STFC and industry: an overview

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) collaborates with industry, the research community and government to develop business opportunities arising from our world-leading science and technology.

Our facilities, capabilities and expertise make us well-placed to accelerate your high-tech industrial innovation - whether you are an entrepreneur with a great business idea or an established global multinational.

We do this by providing a wide range of opportunities to engage with us through our national laboratories, the Sci-Tech Daresbury and Harwell Oxford national science and innovation campuses, and through UK academic groups and international research centres funded by STFC.

Key sectors: • advanced materials • aerospace • automotive • biomedical • digital/ICT • electronics • energy • engineering • environment • high value manufacturing • security and defence • space and astronomy • telecommunications

STFC and working with industry

Insight for industry

Access to science facilities and capabilities

Access to technologies and intellectual property

STFC has large scale, world-leading science facilities which can be used to solve industrial challenges in a wide range of sectors. These facilities are commercially available and we offer a number of schemes to encourage the use of them in areas of mutual academic and industrial interest.

We are at the cutting edge of technology development and are driven to transfer technology into innovative new products and systems.

Facilities include: Light sources – the Central Laser Facility is one of the world’s leading laser facilities with an unparalleled range of state-of-theart ultra-high power and ultra-fast laser technologies that can be used in a broad range of applications.

The Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility. STFC is a major shareholder in Diamond which is used by industry for studying fine atomic structures across the physical and life sciences using its highly controlled bright light sources from infrared to x-ray.

VELA is a new state of the art electron accelerator facility. It is available for industrial and academic usage on a highly flexible basis.

Neutron source – ISIS provides a unique insight into both the structure and dynamics of materials at the atomic level in real time.

High performance computing – the Hartree Centre houses the UK’s most powerful supercomputer. Dedicated to developing software to model, simulate and visualise research and development of products, it is taking areas such as computer aided formulation and virtual engineering to a new level.

Unilever has chosen STFC’s Hartree Centre as a global R&D partner, using the UK’s most powerful supercomputer to reduce the time and cost of developing new consumer products.

Space and astronomy – world-class space and astronomy research and technology development, often with wider applications in non-related sectors such as energy and the environment. Resources include a vacuum test chamber, vibration facility and satellite guidance and tracking facilities.

As well as the facilities, we have world class capabilities in areas such as photonics, cryogenics, advanced materials, high value manufacturing, engineering and instrumentation, modelling and simulation, visualisation, imaging, detectors and microelectronics, optics and spectroscopy.

We want to maximise the impact of our own intellectual property portfolio by licensing our patents for use by companies who can use the technology to take new products to market, or engage in new joint ventures based on developing it further.

In some cases we can even deliver our technology as a bespoke system to meet an industrial need.

We also provide access for UK companies to the technologies and expertise of our international partner organisations such as the European Space Agency and CERN.

We have created 17 spin-out companies using our own intellectual property with a total value of over £50 million.

Access to business support We have a strong track record in nurturing and growing high-tech SMEs. Our own award-winning incubator, the Innovations Technology Access Centre (I-TAC) provides affordable and flexible access to laboratory space and equipment. We also manage two business incubation centres that offer attractive support packages including over £41,000 of funding in partnership with the European Space Agency and CERN. These are for start-ups wishing to grow new businesses from technologies originally developed for science applications.

We work with partners to deliver investment readiness programmes, mentoring and skills training on key business issues on the national science and innovation campuses. And we offer a comprehensive technical support package for eligible companies, including access to STFC scientists and engineers.

The package is designed to provide your business with access to skills and technologies that will make a tangible difference to product or service development by providing up to five hours free consultancy or use of equipment up to the value of £500.

STFC will deliver business support to SMEs as the Technology Strategy Board’s ‘cluster champion’ for the Space and Materials and Manufacturing Launchpads based around clusters at the two national science and innovation campuses.

The Launchpad competitions will see successful entrepreneurs and start-ups with links to the campuses benefit from up to £100,000 of funding to develop innovative R&D projects in these sectors.

Access to funding We manage a number of innovation programmes which support the commercialisation of STFC funded research from our laboratories and research groups, and run schemes which encourage industrial exploitation of our facilities and expertise.

The Collaborative R&D Scheme provides a fast-track, low-risk route to large facility access, for companies that wish to explore solutions to specific technical, often near market, problems.

Criteria for using ISIS will focus on the potential economic benefit of the project to the UK.

The Collaborative R&D Scheme is widening the use of the ISIS facility by industry. It has attracted some of the UK’s best known names including Rolls-Royce and Johnson Matthey.

The scheme is currently applicable to ISIS. Key features include: • Beam time being free at point of use • Beam time being obtained quickly • Results remaining confidential during the period of the project and throughout analysis of the data STFC also supports external funding schemes including knowledge transfer partnerships and can provide connections to seed funding organisations, including The Rainbow Seed Fund, of which we are a member; and links to venture capitalists and angel investors in our networks.

Nearly 60 businesses are benefitting from STFC’s incubator facilities across both campuses - I-TAC companies have generated around £20 million in funding since it opened in 2010.

Access to networks and collaborative opportunities Our national science and innovation campuses at Harwell Oxford and Sci-Tech Daresbury nurture a thriving innovation eco-system.

Close access to leading science facilities and expertise, coupled with co-location with other high-tech companies, creates a rich environment for growth, providing many opportunities for networking and collaboration.

Access to contract opportunities STFC manages a tender opportunities service to enabling UK companies in a wide range of sectors to get advanced warning of upcoming contract opportunities from international science facilities including CERN, the European Southern Observatory, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Institut Laue-Langevin.

These facilities have ongoing requirements in areas including: instrumentation, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, optics, detectors and ICT. STFC can offer support and advice on the tendering processes and organises targeted events to promote collaborations and build relationships between the facilities, academics and industry.

ÂŁ14.5 million contracts were placed by CERN with UK companies in 2011. This was up 30% on 2010.

For more information: Email: karen.lee@stfc.ac.uk

www.stfc.ac.uk INS010313

Tel: +44(0)1925 603708

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