantum Learning Machine at one of the UK’s leading high-performance computing research facilities.

Commercial and academic users are set to benefit from this new collaboration between the STFC Hartree Centre and global digital services company Atos, which was announced today.

The new agreement will see the Hartree Centre take the first UK delivery of an Atos Quantum Learning Machine.

Alison Kennedy, Director of the Hartree Centre, said: “We’re thrilled to be enabling UK companies to explore and prepare for the future of quantum computing. This collaboration will build on our growing expertise in this exciting area of computing and result in more resilient technology solutions being developed for industry.”

Leigh Lapworth, Head of Computational Sciences at Rolls-Royce, which will be one of the first organisations to use the quantum simulator, said: “The Quantum Learning Machine will provide a platform on which we can develop new quantum algorithms with potential impacts across our business. We have a long track-record of successful collaborations with the Hartree Centre and with the support of Atos we look forward to research that takes us in new and exciting directions.”

Andy Grant, Vice President, HPC & Big Data, Atos UK and Ireland said: “We are delighted to deepen our existing relationship with the Hartree Centre which we believe will help UK industry future-proof itself for the arrival of quantum computing. Our Quantum Learning Machine as a service will be made available to any organisation wanting to learn about, and experiment with, quantum computing and understand the key opportunities and challenges this technology presents. Quantum is the future of computing and it is crucial that organisations are ready to harness the coming revolution.”

This new collaboration builds on an established partnership between Atos and the Hartree Centre.

Read more about the collaboration on the Atos website.

Research set up at University of Lincoln and close up of a locust Credit: University of Lincoln

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UK scientists are creating a smartphone app to help farmers tackle the pests that destroy their crops – and it could have a major impact on the way information about the natural world is gathered, stored and accessed worldwide.

A team of researchers from the University of Lincoln, supported by STFC, is designing and building the app to help farmers in hot climates tackle the spread of locusts on their land.

The team gathered more than 10,000 images of locusts in various stages of growth to train the system behind the app. Researchers travelled to China to gather images and videos so that the app can recognise a variety of terrain and plant growth, and they have also built specialist facilities in Lincoln to house locusts from their earliest stages of life through to adulthood. By observing the locusts 24 hours a day, the team has built a huge data set to inform their app, and this collection of thousands of images and videos – the first of its kind in the world – will also be a valuable resource for the wider scientific community.

By recognising locusts through a smartphone camera, the app will be able to identify the stage of the insect’s growth. Using this information, the farmer can use pesticides more accurately to target the insects in the early stages of their lifespan, significantly reducing the amount of crop damage.

This targeted approach could also reduce pesticide residue levels, leading to increased food safety while maintaining food security, and reduce environmental pollution, protecting nearby water systems.

“Each year, approximately 18 million hectares of land are damaged by locusts and grasshoppers, impacting hugely on farmers and their productivity,” explains Dr Bashir Al-Diri from the University of Lincoln. “Their monitoring techniques currently rely on field surveys by people through digging insect

eggs, but this information only helps farmers to make mid and long term forecasting decisions and can delay effective management measures. By digitally recording the exact number, age and location of locusts, we hope this new app will put more knowledge and more power into the hands of the farmers. They will be able to predict insect population and spread, and act quickly and accurately to save their crops.”

With its advanced computer vision technology, the developers hope that the app framework will also be used for a wide range of other applications in the future to capture and document information about the natural world.

More information is available on the University of Lincoln website.

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Smartphone app to help farmers with pest control

JASMIN Credit: STFC/RAL Space

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STFC is about to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to more efficiently sort through the swathes of experimental data produced at its national multidisciplinary science facilities with the aim of making quicker scientific breakthroughs.

This work will be carried out in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute, which has recently been awarded £40million from UK Research and Innovation to fund research into developing AI technology to benefit the engineering, health, science and criminal justice sectors.

STFC’s Chief Data Scientist Tony Hey will co-direct the project. He said: “There are many areas of science that now generate such large volumes of data that processing it is laborious and inefficient. There is an opportunity here for us to use the tools of data science and AI to assist scientists create new scientific knowledge more quickly and efficiently. It is vital that the UK develops suitable systems for mining and exploiting data at our national experimental facilities in order to maintain its position at the forefront of the global research community.”

STFC will be specifically focusing on applying AI and advanced machine learning technologies to the experimental data generated by the facilities at the Harwell Campus – Diamond, ISIS neutron and muon source, the UK’s Central Laser Facility and the NERC Centre for Environmental Data Analytics with its JASMIN super data cluster. This AI capability will be known as the ‘Turing Hub’, and will be hosted at STFC’s Scientific Computing Department.

The Alan Turing Institute has allocated funding to set up the Turing Hub at Harwell, which includes funding for four data scientists and an AI computer system. The Hub will give users of the facilities the new ability to utilise AI technologies to collect and analyse their data, which will significantly increase the efficiency and productivity of users from both academia and industry.

The STFC Hartree Centre is also collaborating with the Alan Turing Institute to work on AI technologies for industry, and the new Turing Hub will be working closely with the Hartree Centre.

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STFC speeding up analysis of experimental data by using AI technologies

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Credit: Harwell

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New figures released in January show that Harwell’s EnergyTec Cluster has grown 17 percent since its launch in May 2018 and now includes 35 industry, academic and public organisations working on the Campus, collectively employing over 900 people.

The figures were announced at the Clean Energy Conference being held at Harwell Campus. The figures also showed that a further 26 companies, which started off in Harwell’s Space or HealthTec Clusters, now also focus on the energy sector as a major market for their innovative technologies. With a focus on energy storage, battery technologies and carbon neutral alternatives to fossil fuels, the technologies emerging from these 61 organisations will influence every aspect of life across work, travel and recreation, improving the environment and developing sustainable alternatives for the future.

The EnergyTec Cluster counts multinational organisations including Siemens and EDF Energy among its cohort, consultants such as Ricardo Energy & Environment, and fast-growing start-ups such as Zap&Go and MIRICO. The Faraday Institution, which has received a £74m investment from the UK Government to accelerate battery technology in the UK, sits at the heart of the Cluster alongside open access facilities Diamond Lightsource and ISIS Neutron & Muon Source, part of STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

“Harwell Campus’s uniqueness lies in its cross-industry collaboration. The 26 organisations from the Space and Health Clusters that now have technologies or applications being used in the energy sector are testament to the powerful advantage of working in close proximity with organisations that have nothing to do with your original market.” explains Dr Barbara Ghinelli, Cluster and Campus Business Development Director at Harwell Campus for the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council, “Through shared learning and collaboration, however, new business opportunities are identified and innovative solutions to long standing problems are created.”

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EnergyTec cluster grows 17% in less than a year

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One company that has benefited from collaboration is STFC RAL Space spin-out, MIRICO. Its laser gas sensing technology, originally designed to measure atmospheric constituents in space, has been found to have commercial ground-based applications. MIRICO’s technology can more accurately measure atmospheric pollutants for a variety of environmental and industrial applications including energy companies.

“Harwell Campus’ combination of state-of-the-art research facilities and access to organisations that we can collaborate with makes it the ideal environment to develop a product and grow a company,” said Mohammed Belal, Founder and Business Development Director, at MIRICO. “At Harwell, our technology has gone from the STFC lab to deployments within major organisations, which couldn’t have been achieved anywhere near as quickly without the ability to share resources, knowledge and even contacts with other companies operating in this unique environment.”

The Campus, which in total has 200 organisations employing 5,500 people focuses on successfully commercialising scientific research and new technologies through clusters in the major markets of Space, Health and Energy.

You can read more about the Cluster on the Harwell Campus web site.

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Stuart Millward, CEO and founder at Satsafe Credit: STFC/Satsafe

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In the UK there are more than 4.5 million drivers over the age of 70, and, on average, 1 in 10 of them will have an accident during a year. In our ageing population, driving and maintaining independence is an important part of life for a growing number of people, but safety can be a concern for all involved. There is also a proven direct link between hanging up the car keys and a rapid decline in mental health caused by loss of social mobility.

In a ground breaking initiative, a ‘virtual driving assistant’ technology developed by North West technology start-up SATSAFE Limited, is being trialled by the Merseyside Road Safety Partnership. The overall aim of the project is to explore the potential for SATSAFE’s affordable in-vehicle technologies that could help seniors to stay on the road safely for longer.

The simple to install ‘black-box’ combines satellite positioning and smart sensors to form an accurate picture of how safely a car is being driven by an individual, including acceleration, breaking and cornering forces as well as the time of day or night. This information is transmitted in near real time to Satsafe’s secure cloud analytics platform where other details such as weather information, local traffic levels and average speed data can be merged to produce a clear picture of how an individual vehicle is behaving at any time. Unusual changes in an individual’s driving patterns that could indicate, for example, deterioration in eyesight or reaction times, can be identified, or just the fact that there is something going on which may be having an impact on safety.

Drivers have access to their individual driver ‘scores’ through either a driver reporting dashboard or, for those less inclined to use the internet, through the post. As part of the project, the Merseyside partnership is also trialling SATSAFE’s smart-connected dash-cam which combines all the benefits of video recording with black box technology as well as an SOS contact button. This means that should they fall ill at the wheel or be involved in an accident, they have direct access to their nominated relative, who can see exactly where they are at that time via a connected app. This service could get faster medical response to an incident potentially saving lives when every second counts.

Ground breaking 'Virtual driving assistant' for seniors gets a test drive across Merseyside

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Ground breaking 'Virtual driving assistant' for seniors gets a test drive across Merseyside

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Stuart Millward, CEO and founder of SATSAFE, located at Daresbury Laboratory, said: “Technology that enables us to notify a family member when a parent’s driving habits have changed can not only save lives, but also provide reassurance if there is concern about the onset of dementia, which could impair driving ability. We are really looking forward to working with the Mersey Road Safety Partnership, to trial our technology and provide seniors and family members with peace of mind, knowing that there is a ‘virtual driving assistant’ connecting their vehicles to the outside world taking in all sorts of information about how and when a vehicle is being driven.”

For the last three years, SATSAFE has been developing their driver safety and security solutions as a tenant at Daresbury Laboratory’s advanced engineering centre, following an initial support package provided as part of the European Space Agency’s business incubation programme. Further support from the Liverpool City Region’s LCR4.0 programme and Innovate UK enabled SATSAFE to access the high performance computing facilities at STFC’s Hartree Centre (home to some of the most advanced computing technologies and expertise in the UK) and the virtual prototyping capabilities of the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre, all of which are located at Sci-Tech Daresbury.

Stuart added: “Thanks to the support, facilities and expertise we’ve had access to on site here at Daresbury Laboratory, we are thrilled to now be in the position to demonstrate the substantial benefits of our affordable, simple to use in-vehicle technology. SATSAFE is currently in discussions with various insurance providers, both for fleet and for senior drivers, to see if we can justify the provision of usage-based insurance in the same way that they do for young drivers with a black box in their car. Car insurance can escalate significantly at a certain age, but if a senior driver chooses to share his or her driving ‘score’ with their insurance company and demonstrate that they are safe on the road, this could be used to provide drivers with lower cost insurance. The added benefit of video evidence in case of an accident is also an extremely attractive proposition both for vulnerable drivers and for the insurers.”

Merseyside residents over the age of 65 who are interested in taking part in the trial programme can find out more at the website: www.satsafe.com/mrsp

Further information about support for SMEs at Daresbury Laboratory and across STFC more generally, can be found on our business incubation page.

Artist’s impression of the SKA dishes Credit: SKA Organisation

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InnovationsNewsletter

The latest design milestone has been completed for what will soon be the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - with the international Signal and Data Transport (SaDT) engineering consortium concluding its work to design the complex system of networking that forms the backbone of the SKA.

The UK-led team have designed a system that will be required to transport unprecedented amounts of data over vast distances, while ensuring that signals are synchronised in a way that enables the arrays to operate together like a single telescope, a huge challenge given the large number of antennas spread over hundreds of kilometres in both South Africa and Western Australia.

The detailed design of this vital element has been led by the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) group at University of Manchester (UoM) in the UK, funded by STFC, as part of a consortium that brought together 15 different organisations spread across eight countries.

“The precision of the synchronisation is truly mind-boggling - the accuracy is much better than a billionth of a millisecond!" said Consortium Lead Professor Keith Grainge from the University of Manchester. "As an example, even light, which is the fastest thing there is, will travel less than a millimetre in this time."

You can read more about this milestone on the SKA website.

Find out more about SaDT

Design completed of the networking 'backbone' of the world's largest ever radio telescope

Professor Sir James H

ough Credit: STFC

Black hole simulation (© Christian Reisswig, Luciano Rezzolla, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut/AEI)/ Michael Koppitz, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut/AEI)/Zuse-Institut Berlin) © AEI/ITP/ZIB

Issue 93 February 2019 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 2019

InnovationsNewsletter

On 31 January one of the UK’s leading astrophysicists, who played an instrumental role in the historic detection of gravitational waves, received a knighthood.

Professor Sir James Hough, University of Glasgow Research Professor in Natural Philosophy in the School of Physics and Astronomy, was knighted during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in recognition of his contribution to physics and astronomy.

Professor Hough has worked in the field of astrophysics since 1963, and in that time has helped to develop many of the technologies and experimental techniques that made this detection possible.

Ground-breaking gravitational waves expert granted knighthood

Since that first detection, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations have made other significant discoveries including gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars and further black hole mergers.

Professor Hough said: “I’m very proud to have been knighted in recognition of my work as an astrophysicist. It’s a tremendous honour, and it demonstrates the impact that gravitational wave astronomy has had on our understanding of the universe.”

Professor Hough’s knighthood is the latest in a string of honours which includes a Royal Medal, a President’s Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the 2018 European Physical Society Edison Volta Prize.

Find out more about Professor Hough’s career here.

Issue 93 February 2019

InnovationsNewsletter

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External Innovations and Innovations ClubThe External Innovations team manages the activities that aim to realise the impacts and benefits that flow from STFC’s investments in science and technology towards commercialisation through one to one brokering, events and a range of funding schemes.

If you wish to contact the teams for more information please see the following contacts and email addresses.

Innovations club: innovationsclub@stfc.ac.uk

External Innovations – 21st Century Challenges

Jason Green Head of External Innovations Tel: + 44 (0)1793 442 014 Email: Jason.green@stfc.ac.uk

Stephen Loader Programme Manager Tel: +44 (0)1793 442 111 Email: stephen.loader@stfc.ac.uk

Ling Xu Knowledge Exchange Manager Tel: + 44 (0)1793 442 104 Email: ling.xu@stfc.ac.uk

Katharine Hollinshead 21st Century Challenges Programme Manager Tel: + 44 (0)1793 442 068 Email: katharine.hollinshead@stfc.ac.uk

Helen Randell-Sly ISCF Manager Tel: + 44 (0)1793 442 051 Email: helen.randell-sly@stfc.ac.uk

Administration

Andi Kidd Office Manager Tel: +44 (0)1793 442 059 Email: andi.kidd@stfc.ac.uk

Pauline Thompson Programme Support Tel: +44(0)1793 442 650 Email: pauline.thompson@stfc.ac.uk

The Innovations Club newsletter contains a selection of articles drawn from our partner organisations that we think you will find interesting. We welcome your comments innovationsclub@stfc.ac.uk

STFC is part of UK Research and Innovation - stfc.ukri.org