SETsquared shows government how universities stimulate UK growth at impact event

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Celebrating a decade of working in collaboration, the SETsquared Partnership’s goal is to maximise the benefit of its university research to the economy, society and the environment. The unique event will showcase twenty case studies from a range of fields, all with world-changing outcomes. Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Universities & Science Minister is the key note speaker, following a panel discussion between representatives from industry, government and academia. The event opens at 09.30am at One Great George Street in the heart of Westminster. A full programme can be found at www.setsquared.co.uk/impact.

Keith Robson, Chair of the SETsquared Management Group explains the purpose of the event: “Our everyday lives, our health, our work, how we travel and communicate are all dependent on products and services that are the result of major scientific discoveries, many of which have originated in our best UK universities. At Changing Worlds, the SETsquared Partnership is showing how important industry collaboration and government funding can be in helping academic research reach its full potential.”

Academics and their external partners - from industry, medicine, NGOs and many other fields – involved in these hugely successful developments, will present their discoveries and demonstrate how research has stimulated billion dollar markets, or improved the lives of thousands of people around the world. Case studies will show, for example:

•how ‘blue skies’ research at the University of Southampton built the foundations for the modern internet.
•how Cot Death was reduced by 80% - saving 12 babies a week – through work carried out at the University of Bristol.
•how the burgeoning UK small space satellite industry is being led by the University of Surrey
•how the University of Bath is helping the 35 million “invisible poor” of Bangladesh.

Representatives from a variety of industrial backgrounds, including spin-out companies and larger businesses who have worked in partnership with the universities on long term research, will explain how they have benefited, not least because of the universities’ ability to generate ideas and innovate in times of recession.

The SETsquared Partnership promotes close links with industry and specialises in the commercialisation and transfer of the four universities’ research and technologies. The ten year relationship has generated substantial impact on the UK and global economy through its university-based research programmes. In addition, the flotation of the top 5 spin-out companies from the Partnership have created a combined market capitalisation of over £230 million, the Partnership has raised over £225 million of follow-on funding for ventures in difficult markets and currently supports around 200 high tech start up companies through its four business acceleration centres, with more than 1000 jobs created.

Editors' Notes

The full list of the featured research and their key outcomes is listed below, and more information on is available on request. Please contact Julia Falcon, Tel: 07768 806 319, julia.falcon@setsquared.co.uk.

20 Case studies – by topic:

Health:
Babies and cot death: how research led to a life saving campaign:
20 years ago 2,000 babies died each year of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Now that figure has reduced by 80% due to a campaign informed through the research of Professor Fleming and his team at University of Bristol.

Safety and advantages of beating heart coronary surgery:
Beating heart surgery offers a 25% saving per patient over on-pump heart surgery, and is now used in 15-20% of all coronary artery bypass operations. Tried for the first time by the Bristol Heart Institute in 1995, part of the University of Bristol, the unit now conducts more than 750 such procedures every year.

New training programmes at work: injury reduction in the forces:
The University of Bath has been working closely with the British Army for the last 10 years on improving training and reducing injury in recruits. Women recruits, for example have cut ‘medical discharge’ rates due to injury, from 95 in every 1000 recruits, to just 25 per 1000, the same level as their male colleagues, through the introduction of female-only training camps.

Microwaves in medical therapy: non-invasive treatments for cancer:
Microwave tissue ablation (MTA), developed at the University of Bath, offers an alternative to surgical removal of cancer tumours for patients who may be too sick for such invasive treatments. MTA can treat a 5cm tumour in less than 5 minutes, and is now used in 60 centres across the world.

Drug inhalation technologies: delivering medicines without injections:
300 million people are estimated to have asthma worldwide, and this is on the increase. New drug formulations created at the University of Bath have enabled an inhaler to be developed which delivers a more reliable dose to help relieve symptoms and increase the quality of life for sufferers.

Technology & communications:
Pioneering optical fibres research: connecting our world together:
Having generated a cluster of start-up companies with revenues in excess of £100m, the University of Southampton has become a global centre of excellence in photonics through its work on fibre optics. Developed from ‘blue skies’ research in 1987, fibre optics are used in everything from high speed internet connections, to eye surgery and date marking on food.

Surrey space centre: new satellite research & technologies:
Prof Sir Martin Sweeting and his team at the University of Surrey created spin-out company Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd, in 1985. Now with 34 missions launched and export orders of £490m, SSTL provides satellites for scientific research, telecommunications, global disaster monitoring and new European (GPS-style) navigation systems.

A catalyst to our digital world: strained quantum well lasers:
Strained quantum well lasers, invented in the early-1980s by Prof Alf Adams at the University of Surrey started a new era of data storage and digital communications. With far greater power and efficiency these lasers led to a host of now-commonplace technologies including compact discs, blu ray and LED lighting, in addition to telecommunications and the internet.

The “Speech Scrambler”: the invention of secure mobile networks:
In 1992 for the first time, police were able to speak to each other without fear of illegal eavesdropping compromising their operations. Research at the University of Bristol, into improving the signal of mobile phone systems, and the encryption of messages, gave rise to the first secure network. This invention eventually led to the next generation of digital networks, with the privacy we now all take for granted.

Environment:
Low energy production of fresh water from sea-water: manipulated osmosis:
Two thirds of the world’s population will live in “water stressed” countries within 15 years. A new desalination process - Manipulated Osmosis - has been developed at the University of Surrey, which converts seawater to drinking water using 30% less energy than conventional technologies, and offering low capital and operating costs.

Understanding climate change: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton:
Oceanography is a relatively new science, but one which is becoming increasingly vital to our understanding and response to climate change. Sea level rises, the ocean’s currents and even the wellbeing of tiny creatures living within our oceans can indicate how the Earth’s climate has changed, and help forecast future patterns.

Safe water – saving lives: the DelAgua story:
No larger than a vanity case, and designed to be completely portable, the DelAgua water testing kit was invented in 1984 at the University of Surrey to enable drinking-water safety tests to be conducted in the field, particularly in developing countries. It is now used in over 130 countries and by 1000 NGOs and governmental organisations worldwide.

Predicting and cutting landslide risk in developing countries:
The risk of devastating landslides effects many poor communities who have built homes on the slopes around major cities in developing countries. The Mossaic system created at the University of Bristol provides a highly effective solution, by predicting the risk of landslide in a specific location, indicating where drainage should be constructed, and engaging the local residents in planning and building work during the project.

Transport:
Fuel efficient, low carbon cars: 25 yrs of engine research:
The long term collaboration between the University of Bath and Ford Motor Company to reduce the environmental impact of their vehicle fleet and cut fuel costs for consumers has resulted in many improvements to engines and lubricant technologies – found in Ford cars on the road today.

Striking Gold: innovation in performance sports:
Since 2006 research engineers at the University of Southampton have been working with UK Sport to help improve the performance of athletes in major sporting events, including winners Amy Williams and Chris Hoy.

Reducing aircraft noise:
For over 40 years the University of Southampton has been working to cut the noise from aircraft: jets flying today make less than 100th of the sound generated by previous aircraft. Since 1999 Rolls-Royce has been working in partnership with the University, incorporating the resulting new technologies into its engines, such as the Trent 900 (found within the A380) and Trent 1000, on the “Dreamliner”.

Society:
Transparency and Open Data: data.gov.uk:
In January this year a new portal, data.gov.uk was launched by the UK government which opened up access to public information in a new way. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web, and Prof Nigel Shadbolt from the University of Southampton, developed the website and it now contains over 4000 sets of non-personal data to be used to create new applications, services or businesses.

The Innocence Network UK: students work to help free wrongly convicted prisoners:
Based at the University of Bristol, INUK is dedicated to improving the criminal justice system and working to overturn wrongful convictions. Now operating through 26 UK universities, and involving 500 staff and students, the network currently has 80 cases underway.

Public sector procurement policies: finding cost savings through research:
The Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply, at the University of Bath, has worked for 15 years with NHS on its procurement practices and policies, and helped delivery huge cost savings to taxpayers.

35 million “invisible” poor: understanding poverty in Bangladesh:
In Bangladesh there are 56 million people living in poverty, and well over half of these are extremely poor. The University of Bath is a centre of expertise in poverty, world renowned for its work to better understand and help the poor, in particular through enterprise-based projects such as the “Water Sellers”.

Media Enquiries

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