MAY 2014
This is the fifth ‘newsletter’ for the Science City Advanced Materials 2 project. The aim is to share
information about progress and updates on the achievements on the project and the wider Science
City Research Alliance.
Science City Research Alliance Advanced Materials 2 project
Science City Programme news:
A celebration event was held in February for the end of the SCRA
Fellows programme funded by £9.6m from HEFCE. In all, 32
Fellows were appointed on varying lengths of Fellowship and
working between the two Universities. In total, the Fellows won
around £16m further funding and their work led to 18 patents and
over 350 papers. See the press release for further details:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/sciencecity/news/fello
wship_programme_celebration/
SCRA Fellows Celebration
www.sciencecityresearchalliance.co.uk The
Advanced Materials 2 project update:
The Advanced Materials 2 project is now entering its final phase with all outputs due to be
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completed by 30 June 2015.
Outputs:
Most of the outputs have now been achieved. Significant progress has been made on the business
outputs and there is a healthy pipeline but the project is not yet back on track. There has also been
progress on the new businesses created and 4 start-ups have been formed.
The most critical outputs remaining are the business engagement outputs. Please let the Business
Engagement Manager, Phil Smith p.n.smith@warwick.ac.uk or the Project Manager, Andrew Todd
Andrew.todd@warwick.ac.uk know if you are working with any West Midlands businesses or have
any questions over the paperwork.
Output
Jobs Created – New jobs created
Business Creation – business created &
demonstrating growth
Business Support – business supported to
improve their performance
Business Support- business engaged in new
collaborations with the knowledge base
Skills – People assisted to improve skills
Graduates into employment
Levered Revenue Funding
Creation of Demonstrator Projects
New Patents or Licence Agreements
Workshops
Peer Reviewed Publications
Presentations at Conferences
Claimed to Total Output % Complete
Target
date
(May 2014) (June 2015)
53
53
100%
1
5
20%
41
79
52%
50
79
63%
189
132
29
29
£22,163,143 £20,000,000
3
3
5
3
24
22
271
205
226
205
143%
100%
111%
100%
167%
109%
132%
110%
Please continue to acknowledge the Science City and ERDF funding in grant applications, papers
and presentations so we can continue to achieve these outputs. Please contact the Project
Manager if you have any questions about this.
MAY 2014
Business Engagement:
The Advanced Materials 2 project is engaging with a number of businesses both through Phil Smith as
Business Lead and through individual academics.
Recent business engagement activities include:
 Completion of business assists with European Exhausts and Catalysts,
Cal Gavin, and Aquaten Ltd.
 Ongoing collaborations with Mahle (using facilities on AM1 and 2
across Birmingham and Warwick), Tremco Illbruck (with Chemistry at
Warwick) and Irresistible Materials (using the AM2 Facilities in the
School of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham).
Through these activities, 6new business assists (and 13 collaborations) have
Phil Smith
been developed in the last 6 months there is now a strong pipeline of future
Business Lead
business outputs for the AM2 project.
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A business engagement event will be held at the University of Warwick on 24 June. This will focus on
Materials: Innovation, Funding and Impact and will look at new areas where businesses can collaborate
with the £20m investment in equipment made through the Science City Advanced Materials projects.
The event is open to researchers at both Universities and is free to attend but please let Phil Smith know if
you would like to attend so we can manage catering.
If you would like further information on business engagement activities or would like support in meeting
regional companies, please contact Phil Smith p.n.smith@warwick.ac.uk
News from SCRA projects:
 Prof Julie MacPherson has been awarded a prestigious Royal Society Industrial Fellowship to
collaborate with Element Six, the world leader in synthetic diamond supermaterials. The 4 year
fellowship will support collaboration with Element Six to further develop synthetic all-diamond based
electrochemical sensors for high performance electroanalytical applications.
 The School of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham has won several major new research grants
including £1.8m from the Wellcome Trust for Prof Liam Grover and £1.15m from the EPSRC for Prof
Paula Mendes. These grants will use the SCRA Advanced Materials 2 facilities in the School of
Chemical Engineering.
 Nearly £140 million has now been levered into the Science City Research Alliance. This includes
funding from the Research Councils, Technology Strategy Board, European Commission and charities.
The programme has worked with around 250 businesses in the West Midlands alone (and many
more nationally and internationally) and created more than 350 jobs in the West Midlands.
 The Hydrogen project ran a major conference on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen for Transport and Buildings
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at Millennium Point in Birmingham on 26 and 27 March 2014. Over 110 delegates attended for
the 2 day event.
 6 new start-up businesses have been formed linked to the SCRA programme. These include new
technologies being developed or tested around the SCRA equipment and some joint ventures with
businesses who have been engaged in the programme. The start-ups need to continue trading for 12
months but should they do so, 4 will be recorded on the Advanced Materials project and 2 on the
Energy Efficiency project.
 A major SCRA-supported event - The Heating a Nation: 2014 and Beyond Conference - was organised
by the Energy Efficiency project at the University of Warwick on 26 & 27 February 2014 with the
Energy Utilities Alliance and Business Council for Sustainable Development. This led to 10 new
Business Assist outputs and 3 new collaborations, as well as raising the profile of the Energy project
with business.
 The Advanced Materials 1 project has now achieved all its project outputs and the Hydrogen project
is near to completion.
If you have any feedback or news you would like to share, please contact Andrew Todd (AM2 Project
Manager) at andrew.todd@warwick.ac.uk