Research Performance and Economic Impact Report 2012 - 2013 by EPSRC

Research Performance and Economic Impact Report 2012 - 2013

Contents Summary: Engineering and physical sciences fuel growth and prosperity

Promoting world-leading discovery

Supporting highly skilled people

Forming partnerships to maximise impact

Methodological developments and future challenges

Metrics

Bibliography/references

Summary: Engineering and physical sciences fuel growth and prosperity EPSRC invests in world-leading research and training to fuel long-term growth through active sponsorship of its £3.3 billion portfolio of research and training. EPSRC invests in a portfolio of research and training that is relevant to all 12 sectors in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy and aligns very strongly with eight of them. We have wellestablished connections to industry to secure maximum exploitation of research outcomes, a commitment to the long-term international excellence of research and innovation, and training policies explicitly directed at producing the highly skilled people UK industry needs for growth. We have also strengthened links with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), partnering on meetings with chief technology officers from global companies to present a coordinated view of the UK innovation system.

£555m leverage on our research and training investments. EPSRC has over 2,000 companies and other organisations engaged in research and training activities: currently 50 per cent of our research portfolio is collaborative with users, with leverage on our current research and training investment as of April 2013 providing an additional £555 million1 from industry, government departments, public sector organisations, independent research organisations and charities. We work with partners in the innovation system, for example, the Technology Strategy Board, with whom we have invested over £40 million on co-funded projects and schemes over

the Delivery Plan period 2011/12 to 2012/13. The UK is second in the world for academic collaboration with users.2 We facilitate this through both our strategic partnerships with companies and the flexibility we provide for individuals to form project-specific collaborations. EPSRC currently has Strategic Partnerships with 28 organisations from business, government and the charitable sector, including Rolls-Royce, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline and the Department for Transport. Total research funding is £320 million – £195 million from EPSRC and £125 million from our Strategic Partners. Continuous investment in the engineering and physical sciences research base provides not only the ideas and skills needed for UK industry, it also instils in industry the confidence to invest, and to take the risks that lead to innovative products and services. The government’s strategies – the Industrial Strategy and the ‘Eight Great Technologies’ – depend upon the engineering and physical sciences research base for their success.

One of the UK’s not-so-secret weapons for growth is its worldleading research community. Global companies set up in the UK in order to participate in a world-class research environment that can help give them a decisive lead against global competition. Professor Andrew Blake, Director, Microsoft Research Cambridge

Figure represents total leverage (cash and in-kind) on our current portfolio of around £3 billion

The World Economic Forum Report 2011/12 ranks the UK as second in university-business collaboration, behind Switzerland and ahead of the US. Global Competitiveness Report 2011-12 Table 12:04

Promoting world-leading discovery EPSRC supports excellence across its portfolio, with recent analysis demonstrating that, collectively in the research areas that fall within our remit, the UK’s citation impact has overtaken the USA and is second in the world to Germany. EPSRC is instrumental in shaping the research landscape to play an important role in innovation through the research we fund, the infrastructure we support, the talents we develop and help prosper, as well as the partnerships with business and government that we forge on behalf of UK research. EPSRC delivers impact through continued investment in high quality research. To maintain the UK’s global research standing in light of increasing international competition, and with limited funding available, EPSRC is focusing its investments on excellent research in areas that are of longterm strategic importance to the UK to ensure a balanced portfolio which enables ground-breaking transformative research to be fully encouraged and supported. Research is by its nature a long-term endeavour. EPSRC provides sustained funding to the best researchers and groups to enable them to

undertake ambitious programmes of cutting-edge research, to develop capacity through building teams of leading people, and to respond quickly to exciting opportunities as they arise. During 2012/13 we committed nearly £734 million in new grants,

In the research areas that fall within our remit, the UK’s citation impact is second in the world. of which nearly £114 million (up from £85 million in 2011/12) was awarded to programme grants, a flexible mechanism to provide sustained funding to world-leading research groups to address significant research challenges. World-leading research leads to the emergence of technologies with potential to have a material effect on future growth rates, such as synthetic biology, graphene, intelligent sensor networks, service robotics and quantum technologies.

Impact relative to the world

Figure 1: Citation impact of UK engineering and physical sciences research relative to the rest of the world

MASERs come in from the cold The MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) was invented more than 60 years ago, five years before its cousin, the now ubiquitous laser. But masers, which use concentrated beams of microwaves rather than intense beams of light, require high magnetic fields and sub-zero conditions to work. And so they were left out in the cold, only able to operate at temperatures close to absolute zero. Professor Neil Alford, of Imperial College London, and Dr Mark Oxborrow, from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), have developed a simpler version of the maser using a crystalline material and no cooling or magnets. The result of their work means, crucially, that the new-look maser can function at room temperature. This research was funded by EPSRC and, at NPL, through the UK’s National Measurement Office (NMO). The research was published in Nature in August 2012.

EPSRC-funded researchers develop a short cut to billion dollar drugs Researchers co-funded by EPSRC have found a highly efficient method of making hormone-based drugs which could generate billions of sales for the pharmaceutical industry. Led by Professor Varinder Aggarwal of the University of Bristol, the team, whose work was published in Nature, have perfected a quicker way of making prostaglandins, which are important molecules as they regulate a wide range of activities in the body including blood circulation, digestion and reproduction. Some synthetic analogues of prostaglandin are ‘billion dollar’ drugs. The prostaglandin analogue latanoprost, for example, which is used to treat glaucoma and ocular hypertension, generated revenues of more than $1.7 billion in 2010.3

Potential applications for the maser include more sensitive medical instruments for scanning patients, improved chemical sensors for detecting explosives remotely, advanced components for quantum computers and better radio astronomy devices for detecting life on other planets.

Image courtesy of NPL

http://www.pfizer.com/files/investors/presentations/q4performance_020111.pdf

Infrastructure and capital investments As a sponsor of long-term high quality research we understand how important it is for UK researchers to have access to state-of-the-art research equipment and facilities in order to build a worldclass research portfolio that will help fuel growth and prosperity. These range from lab-based equipment to international facilities such as the High End Computing Terascale Resource (HECToR), the Research Complex at Harwell and Diamond Light Source. EPSRC-funded the £15 million Phase I and II of the National Nuclear User Facility through capital funding from BIS and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) (£5 million). The funding is to establish testing facilities for highly radioactive nuclear material at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester and the National Nuclear Laboratory. New EPSRC-funded facility giving researchers and industry access to high performance computing The EPSRC-sponsored N8 High Performance Computing (N8 HPC) centre, based at the University of Leeds and run jointly with the University of Manchester, offers high performance computing on a scale previously not readily available to researchers in the North. The centre operates Polaris, one of the 250 most powerful computers in the world and which is capable of a peak performance of 110 trillion operations per second – the approximate equivalent to 500,000 iPads. The centre also aims to lower the barriers to industry use of high performance computing by offering businesses easy access to the facilities, consultancy services and e-infrastructure training. Opened in March 2013, one of the projects that has already benefitted from the capability that N8 HPC offers was carried out by the BBC to re-categorise 128,000 separate music tracks according to mood – an exercise that took only six hours to complete when normally it would have taken over 18 months.

World-leading infrastructure: £85 million for three key technologies Three key technologies, identified in the pre-budget statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as part of the government’s ‘Eight Great Technologies’ to drive UK growth, received an £85 million investment for capital equipment. Funding will be made available to more than 20 universities across the UK to support and strengthen existing research in the areas of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Advanced Materials and Energy and its Storage. The investment will underpin key sectors for the UK economy, including automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, energy and healthcare. • Robotics and autonomous systems will receive £25 million with additional funding contributions of £8.4 million from higher education institutions and £6 million from industrial partners. • Advanced materials will receive £30 million with additional funding contributions of £11.7 million from higher education institutions and £5.5 million from industrial partners. • Energy and its storage will receive £30 million with additional funding contributions of £9.8 million from higher education institutions and £5.8 million from industrial partners.

£85m capital equipment investment for robotics and autonomous systems, advanced materials and energy storage technologies to drive UK growth.

Contributing to growth through focus on challenges In addition to supporting excellent research across all areas of its portfolio, EPSRC also sponsors world-class research to help tackle some of the most serious challenges facing the UK, including the need to build a strong economy, produce sustainable low-carbon energy, develop a resilient integrated national infrastructure and a healthy society with personalised healthcare for everyone. Currently we are focusing our resources on supporting four challenge themes: Manufacturing the Future, Energy (a Research Councils UK crosscouncil initiative), the Digital Economy (a Research Councils UK cross-council initiative), and Healthcare Technologies. Examples of impact from these themes are below. Energy The EPSRC-led Research Councils UK Energy Programme aims to position the UK to meet its energy and environmental targets and policy goals through world-class research and training. It is sponsoring research and PhD training to secure a low-carbon future, through the creation of reliable, economically viable energy systems while protecting the natural environment, resources and quality of life. The Programme includes over 1,400 collaborators. EPSRC-supported research leads to creation of international research institute Energy storage research co-developed by EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Leeds, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Science, and commercial partners has led to the creation of a joint international research institute with over 45 researchers working on over 20 projects to develop and test new materials and processes for energy storage and explore methods for transferring and using energy more efficiently in both domestic settings and industry. The formation of the institute, which opened in July 2012, follows the project’s runaway success at The Engineer magazine’s Technology and Innovation Awards, winning both its category and the grand prize for ‘best in show’. In the initial project, the Leeds team, funded under the EPSRC-led Research Councils UK Energy Programme, working with commercial partner, Highview Power Storage and Chinese colleagues, co-designed and lab-tested a novel

cryogenic energy storage system that stores off-peak energy, using liquefied air as the storage medium. The system uses established technology, can be built anywhere, and can easily be scaled-up. A pilot facility near Slough has been providing electricity to the National Grid since April 2010. Digital Economy The EPSRC-led Research Councils UK Digital Economy Programme supports research to rapidly realise the transformational impact of digital technologies on aspects of community life, cultural experiences, future society, and the economy across four challenge areas of sustainable society, communities and culture, new economic models and IT as a utility. The programme has leveraged an additional £25 million from more than 600 partners,

Software provides new approach to dementia care Innovative software, Portrait, a web-based system designed by EPSRC-funded researchers at Newcastle University, is taking a novel approach to dementia care. Portrait focusses on care givers and addresses the need to facilitate conversations between care staff and residents with communication difficulties, such as those that arise from late stage Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. The software provides a multimedia portrait of each care home resident presented through an easily accessible touchscreen interface, giving information about the person’s key life events, family, important things to know, preferences, and hobbies and interests, helping care staff in stimulating conversation and discussions with the person. There are currently 750,000 people living with dementia in the UK; by 2025 this will rise to over one million. The annual cost of dementia to the UK is £20 billion and rising. Portrait is currently installed in a number of care homes run by the Balhousie Care Group in Scotland and there are on-going commercialisation discussions with companies delivering dementia-related services.

Healthcare Technologies Healthcare Technologies looks across the entire EPSRC research and training portfolio in identifying solutions that underpin the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors (including the NHS and pharmaceutical and medical technology industries). It is sponsoring basic research capabilities that create new techniques and technologies across four priority areas: • Novel treatment and therapeutic technologies • Enhanced prediction and diagnosis in real time and at the point of care • Technologies for a healthy life-course • Design, manufacture and integration of healthcare technologies Medical dressing lights up burn infection Every year around 5,000 children are treated in hospital for burns in England and Wales. EPSRC-sponsored researchers have developed a pioneering, and fast, method for detecting infections which can rapidly become fatal in children who have suffered burns – around ten per cent of children who are burnt become infected by disease-causing bacteria. The dressing, developed with a £658,000 EPSRC grant at the University of Bath with scientists from Bristol’s Frenchay Hospital and Bedfordshire-based AmpliPhi Biosciences, uses nanoscapsules containing a dye that bursts open in the presence of disease-causing bacteria. Using a UV light, doctors can quickly check whether there is any infection by seeing if the dressing lights up. Current tests for an infected wound can take up to a couple of days and children – especially those of pre-school age – are particularly at risk from the effects of infection due to their relatively poor immunity. Back pain breakthrough by EPSRC-sponsored researchers

The EPSRC-funded multidisciplinary team, funded as part of a £1 million four-year programme to encourage interdisciplinary working at the university, have pioneered a minimally invasive injection that contains stem cells, growth factors and inhibitors in a package that would be injected directly into the intervertebral discs of patients. The team has secured a commercial partner for its work and is also working with Nottinghambased pharma firm Critical Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a company spun-out to commercialise this EPSRC-funded research. If tests are successful, the treatment has the potential to repair soft tissue in the back.

Manufacturing the Future The Manufacturing the Future theme draws upon capabilities from across the whole engineering and physical sciences research community, to develop a balanced portfolio of long-term, speculative research alongside research where the benefits and manufacturing outcomes are clearly evident. Research challenges are: • • • •

Innovative production processes Manufacturing informatics Frontier manufacturing Sustainable industrial systems

We are investing over £380 million in cuttingedge manufacturing research with additional funding of over £160 million from 1,100 collaborating companies.

Lower back pain affects 80 per cent of the population at some point in their lives, costing more than £1 billion to the NHS and at least £3.5 billion to the wider economy through lost production.4 EPSRC-sponsored researchers at Sheffield Hallam University have developed a potential cure for chronic back pain through hydrogel injections that can regenerate damaged discs. 4

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG88CostReport.pdf

Device to cut food waste developed by EPSRCsupported researchers Being able to extend the shelf life of packaged food by just one day could substantially reduce the seven million tonnes of food which are discarded in the UK every year – food and packaging waste in the UK is estimated to be valued at £6.9 billion per year.5 Co-supported by EPSRC via a research grant of £325,000, Dr Declan Diver and Dr Hugh Potts at the University of Glasgow have prototyped a device that, when held against the surface of food packaging, generates a plasma that temporarily turns some of the oxygen into germ-killing ozone. Ozone is a very effective germicide which returns to its original state after a few hours – more than enough time for any mould, fungi or bacteria to be destroyed, extending the shelf life of the product without adversely affecting its taste. The prototype device is being brought to market by university spin-out company Anacail which is initially focusing on the food packaging industry – recent figures indicate that around two thirds of prepackaged salad is wasted by supermarkets or consumers.6

Energy and international development In 2012/13 EPSRC, the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) jointly developed a substantial new research programme to develop a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t in expanding access to clean modern energy services in developing countries. The resulting research programme ‘Energy and International Development: Understanding Sustainable Energy Solutions for Developing Countries’ successfully invested £9.7 million (£5.7 million from DfID, £3.5 million from EPSRC and £0.5 million from DECC) in 12 multidisciplinary projects, engaging top researchers from around the world to address energy challenges across sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

International partnerships Research is international and many challenges that we face are global. As well as maintaining the strength of UK research, we want researchers to be able to collaborate with partners around the world. Although our funding is open to collaborations with any country, we focus on key countries such as China, India and Japan, where mutual benefit is likely to be highest and where there are significant benefits to the UK for directed involvement. For example, EPSRC is working with India’s Department for Science and Technology (DST) to support a series of 12-14 workshops in applied mathematics to explore new links and potentially seed new longer-term collaborations. We also focus on the US, with joint working in energy research for example, and on Europe through encouraging involvement in European programmes such as FP7 and Horizon 2020. We also work closely with other UK organisations involved in international research, including Research Councils UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the British Council.

5 http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Estimates%20of%20waste%20in%20the%20food%20and%20drink%20supply%20chain_0.pdf 6

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24603008

Supporting highly skilled people For the UK to retain its position as a leader in science and technology, we need to invest not only in the future generation of researchers, but also in the highly skilled, numerate workforce which will be needed to drive the economy: it is expected that by 2020 there will be two million new jobs and most of these will demand higher skills than in the past.7 Many key sectors of the UK economy are heavily dependent on engineering and physical science doctoral graduates; nearly half of all EPSRCsupported students find employment in business and public services. Manufacturing, business, finance and IT are the biggest employers of doctoral graduates in engineering and physical sciences, representing around 75 per cent of those going into industry/ public services. Engineering, hi-tech, IT, science and manufacturing industries have the highest demand for highly-skilled employees.8 However, almost 70 per cent of engineering and IT employers are struggling to find senior engineers.9 A report by the Royal Academy of Engineering estimates that the UK needs one in five young people to become engineers to rebalance the economy and keep vital industries and services going.10 During 2013 EPSRC published a new position statement on skills.11 EPSRC trains and supports some of the best scientists and engineers in the world. They all have a positive impact on our world – throughout their careers. They are fuelling industry with new ideas, driving forward some of our most innovative companies and providing answers to some of society’s most important challenges. EPSRC invests in more than 9,300 doctoral students, representing 35 per cent of all engineering and physical sciences PhDs, and 10 per cent of all UK PhDs. There are 3,000 EPSRCfunded PhD graduates each year, of which 1,200 are collaborative with business.

UK Commission for Employment and Skills

Tomorrow’s Growth, CBI July 2013

The investment EPSRC makes in relevant research and postgraduate training in the UK plays a vital role in maintaining the supply of skilled people that will deliver the technologies of the future. Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director, Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover

IET Skills Survey 2013 10 Royal Academy of Engineering econometrics of engineering skills project, September 2012 11 Engineers, Physical Scientists and Mathematicians: The UK’s R&D Talent for Competitive Advantage, EPSRC 2013

EPSRC doctoral training – delivering the skills to meet future challenges EPSRC spent more than £173 million on doctoral training during 2012/13: more than £75 million was on Doctoral Training Grants and nearly £21 million on Industrial CASE, with the balance spent on Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). Existing CDTs already make a significant contribution to the UK economy and society through the provision of trained people. During summer 2013 EPSRC ran a consultation with existing CDTs on their impact, with evidence gathered showing a very wide range of outcomes and impacts. CDTs typically have significant industry leverage and some excellent examples of graduates obtaining employment in key industries as well as tenured academic positions. Examples include: • The Nano CDT at the University of Cambridge, an EPSRC investment of £6.75 million over nine years, has more than 20 industrial partners, including Unilever, IBM and Dyson, who have invested over £4 million. • Nuclear research training at the University of Manchester, which EPSRC supports through the Nuclear FIRST CDT, has trained around 70 PhD graduates for careers in the nuclear sector, a clear demonstration of the value of EPSRC training investment on the economy, meeting a clear industry sector need. • Other CDTs, for example the CDT in Communications at the University of Bristol, has leveraged significant funding to support additional students to supplement those supported by EPSRC. • The EngD programme in Optics and Photonics Technologies at Heriot-Watt University, an investment of around £5 million from 2009 to 2018, has been of enormous benefit to Selex ES, a world-leading provider of remote sensing technology, with some 5,000 employees in the UK. Some of the research undertaken by the student research engineers has rapidly transitioned into products, generating orders with anticipated values of £100 million over the product lifetime. Selex has a vigorous R&D programme, which requires a steady stream of skilled UK research engineers trained in a variety of disciplines to ensure they remain at the forefront of technology, enabling them to maintain their competitive position in global markets.

• The CDT in Financial Computing, based at University College London (UCL), is generating understanding that will enable the financial sector to become less vulnerable to risk, as well as helping to develop future leaders in their field. Acting as a bridge between universities and the UK financial services industry, the centre is a major collaboration between three academic institutions and over 40 banks, investment funds, regulators and hi-tech companies including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of England, Thomson Reuters and Microsoft. Their buy-in has been crucial, enabling an additional 30 PhD students to be supported this year, the provision of realtime and historic data worth £500,000 per annum and the funding of a Trading Room at UCL. • Oxford and Royal Holloway to train cyber security graduates. Two new CDTs, that will provide the UK with the next generation of researchers and leaders in cyber security, were announced in May 2013. The centres, which will be based at the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London, are jointly funded with a total of £7.5 million, with £2.5 million from EPSRC as part of the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme and £5 million from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as part of its work in the National Cyber Security Programme. The centres will draw on a wide range of expertise to provide multidisciplinary PhD training. They will also engage with industry to ensure training reflects the complex and dynamic nature of cyber threats.

As part of our strategic plan to train people with the skills needed for the UK economy, during 2012/13 we have been running our largest ever call, £350 million, to support high quality CDTs. The centres funded as a result of this call will equip future research leaders with the knowledge, skills and creative approaches the UK needs for economic growth and social wellbeing. Over 350 outline proposals were submitted from 56 universities, 177 of these were shortlisted for full bids and the total leverage they attracted exceeded £0.5 billion, including contributions from over 1,700 nonuniversity partners. Seventy-two successful CDT full bids were announced in November 2013.

BAE Systems is actively involved in a number of the CDTs funded by EPSRC, as we believe they will supply the future experts and leaders, the UK and the company needs in many key areas. Dr Steven John Harris, University & Collaborative Programmes Relationship Manager, BAE Systems

Institute of Physics prize-winner Kate Sloyan, an EPSRC Doctoral Prize holder at the University of Southampton, won the 2012 Institute of Physics’ Very Early Career Woman Physicist of the Year Award. The Institute of Physics award is made annually to a female scientist within five years of completing her undergraduate degree in physics and who is either working as a physicist or is engaged in postgraduate study. Kate was singled out for her research at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), on thin film deposition using layers to provide a versatile and quick method for creating materials with specific properties that can be used in a wide range of applications. Her work has already attracted interest from industrial partners, and her EPSRC Doctoral Prize is enabling her to continue her research for two more years. The award also recognises her outreach efforts which include involvement in the ORC’s Lightwave Roadshow, campus outreach days and the IONS student conferences, for which she has raised significant funds from industrial supporters.

Encouraging entrepreneurial skills In June 2013 postgraduate students from across the UK took part in the first Energy Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (Energy YES). Energy YES has been designed specifically to enhance the business skills of researchers in the energy community. It was developed by the EPSRC-funded Network of Energy Centres for Doctoral Training and University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI). Over a four-day programme, which involved presentations and mentoring, 50 researchers were tasked with working in a team to develop their own business plan. On the final day they presented their ideas to a panel of would-be investors and industry experts. The overall winning team was Midlands Energy Graduate School (MEGS) consisting of five researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham.

Fellowships In order to deliver the highest quality research to meet UK and global priorities, EPSRC supports the next generation of researchers with the greatest potential across the postdoctoral, early and established career stages to help them become the next world-leading researchers. Currently we support nearly 300 Research Fellows at various stages in their careers; increasingly these will be working in areas where UK economic growth is required and where they can integrate their work into the wider landscape. Research Fellowships to advance medical treatments and bring new science to market In February 2013, two new EPSRC Research Fellowships that will enable blood cells to be grown for medical use and bring science innovations to market more quickly were awarded. Manufacturing innovation has been repeatedly highlighted in the government’s strategy for growth. EPSRC seeks to develop the research skills and knowledge needed for a successful manufacturing economy. A key part of this strategy is supporting individuals with the drive, vision and intellect to create and lead new research fields with the potential to transform UK manufacturing. New Research Fellow Dr Rob Thomas said about the award: “Within the next five years there will be substantial advances in treatments using cell-based therapies. My proposed research will provide the manufacturing tools to enable the clinical community to deliver a new cohort of treatments for serious diseases as well as support an important new economic activity in the UK.” Green Engineering Fellowships Four leading academics from the universities of Exeter, Sheffield, Bristol and Cambridge were awarded substantial fellowship grants, totalling £2.38 million in December 2012. They will carry out innovative research that will enable better water management; monitor the health of structures in aerospace and wind energy sectors; develop tools for optimising manufacturing and design of aircraft and wind turbines; and provide computational models to calculate the effects of energy policies. One of the recipients, Dr Simon Neild of the University of Bristol, said: “I hope that my work will help high-end manufacturing in the UK and make it even more competitive internationally.”

Skilled people – Leadership Fellow driving driverless vehicle technology Professor Paul Newman, an EPSRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Oxford, is co-leading a project that is developing low-cost technology that enables cars to literally drive themselves – and could one day be a feature on all cars. Working with the project co-leader, Dr Ingmar Posner, the latest version of the Oxford team’s technology has been installed in a Nissan Leaf electric car, part of the team’s collaboration with the Japanese manufacturer, and gives a glimpse of what the driver’s experience of what an autonomous car of the future might be like. Unlike the automated technology that has already found its way into some production road cars, the Oxford team’s system does not rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) for the cars to find their way. Instead the system uses advances in 3D laser mapping that enable an affordable car-based robotic system to rapidly build up a detailed picture of its surroundings.

Early career researcher scoops the top awards at SET for Britain In March, 2013 SET for Britain award-winner Dr Valeska Ting, a Research Fellow in smart nanomaterials from the University of Bath, won the top prize in the Engineering category and was overall winner across all entries at the 2013 SET for Britain competition for early career stage researchers in engineering, biological and biomedical sciences and physical sciences. Dr Ting’s poster, ‘Pushing Hydrogen to the Limit: engineering nanomaterial systems for storage of solid-like hydrogen’, was conducted as part of a research project with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells SUPERGEN Hub, with funding from EPSRC.

Forming partnerships to maximise impact Connecting business to research and skills EPSRC has the greatest alignment of any research council to the government’s Industrial Strategy and Strategies for Growth. We invest in a portfolio of research and training that is relevant to all 12 sectors in the Industrial Strategy and aligns strongly with eight of them. We have wellestablished connections to industry and other users of research to secure maximum exploitation of research outcomes and have training policies explicitly directed at producing the highly skilled people UK industry needs for growth. We have also strengthened links with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), partnering on meetings with chief technology officers from global companies to present a coordinated view of the UK innovation system. We use a variety of approaches for close engagement with business. For example, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is a publicprivate partnership between global industries and several public sector organisations, including EPSRC. We continue as a member of the ETI Board and technical committees, influencing the direction of ETI’s programmes and gaining the maximum value for the public sector investment. EPSRC has additionally provided input to the mid-term review of ETI and is a member of the working group providing advice to Ministers on the future of ETI. Industrial Strategy £2.3 billion of our portfolio has relevance to industry sectors, with more than £1.5 billion being directly relevant to the BIS Industrial Strategy sectors (see Figure 2 below), while all but one of the ‘Eight Great Technologies’ derive from research we sponsor.

Figure 2: EPSRC portfolio alignment to Industrial Strategy sectors12

Aerospace - £173 million

Life Sciences - £407 million

Automotive - £103 million

Nuclear Energy - £227 million

Construction - £188 million

Offshore Wind - £12 million

Information Economy - £352 million

Other - £45 million

Working in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board We are continuing to increase our interactions with the Technology Strategy Board. Over this Delivery Plan (2011/12 and 2012/13) EPSRC has invested over £40 million on co-funding projects and schemes with the Technology Strategy Board: of which £33 million was invested through grants on Technology Strategy Board projects, which funded project work (including business and public contributions) of more than £140 million. EPSRC co-funds a wide range of schemes with the Technology Strategy Board to accelerate and increase the impact from our portfolio of research. As well as funding numerous Collaborative R&D calls with the Technology Strategy Board, including European projects, we also support people movement through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and lead on Innovation and Knowledge Centres in high potential emerging industries. In addition to co-funding projects with the Technology Strategy Board, EPSRC grants complement its work across the innovation landscape. For example on:

12 Figures as at April 2013, includes research and cohort training centres

• PhD training – £19 million on EPSRC Industrial Doctorate Centres in 2012/13; and • manufacturing research – £24 million on EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing in 2012/13. Many other EPSRC research grants and studentships can be recognised retrospectively to contribute to the Technology Strategy Board’s objectives and we are working to better understand these connections between our portfolios. Our focus is on shared planning and portfolio development in, for example, manufacturing, energy, advanced materials and emerging areas such as quantum technology, as well as the Catapults and Catalysts. We are forming close strategic engagements that are identifying priority areas for collaborative working, providing a clear framework for more extensive engagement at working levels in the organisations. These relationships include a joint meeting of EPSRC Council members and Board members of the Technology Strategy Board in September 2013. EPSRC has continued to work closely with the Technology Strategy Board in the development of the Catapult Centres in High Value Manufacturing, Offshore Renewable Energy, Cell Therapy, Connected Digital Economy, Future Cities and Transport Systems. We have provided significant analysis of relevant strengths within the research base on which the Catapults can draw. We will ensure that our portfolio is engaged with Catapults in the same way as with other key organisations in the innovation system including consideration of how best our capital investments in equipment and facilities might provide enhanced opportunities for Catapults and working to ensure the flow of people and knowledge between organisations. In September 2013, EPSRC announced a new visiting Fellowship scheme that will strengthen the relationship between academics and the manufacturing sector and accelerate the transition of research from the laboratory to adoption by industry. The Fellows will spend time carrying out research at one or more of the seven Centres of Excellence that collectively form the Technology Strategy Board’s High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult. An initial £1 million grant has been awarded to the University of Sheffield to coordinate the scheme through the university’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). The Fellowships will enable academic staff to spend six-month research visits in one or more of the HVM Catapult centres,

these can be spread flexibly between 1-4 years. The projects must be aligned to work previously funded by EPSRC. We have also continued the dialogue with the Technology Strategy Board on potential areas for future Innovation and Knowledge Centres (IKCs) which provide a focus for the development of emerging technologies. IKCs (pioneered by EPSRC) are a key component of the UK’s approach to the commercialisation of emerging technologies through creating early stage critical mass in an area of disruptive technology. They are able to achieve this through their international quality research capability and access to companion technologies needed to commercialise research. Based in a university they are led by an expert entrepreneurial team. While continuing to advance the research agenda, they create impact by enhancing wealth generation of the businesses with which they work. Seven IKCs have been funded since 2007, the most recent being the Synthetic Biology Innovation and Commercialisation Industrial translation Engine (SynbiCITE) at Imperial College London, the call being led by EPSRC, with funding from EPSRC, BBSRC and Technology Strategy Board. This is in response to recommendations in the Synthetic Biology Roadmap. Figure 3: EPSRC spend on grants aligned with the Technology Strategy Board by theme for 2011/12 to 2012/13

Manufacturing the Future

Global Uncertainties

Energy

Information and Communications Technologies

Healthcare Technologies Digital Economy Engineering

Physical Sciences Living with Environmental Change Mathematical Sciences

Groundbreaking technology based on EPSRCfunded research

funding of £5 million, with a further £5 million to be awarded over the next two years.

University of Cambridge spin-out company, Plastic Logic, was set up in 2000 to commercialise fundamental research funded by EPSRC. Follow on funding from the Technology Strategy Board and EPSRC contributed to technology developments which enabled the company to create a bendable tablet. The device, a concept that is a joint collaboration between the Cambridge-based company, a Canadian university and Intel, the world’s leading chipmaker, is made out of plastic rather than glass, allowing it to bend around objects and fall onto hard surfaces without breaking. Plastic Logic has raised over $200 million in financing from top-tier venture funding sources in Asia, Europe and the USA.

The centre will be a national resource and involve researchers from a further 17 universities and academic institutions across the UK, as well as 13 industrial partners, including the research arms of Microsoft, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline.

Molecular Solar

EPSRC-sponsored research into renewable polymers by two chemists at Imperial College London, Professor Vernon Gibson and Dr Ed Marshall, led to the foundation of a spinout company, Plaxica, to commercialise the researchers’ work. Since Plaxica’s 2009 launch, the company has gone from strength to strength and is an acknowledged leader in eco-friendly next-generation bioplastics technology, employing 26 full-time staff. The company’s aim is to reduce the reliance upon oil-based products by using more sustainable and environmentally friendly processes for use in a wide range of industrial and consumer applications, including packaging, textiles, electronics and automobile parts.

Molecular Solar (a University of Warwick spin-out) has achieved and demonstrated a record voltage for organic photovoltaic cells, which could soon be used in a wide range of consumer electronics, such as e-book readers and mobile phones, enabling them to be recharged on the move in low light levels. With support through EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board, the company is now developing the very first prototypes for a global market estimated to be worth $100 million by 2020. Emerging technologies: New Innovation and Knowledge Centre to drive UK’s synthetic biology progress EPSRC is leading the way in facilitating emerging technologies. A new £10 million Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) that will boost the UK’s ability to translate the emerging field of synthetic biology into application and provide a bridge between academia and industry was announced in July 2013. The IKC, to be called SynbiCITE, will be based at Imperial College London. Its main aim will be to act as an industrial translation engine that can integrate university and industry-based research in synthetic biology into industrial processes and products. SynbiCITE is funded by EPSRC, BBSRC and the Technology Strategy Board. It will receive initial grant

Announcing the funding at the SB6.0 Conference David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “Synthetic biology has huge potential for our economy and society in so many areas, from life sciences to agriculture. But to realise this potential we need to ensure researchers and business work together. This new Innovation and Knowledge Centre will help advance scientific knowledge and turn cutting-edge research into commercial success.” Adventures in plastic

The success from this research has been built on by the Technology Strategy Board, which has invested £700,000 in Plaxica over four years, and other investors including Imperial Innovations, the Carbon Trust, Invesco and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). In 2012, Plaxica expanded its laboratory facilities and now runs a demonstration plant.

Working to deliver the industrial strategy Automotive EPSRC supports a broad portfolio of research relevant to the automotive manufacturing sector – ranging from research to enable more efficient internal combustion engines, robotics and software engineering to improve production efficiency and capabilities, to advances in fuel cells and electric vehicles. EPSRC is helping to influence this sector: EPSRC’s Chief Executive is a member of the Automotive Council, while we also have Director representation on the Council’s Technology Group. This representation gives EPSRC the opportunity to better align research with business needs and facilitate stronger links to the industry base. Priorities for future research include energy storage, electrical motors and drives, advanced materials, robotics, power electronics and intelligent mobility. EPSRC’s current portfolio (as of April 2013) of direct relevance to the BIS Automotive Sector is £103 million, with over £25 million cash and in-kind support from collaborative partners.

access to new, world-class simulation tools and processes, enabling them to deliver more complex new vehicle programmes more quickly and save costs in product development by reducing the reliance on physical prototypes. Efficiency drive 3D computer software that can create and test automation systems before they are even built is set to save manufacturers millions of pounds, while increasing their global competitiveness. The Business Driven Automation (BDA) project based at the EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre at Loughborough University has focused specifically on applications in automotive engine assembly, one of the UK’s major areas of manufacturing activity. The team, led by Professor Rob Harrison have developed a tool which builds up a virtual representation of the automated system. He says: “We’ve developed innovative software to give a quick, accurate, virtual 3D prototype view of assembly machine behaviour before they are physically built.“ Industrial partners including Ford are trialling the software with engineering teams.

EPSRC collaborates with a number of key automotive manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover and Ford.

A unique five-year collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover will save costs in product development. EPSRC and Jaguar Land Rover announce £10 million virtual engineering research programme Jaguar Land Rover is leading a five-year research programme with EPSRC and Loughborough University, University of Leeds, University of Cambridge and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG). The £10 million (£4 million each from Jaguar Land Rover and EPSRC, £2 million from the four partner universities) collaboration between Jaguar Land Rover and the country’s leading academics will develop the capability of the virtual simulation industry in the UK and will give manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover

Information Economy EPSRC supports a well-developed and extensive portfolio of research and training that underpins those sectors of the economy relevant to the Information Economy Industrial Strategy. EPSRC worked closely with colleagues in BIS during the drafting of the strategy, coordinating input from academia, industry and other public sector bodies. As a result, and recognising the important role that future research and skills play in delivering the strategy, EPSRC Council member Dr Dave Watson (IBM) has been nominated as a member of the Information Economy Council. He is supported by EPSRC staff working alongside BIS to coordinate the work and discussions of the Council.

Working alongside NMI, the trade association representing the UK electronic systems, microelectronics and semiconductor communities, EPSRC made significant contributions to the ESCO (Electronic Systems: Challenges and Opportunities) Report – highlighting the importance of electronic systems to the current and future prosperity of the UK. EPSRC’s current portfolio (as of April 2013) of direct relevance to the BIS Information Economy sector is £352 million, with more than £100 million cash and in-kind from collaborative partners. Life Sciences EPSRC supports a broad portfolio of research relevant to the life sciences sector. EPSRC’s current portfolio (as of April 2013) of direct relevance to the BIS Life Sciences sector is £407 million, with nearly another £100 million in cash and in-kind contributions from collaborative partners. Key research areas include medical imaging, clinical technologies, biomaterials and tissue engineering and assistive technology. We support training of engineers, physicists, chemists, computer scientists and mathematicians, all of whom play a vital role in life sciences, and are essential to economic growth in the sector and wellbeing in the UK. Uniquely EPSRC supports basic research capabilities essential for new developments and growth, for example: • Creating transformative technologies for healthcare to enable earlier and better diagnosis, treatment and management of health conditions (for example, medical imaging & data visualisation, drug design, novel drug delivery, tissue engineering, robotics). • Advancing the engineering and physical sciences knowledge and techniques that are required to enable better understanding of biology and to enable its application through to therapy (for example, medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, chemical biology, integration of biomarkers and diagnostics, stem-cells scale up, bioprocessing, medical modelling and simulation). • Enabling future healthcare systems that deliver more efficient personalised and localised healthcare (for example, information-driven healthcare, digital inclusion, point-of-care diagnostics and devices, computational statistics, systems engineering).

• Novel chemistry techniques that underpin future drug discovery and production. • New materials that revolutionise drug delivery, implants and tissue scaffolds. • Provision of future trained manpower through our Centres for Doctoral Training, addressing sector skills gaps and working with industrial partners.

The research team at the University of Sheffield have the in-depth knowledge of the fundamentals that we don’t have, while our chemists have the skills to translate their research into something that can be turned into a practical medical treatment. It is a powerful formula. Dr Mark Richardson, Vice President of Research and Technology, Smith & Nephew Wound Management

Award-winning medical sensors Innovative sensor technology resulting from blue-skies research led by Professor Robert Prance at the University of Sussex and support totalling around £1.8 million by EPSRC, has been taken forward by leading semiconductor company Plessey. In 2010, the company signed a licensing agreement with the university to commercialise the technology in the development of its award-winning EPIC medical sensors. In 2012 the company demonstrated its heart rate monitor, which is the same size as a wristwatch and does not require a chest strap or second sensor at the end of a cable that could be easily lost or damaged, leading the way forward for simple and effective personal monitoring of electrocardiograph (ECG) signals that can be as easy as taking a pulse measurement – ideal for the sports and fitness market. Plessey also designed a version to provide continuous heart monitoring outside of the medical environment, allowing patients to be monitored as they go about their daily routine and detect transient issues that would probably be missed during a short period of monitoring with conventional technology.

New Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices Demand for medical devices such as joint replacements, spinal fixation systems and regenerative devices that allow the body to heal around implants is growing at more than ten per cent per annum, driven by the needs of an ageing population. In February 2013 EPSRC announced that it would be investing £5.6 million in a Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices. The strategy for the centre has been co-created with industrial and clinical partners. The centre will develop a network of over 300 industrial partners,

Innovative medical devices New centre will develop a network of over 300 industrial partners, academics and clinicians. academics and clinicians focused on medical device innovation and manufacturing. The initial focus will be on medical devices for musculoskeletal and cardiovascular disease, where the cost of device failure is high and there is a clear need for throughout-life reliability. The centre brings together five UK centres of excellence in medical technology and manufacturing at the Universities of Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bradford. Construction EPSRC’s portfolio of research relevant to the construction sector ranges from building physics, fundamental materials research into new forms of concrete, models to aid structural design to wellbeing in cities and interdependent infrastructure planning. EPSRC’s Chairman, Paul Golby, is a member of the Construction Leadership Council. Priorities for future research include sustainable and resilient infrastructure, building physics, water engineering and end use energy demand research applied to the built environment. EPSRC’s construction portfolio is £188 million, with more than £90 million cash and in-kind contributions from collaborative partners.

Sensors pave the way to recycle foundations With space in city centres at a premium, a research team have pioneered a way to test whether the foundations of buildings under demolition or reconstruction can be reused – saving construction companies time and money, and helping reduce their environmental impact. Working with construction group Skanska, researchers from the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, which is sponsored by EPSRC (an investment of just under £5 million for five years from 2011) and the Technology Strategy Board, cored into the foundation supports of a London office block under demolition. They then inserted optical fibre-based sensors to measure the strain the foundations could absorb, and advise on which could be reused. The project was so successful, the Cambridge team led by Professor Kenichi Soga and Dr Mohammed Elshafie were able to help the company save £6 million and reduce carbon emissions by 100,000 tonnes. In the future, Skanska plan to use the same approach. By reusing foundations the construction programme can be shortened, typically saving £2-3 million per project plus associated CO2 and time savings. Innovative construction technique developed with EPSRC support EPSRC-sponsored engineers at Loughborough University have developed an innovative 3D printing technique to create customised panels for large-scale buildings. Using technology first developed for inkjet printers the process could revolutionise the construction industry. The Freeform Construction process builds concrete panels layer-by-layer very precisely using a 3D computer-aided-design model. Project leader, Dr Richard 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 additional funding from EPSRC, the team are collaborating with industry partners to commercialise the process, which could help to capture a share of the $450 billion global concrete and cement market.13

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/556qsn/global_concrete

Other highlights of partnership working

Cybersecurity Research Institutes are go

Attracting inward investment: Procter & Gamble For Procter & Gamble (P&G), a company operating at the forefront of research and innovation with annual sales greater than $80 billion, investing in UK R&D allows the company fast access to world-class researchers with the desire, skills and expertise needed to help deliver innovative consumer products. Since 2006, P&G’s Strategic Partnership with EPSRC has provided a framework for the company to collaborate with researchers to create highly valued innovations for new and existing products. Throughout this period, P&G has co-invested in science and engineering research projects, is a partner in two EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training and develops STEM skills through placements and apprenticeships via P&G’s UK located R&D centres.

The UK’s second Academic Research Institute to investigate new ways of automatically analysing computer software to reduce its vulnerability to cyber threats has been launched.

This collaboration has resulted in powerful strategic relationships with universities. P&G recognises that innovation is key for economic growth and spends a disproportionate amount of its $2 billion R&D in the UK where they have two Innovation Centres based at Newcastle and in Greater London currently employing about 750 researchers. P&G manufactures a number of products in the UK with four state-of-the-art manufacturing sites producing well-known brands such as Pampers and Ariel.

The UK ‘innovation eco-system’ is an important factor in P&G’s siting decisions for global R&D projects. Our collaborative programs with UK universities, together with co-funding, enable us to continue to commit R&D resources in the UK. These are at levels significantly higher than the UK’s proportion of P&G’s global business.

The Research Institute will carry out worldleading research into techniques for automated program analysis and verification of computer software. The outputs from the Research Institute will provide businesses, individuals and government with additional confidence that software will behave in a secure fashion when installed on operational networks. Funded by a £4.5 million grant, the new Research Institute is made up of teams from six universities. It has been established by GCHQ in partnership with EPSRC through the Research Councils UK Global Uncertainties Programme and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, using EPSRC’s skills to manage the call. It follows the first Academic Research Institute announced in September 2012 hosted by University College London with a £3.8 million grant. Both Academic Research Institutes form part of a cross-government commitment to increase the nation’s academic capability in all fields of cyber security, allowing leading UK academics to connect with industry security experts and international researchers to tackle some of the UK’s toughest challenges in cyber security. This collaborative approach between academia, industry and government will ensure that research is relevant and inspired by real world, cutting-edge security issues.

Bruce Brown, Chief Technology Officer, Procter & Gamble

Smartphone satellite developed by EPSRCsupported team orbits Earth An EPSRC-supported team at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, have launched a satellite based on a smartphone you can buy on the high street. In a world-first space mission that’s destined to make space exploration more accessible, the research team, led by Dr Chris Bridges in collaboration with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) –the world’s leading small satellite company with export sales of over £150 million – have developed the STRaND-1 nano-satellite, the world’s first ‘phonesat’ to go into orbit, made from an unmodified Google Nexus smartphone. 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 is the first test of whether commercial elements and components found in everyday devices can survive in the extreme conditions experienced in space. Dr Bridges says: “It’s a real game-changer for the industry. By using everyday components, we can make satellites smaller, lighter, cheaper and more quickly than ever before.” The techniques and methodologies developed by the team can also be applied in a host of different areas, from subsea environments to the car industry. Manchester to host £64 million BP research centre EPSRC’s continued support for world-leading research has led to major inward investment from industry. In August 2012 BP announced it would support a new £64 million International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM). BP-ICAM will lead research aimed at advancing the fundamental understanding and use of materials across a variety of oil and gas industrial applications. The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, which has been awarded over £150 million of EPSRC research and training investments over the past five years, will act as the hub of the centre, with the ‘spokes’ and other founder members being the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The ten-year investment programme will carry out research into seven primary areas of direct interest to industry – structural materials, smart coatings, functional materials, catalysis, membranes, energy storage and energy harvesting – and is expected

to support 25 new academic posts, along with 100 postgraduate researchers and 80 postdoctoral fellows. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: “This coalition government is committed to putting innovation and research at the very heart of its growth agenda. We are ensuring the UK maintains its competitive edge in science and we are creating an environment where innovation can flourish. That’s why top businesses such as BP are investing in the UK and supporting our world-leading universities in delivering cuttingedge research.” Smile menders An EPSRC-sponsored team from Newcastle University, working with industrial partners, have designed a simple, cost-effective prototype device for the detection and monitoring of gum disease. Co-led by Dr John Taylor and Professor Philip Preshaw, the project combines biotechnology processes with electronics manufacturing, and was developed with biotechnology companies OJ-Bio Ltd and Orla Protein Technologies. The hand-held diagnostic device will enable patients and dentists to rapidly and accurately detect and monitor gum disease by identifying tell-tale signs in saliva. EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board have given the project £1.1 million to help develop the prototype into a commercial product. EPSRC-funded research helping trains to stay on time Pioneering software that could help trains get to the right place at the right time has been developed by EPSRC-sponsored researchers at the University of Leeds. Dr Raymond Kwan’s team created computer optimisation software which considers factors such as working hours, timetables and resource levels to provide a crew schedule that maximises efficiency. Dr Kwan says: “Crew scheduling is a crucial but complex element of operations planning, we created the software by using mathematical algorithms that are well-suited for the size and complexity of the UK rail network.” Spin-out company Tracsis was created in 2004 to market the software and within nine years the company reported revenues of £10.8 million. It has 200 employees. Tracsis is now being used by 14 of the 20 train operating companies and is expanding internationally to Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.

Supporting impact in universities EPSRC facilitates and embeds impact throughout its portfolio of investments, for example via Pathways to Impact, in all its research grants. Fifty per cent of our research portfolio is collaborative, with additional funding of more than £550 million leveraged from other organisations, including industry (around £400 million), government departments (around £78 million), independent research organisations (nearly £47 million), as well as charities, local and regional government, trade associations and NHS Trusts. Impact Acceleration Accounts One of the cornerstones of EPSRC’s commitment to maximising impact of our investments is our £60 million three-year investment in Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAA), which has been distributed to 31 universities: these build on partnerships developed with universities and the successes we have seen with our previous support through Knowledge Transfer Accounts (KTA) and Knowledge Transfer Secondments (KTS). IAAs sit alongside Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) funding (and similar from devolved administrations). Our sponsorship complements the HEIF funding in a similar way to the main dual support mechanism; building on the infrastructure and enabling funding for key specialist staff and targeted at our portfolio. EPSRC’s IAA funds therefore provide support for specific interventions linked directly to knowledge exchange from excellent research in the engineering and physical sciences. Imperial College London has applied its IAA to 32 Pathways to Impact projects and 11 Knowledge Transfer Secondments in the academic year 2012/13. The largest proportion of the funding has been used to support 20 early stage commercialisation, proof of concept and prototyping activities. Engagement events have also been held, to engage with the public, forge new academic collaborations and engage industry partners. The IAA has supported a series of workshops organised by the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, which develops intelligent, sensor rich and advanced minimally invasive surgical robots. These workshops brought together high-profile engineers, clinicians and scientists to discuss EPSRC-funded healthcare technologies pathways, including assistive technologies, design, diagnostics and digital health.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/framework/Pages/framework.aspx

Touchless technology wins £15,000 in New Enterprise Competition The futuristic concept of being able to recreate the sensation of touch mid-air won the University of Bristol’s equivalent to ‘Dragon’s Den’ and £15,000 prize money. Ultrahaptics, a novel technology based on EPSRC-funded research, beat a record 75 entries to scoop the top prize in the New Enterprise Competition, judged by a panel of industry experts. Based on the use of ultrasound to displace the air, creating a pressure difference that can be felt by the human hand, Ultrahaptics could be applied to a number of technologies, from computer games that involve motion-sensing and human interaction, to changing the car radio with the use of a virtual button mid-air. EPSRC IAA funding is being used to develop refined prototypes in plans to commercialise the technology. Pathways to Impact All grant applicants are required to complete a Pathways to Impact plan and are encouraged to request resources to engage with potential beneficiaries as part of the grant. To gain an insight into the level of completion of Pathways to Impact plans, during Spring 2013 we sampled around 25 per cent of standard research grants, spanning all of our challenge and capability themes and representative of the grants announced in 2012 in terms of grant duration and grant value. Nearly 80 per cent of the plans surveyed were found to be excellent or satisfactory. A range of activities were identified, including workshops and networking events, publication and dissemination costs, secondments and people exchanges and public engagement. However, we continue to encourage grant holders to consider and request resources for novel and appropriate impact activities. Responsible innovation EPSRC recently published an outline framework14 for responsible innovation which states our commitment and sets out our expectations for the researchers we fund and their research organisations. In 2009/10 EPSRC and BBSRC jointly commissioned a public dialogue around the emerging area of synthetic biology. One of the main messages coming

from that dialogue was that the public care about the outcomes as well as the process and conduct of the research. The public expect to be able to trust funders to ensure that scientists think and act responsibly. As a direct consequence EPSRC’s 2010 Delivery Plan contained an undertaking to develop and promote approaches to ‘responsible innovation’. Responsible innovation is a process that seeks to promote creativity and opportunities for science and innovation that are socially desirable and

undertaken in the public interest. Responsible Innovation recognises that innovation can raise questions and dilemmas that can be unclear in terms of purposes and motivations and can produce impacts that are unexpected and sometimes even undesirable. Responsible innovation enables these aspects of innovation to be considered in an open, inclusive and timely way. This is a collective responsibility, where funders, researchers, stakeholders and the public all have an important role to play.

Successful company based on EPSRC-funded materials research Graphene, the strongest, thinnest material there is, has a host of amazing potential applications – from flexible electronics to superlight aircraft. Supported by EPSRC and Royal Society funding, Professor Karl Coleman from Durham University pioneered a cost-effective, eco-friendly way to ‘grow’ significant quantities of graphene – leading to his formation in 2010 of Durham Graphene Sciences (DGS) to commercialise his research. The company, now called Applied Graphene Materials, has been floated on the London AIM stock exchange. The company won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology in December 2012.

EPSRC-funded research leads to award-winning spin-out Simpleware, a company set up to commercialise EPSRC-sponsored research at the University of Exeter won The Queen’s Award for Enterprise for the second year running.15 The award recognises the company’s growth in overseas earnings. Founded in 2003 by Professor Philippe Young, Simpleware’s pioneering software converts 3D image data into high-quality computer models used for engineering design and simulation. The company has achieved an average 40 per cent growth rate per annum over 15

http://www.queensawardsmagazine.com/awardwinners/simpleware-ltd

the last five years. Its first project was in partnership with the NHS and focussed on improving the understanding of how loads are transmitted in healthy hips. The technology has now been applied across a host of disciplines and industries – from mobile phones to car engines; asphalt damage to back pain, contact lenses to hearing aids. Safety by design A software tool which protects the functionality and security of computer systems has been developed by EPSRC-sponsored researchers at the University of Oxford. Professor Bill Roscoe’s group developed the Failures Divergence Refinement (FDR) tool which uses maths to test if systems are working as they should, so users experience fewer errors caused by software defects. FDR has been used in high-profile projects like the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. FDR3, enabling parallel model checking, will be released in 2013. FDR is used by universities and companies worldwide, whilst start-up company Verum offers a commercial tool, ASD:Suite, which is used by Philips, Ericsson and ASDL and delivers a 30-50 per cent reduction in software development costs. Another start-up, D-RisQ, has developed gateway tools into FDR through simulation and modelling languages for Ricardo and Jaguar Land Rover.

30-50% reduction in software development costs.

Engaging the public EPSRC encourages researchers to consider two-way engagement with the public through interaction and dialogue to inform their research. We are integrating public engagement activities across all of our research and training priorities with the aim of building a high quality portfolio that is more closely linked to the research we fund, encompassing a greater section of the research community and ultimately having the potential for much greater impact than a dedicated funding scheme. Examples of how EPSRC-supported researchers are engaging effectively with research users, including the public are provided below. From Botswanan big cats to Surrey house cats It is not every day that an EPSRC-funded researcher becomes a media star but that’s exactly what happened to Professor Alan Wilson, from the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College recently. Research on the locomotion dynamics of wild cheetahs was published in Nature and wildlife tracking collars he designed allowed the BBC Two Horizon programme to reveal ‘The Secret Life of the Cat’. Nearly five million viewers tuned in to the Horizon programme, double the norm, which studied the activities of 50 domestic cats once they left the cat-flap behind; the first large-scale study gathering data on cat behaviour. The core technology in the collars that made the cattracking possible for the BBC programme was adapted from hi-tech wildlife tracking collars designed by Professor Wilson and his team at the Structure and Research Motion Lab at the Royal Veterinary College as part of an EPSRCsponsored research project, CARDyAL.

EPSRC research featured on Channel 4 programme EPSRC-supported technology was behind the artificial lung used in a ‘bionic man’ featured on C4’s How to Build a Bionic Man programme in February 2013. The making of the lung for the programme was also supported by EPSRC as part of its public engagement remit to explain science innovations to the public. Development of the technology behind the lung was supported by research into the flow of complex fluids and flows by Professor Rhodri Williams of Swansea University. It was following a discussion with a clinician colleague that made Professor Williams realise his work could be applied to blood and had potential uses in medical settings. In the long-term the technology is intended to be developed as an alternative to lung transplant. Many lung transplant patients die whilst waiting for a donor organ – only one per cent of patients receive one due to the shortage of donor organs. Star Trek desks improve maths in schools Researchers co-funded by EPSRC have developed interactive multi-user, multi-task smart desks which boost maths skills. The project was a finalist in the education section of the 2012 World Technology Awards. A demonstration of children using the Star Trek-style classroom attracted widespread press coverage. Results from the three-year SynergyNet project at Durham University involving 400 primary age pupils, showed that pupils who used collaborative learning in the futuristic classroom increased their mathematical understanding.

Professor Wilson and his team worked with Professor Stephen Hailes’ team at University College London on designing radio-based lightweight devices to record detailed data about wild animals and birds, developing analytical methods to make best use of the data and to test devices in the wild. Studying wild animals’ movements can impact on animal conservation, animal management and provide data to design biologically-inspired robots such as the fastrunning cheetah-bot which can run at 18 mph.

New HQ for Bloodhound

Perfect Christmas science fare

In July 2013 David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, announced a £1 million EPSRC grant for BLOODHOUND, the iconic 1,000 mph jet and rocketpowered racing car, to support its education and outreach mission. EPSRC is a founder sponsor of the BLOODHOUND programme. A uniquely ‘open source’ high technology programme, 5,340 UK schools, including primaries, secondaries and special educational needs colleges, are already using BLOODHOUND materials in class. Richard Noble OBE, BLOODHOUND Project Director, said: “It is significant that EPSRC was one of our original sponsors, for they recognised in the early days that this was an education project with a difference. This grant is an endorsement of all the work done by our team and ambassadors since then, and it will help us work with more schools and inspire even more children as the car rolls out and we share the images and data from record-breaking runs with them.”

The EPSRC was pleased to support Dr Peter Wothers’ delivery of the 2012 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled The Modern Alchemist, which were aired on BBC Four during the Festive Season. During the lectures, Dr Wothers unpicked the chemistry of the world around us – looking at Air, Water and Earth – three of the original ancient Greek ‘elements’ that tantalised alchemists for centuries. Dr Gail Cardew, Director of Science and Education at the Royal Institution, said: “EPSRC’s support of the Christmas Lectures demonstrates their commitment to public engagement with science... It is exciting to think how many young people who watch the lectures will be inspired to become our next generation of scientists.”

Methodological developments and future challenges Understanding the routes to impact We have continued to build our understanding of the ways in which impact can be realised and assessed, as well as undertaking work to better describe and measure our impact. The importance of engineering and physical sciences to health and life sciences During 2012/13 EPSRC invited a small expert group to consider the relationships between engineering and physical sciences and health and life sciences. The government places a high priority on medical/ health and life sciences research, as reflected with the launch in December 2011 of a new Strategy for UK Life Sciences (and the subsequent ‘One year on’ update). However, what is sometimes less apparent is the significant extent to which health and life sciences research is dependent on advances in engineering and physical sciences both directly, for example through medical engineering and ‘nextgeneration healthcare’, and indirectly such as through development of the technologies, materials, advanced data management, statistical analyses and advanced instrumentation that enable cutting- edge breakthroughs. For example, at least one quarter of the EPSRC research portfolio over the past 15 years has been directly relevant to health and life sciences. The expert group have made a number of key recommendations, which will be published in early 2014. Mathematical sciences research: leading the way to UK economic growth Working in partnership with the Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS), EPSRC commissioned an independent study which showed that ten per cent of jobs and 16 per cent of Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy stems from maths research. The report, by consulting firm Deloitte, was published in December 2012 and was the first study of its kind to quantify the economic value of maths research in terms of the employment

it supports and gross added value of maths to the UK economy.16,17 The generation and application of maths was seen to help drive economic growth and develop greater prosperity with impact across sectors such as banking and finance, computer services, pharmaceutical, construction and public administration and defence. This study has proved valuable in extending our capability for demonstrating the impact arising from broad areas of engineering and physical sciences research. In June 2013 a reception was held at the House of Commons, which brought together members of both houses, representative figures from industry as well as key members of the mathematical sciences community in recognition of how mathematical sciences research is leading the way to UK economic growth. We are following this up with a similar study looking at the economic impact of engineering, which will take place during 2014.

£208bn An EPSRC-commissioned independent study showed that mathematical sciences contributed £208 billion (around 16 per cent) to UK GVA.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Publications/reports/physicsMeasuringTheEconomicsBenefitsOfMathematicalScienceResearchUKNov2012.pdf

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Publications/reports/EPSRCMathematicalSciencesResearch.pdf

Chemical engineering review EPSRC will be piloting a methodology to enable international benchmarking of an area that does not require the undertaking of the full international review process. The methodology being used will incorporate an exercise known as ‘Virtual World Congress’ (VWC), which has been shown by the US National Research Council to be an effective approach for determining the relative current standing of a nation’s research quickly. The VWC process asks leading international experts in the identified areas of research to acknowledge the best of their peers (wherever they are working in the world). The Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Chemistry are partnering in this work, which will take place during 2013/14. Evaluating the impact of Knowledge Transfer Accounts Over £52 million was invested in EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Accounts and Secondments during the period October 2009 to September 2012. While initial feedback on the use of this funding was obtained in 2012, EPSRC will be undertaking a more quantitative evaluation to assess the impact of these investments, in both economic terms and more broadly in cultural and societal benefits, during 2013/14. Benchmarking the quality and impact of UK physics research In autumn 2012, EPSRC partnered with STFC and the Institute of Physics to jointly commission a metrics-based study to evaluate the national and international level and impact of UK physics research and its sub-areas. Using a combination of bibliometric analyses and case studies, the report will provide information on the UK’s scientific performance and the nature and extent of international and industrial collaboration. The study will be completed by December 2013 and the findings will be used to inform future strategy. An independent study18 produced by Deloitte in October 2012 highlighted the importance of physics to the UK economy, showing physics-based businesses contributing 8.5 per cent (more than £77 billion) of the UK’s economic output.

http://www.iop.org/publications/iop/2012/file_58713.pdf

Metrics OUTPUTS/OUTCOMES DATA 2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

Definition/Comments

Total funds available (£m)

855

831

879

Budget allocation (£m)

817

804

849

Leverage (£m)

Of which private (£m)

Of which from other research councils (£m)

Of which from other sources (£m)

Of which private

0.5%

Of which other research councils

Of which other

Total expenditure (£m)

855

831

879

Of which research grants (£m)

550

536

581

Of which postgraduate awards (£m)

261

241

226

Of which other components (£m)

Of which research grants

64%

66%

Of which postgraduate awards

30%

29%

26%

Of which other components

Principal Investigators

3,313

3,083

2,654

Principal Investigators (PIs) as at 1st April each year. The number of PIs has been decreasing due to a trend for larger, longer grants. However, the total number of unique investigators (i.e. principal and co-supported) has increased, from 5,504 on 1/4/12 to 5,777 on 1/4/13

Research Fellowships

353

326

292

Total number of Research Fellowships on 1st April each year (excluding Academic Fellowships which are administered by EPSRC on behalf of RCUK)*

Research Fellowships (£m)

7,451

8,089

8,466

Funding received directly to EPSRC. Does not include direct or in-kind leverage that EPSRCfunded grants obtain from other organisations, which totalled £555 million on our current portfolio as of April 2013

Human capital

Knowledge generation Refereed publications

Number of papers acknowledging EPSRC support published in peer reviewed journals during the calendar year (source: Thompson Reuters Web of Science)**

Co-authorship of refereed publications – International

57%

56%

55%

Based on analysis of address data of authors of papers acknowledging EPSRC support (reported above)

Number of new PhD students

2,989

2,718

2,223

Number of New PhD students supported each year

Total number of students supported

10,743

10,216

9,379

Finishing rates

82%

80%

81%

253

298

231

Human Capital

% of PhD students submitting within six years of commencement of support (recognising that EPSRC financial support is increasingly flexible). The completion rate is based on studentships reported as completed

Knowledge Transfer and Exchange Patent applications Patents granted Spin-outs/new businesses created

See note below*** 21

Number of new spin-outs reported

Of which university %

39%

41%

37%

See note below****

Of which wider public sector %

Of which private sector %

39%

35%

36%

Of which unknown or other %

11%

12%

16%

Of which unemployed %

Human capital Destinations of doctoral graduates

Notes * Human capital We introduced a new approach to Fellowships in July 2011. This led to a lag in numbers of applications. **Knowledge generation data Due to the transition from end-of-grant ‘Final Reports’ to real-time reporting of research outputs we are unable to report the data in this section on the same basis as previous RPEI reports. Data on refereed publications and international co-authorship are drawn from Thompson Reuters ‘Web of Science’, which has relatively recently begun to record published funder acknowledgements. The growth in volume of papers acknowledging EPSRC support is more likely to reflect the increasing availability of the data rather than an actual growth in volume. While the actual number of papers arising from EPSRC funding is likely to be higher than stated in all years, we believe the figures provide a reliable indication of the proportion of papers with international co-authors. ***Patents granted The data on patent applications is derived from a combination of research grant final reports and records submitted through the RCUK Research Outcomes System. Because of the time it takes most patent applications to be granted, researchers generally submit records relating to patent applications only. In consequence we are currently unable to provide definite figures for ‘patents granted’. ****Destinations of doctoral graduates First destination data in the 2012/13 column are for doctoral students who qualify or complete between 1 August 2011 and 31 July 2012.

Bibliography/references 1

Figure represents total leverage (cash and in-kind) on our current portfolio of approx. £3 billion

The World Economic Forum Report 2011/12 ranks the UK as second in university-business collaboration, behind Switzerland and ahead of the US Global Competitiveness Report 2011-12 Table 12:04 2

http://www.pfizer.com/files/investors/presentations/q4performance_020111.pdf

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG88CostReport.pdf

http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Estimates%20of%20waste%20in%20the%20food%20and%20 drink%20supply%20chain_0.pdf 5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24603008

UK Commission for Employment and Skills

Tomorrow’s Growth, CBI July 2013. http://www.cbi.org.uk/campaigns/skills-for-growth/tomorrowsgrowth-report/tomorrows-growth-report-page-turner/ 8

IET Skills Survey 2013. http://www.theiet.org/factfiles/education/skills2013-page.cfm

Royal Academy of Engineering econometrics of engineering skills project, September 2012

Engineers, Physical Scientists and Mathematicians: The UK’s R&D Talent for Competitive Advantage, EPSRC 2013 11

Figures as at April 2013, includes research and cohort training centres

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/556qsn/global_concrete

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/framework/Pages/framework.aspx

http://www.queensawardsmagazine.com/awardwinners/simpleware-ltd

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Publications/reports/ physicsMeasuringTheEconomicsBenefitsOfMathematicalScienceResearchUKNov2012.pdf 16

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Publications/reports/ EPSRCMathematicalSciencesResearch.pdf 17

http://www.iop.org/publications/iop/2012/file_58713.pdf