MAY 2014
This is the fifth ‘newsletter’ for the Science City Energy Efficiency 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 Energy Efficiency 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/fellows
hip_programme_celebration/
SCRA Fellows Celebration
www.sciencecityresearchalliance.co.uk The website covers all 6
Energy City
Efficiency
project
Science
projects
acrossupdate:
the Universities of Birmingham and
Warwick
and
gives
a
much
greater
external
presence
the with all outputs due to be completed
The Energy Efficiency project is now
entering
its finalfor
phase
th
programme.
A
key
aspect
of
the
website
is
the
use
of
case
studies
by 30 June 2015.
to show how Science City researchers have supported regional
businesses
Outputs: – please contact the project manager if you have any
case studies which can be used: andrew.todd@warwick.ac.uk
The most critical outputs remaining are the business engagement outputs and the graduates into
private sector employment. Please let the Business Engagement Manager, Sam Hardy
samuel.a.hardy@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.
Please could you also identify any final year project students using the SCRA equipment who may
go on to industry jobs in the West Midlands.
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 private sector
Levered Revenue Funding
New Patents or Licence Agreements
Workshops
Peer Reviewed Publications
Presentations at Conferences
Claimed to Final Target
%
date
(by June
Complete
(May 2014)
2015)
44
50
88%
1
3
33%
36
50
72%
29
50
250
225
12
18
£21,626,497 £20,000,000
4
3
21
20
215
205
130
120
58%
111%
67%
108%
133%
105%
105%
108%
The project will keep recording project outputs in order to over-deliver the outputs. Please
continue to acknowledge the Science City funding in grant applications, papers and by using the
logos on presentations.
See go.warwick.ac.uk/am2/acknowledgements to download logos and for further information.
MAY 2014
Business Engagement:
The Energy Efficiency project has engaged with a wide range of industry partners:



A major SCRA-supported event - The Heating a Nation: 2014 and Beyond Conference - was
organised 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.
Three new Technology Strategy Board projects have started which will lead to business outputs
with energy distribution and housing companies. These will include Western Power Distribution,
Encraft and Orbit Housing and Dynex Semiconductors.
A new Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Cogitare Ltd has been developed by Dr Stuart
Hillmansen in the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education.
Please contact Sam Hardy samuel.a.hardy@warwick.ac.uk if you wish to discuss business engagement
further.
News from other SCRA projects:
 The Advanced Materials 1 project has now achieved all its project outputs and the Hydrogen project
is near to completion.
 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 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.
 The Hydrogen project ran a major conference on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen for Transport and Buildings
th
th
at Millennium Point in Birmingham on 26 and 27 March 2014. Over 110 delegates attended for
the 2 day event.
th
 The Advanced Materials 2 project will hold a business engagement event on 24 June. This will focus
on Materials: Innovation, Funding and Impact and will look at new areas where business can
collaborate with the £20m investment in equipment made through the Science City Advanced
Materials projects.
 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.
 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.
If you have any feedback or news you would like to share, please contact Andrew Todd, Energy Efficiency
Project Manager at andrew.todd@warwick.ac.uk