g
n
i
d
a
e
L
edge
Season Spring
Issue #29
Tackling the grand
challenges.................... pg 3
Brunel to deliver world class research training
in Environmental Sciences as part of the London
NERC Doctoral Training Partnership
F
ollowing the launch of the
L o n d o n N E R C D o c t o r a l Tr a i n i n g
Partnership (London NERC DTP) in
November 2013, the first 36 fully
funded PhD studentships have now
been awarded. They will form the
first cohort of new environmental
scientists out of a total of 120
to be trained over the next five
years.
The London NERC DTP is one of 15 Doctoral
Training Partnerships in the UK funded to the
tune of £100m by the Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC). It brings together
almost 400 academics from nine London
institutions working across a wide spectrum of
environmental sciences, including from Brunel’s
internationally renowned Institute for the
Environment (IfE). UCL is the appointed Lead
Partner.
The London DTP marries some of the Capital’s
most acclaimed centres of research excellence;
UCL, Birkbeck University of London, Brunel
University, Institute of Zoology, King’s College
London, The Natural History Museum, Queen
Mary University of London, Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew and Royal Holloway University
of London, along with UK businesses, policymakers, public and third sector organisations,
including The Forestry Commission, Defra,
Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Microsoft
International and Lloyds of London.
The funding for the London NERC DTP has been
well received by environmental policy makers
and charities. Defra, in its mission to improve
the environment, grow the rural economy and
safeguard animal and plant health, has long
been associated with Brunel University, and has
supported numerous research and development
projects exploring solutions to create a more
sustainable environment in the UK.
€1.6m EU project
success........................ pg 6
Mike Roberts, a Senior Scientist in the Chemicals
and Emerging Technologies Division at Defra,
commented on the initiative: “The NERC
Doctoral Training Partnership presents a clear
pathway to new standards of excellence and
inter-disciplinary collaboration in environmental
science research training, providing a template
for the continued successful input of science to
policy development in the UK and more widely.
Brunel is a centre of innovation and research
excellence in tackling the most complex
environmental challenges and I welcome their
contribution to this vital programme.”
Paul Jepson, Reader at the Zoological Society
of London (ZSL), also closely associated with
the DTP, is emphatic in his support for the
initiative: “The next generation has inherited
the herculean task of reversing human impact
on the world’s wildlife and the environment.
There is a fine line between conservation and
environmental protection, which demands the
dedicated research and development which
NERC is making possible through its funding of
these DTPs. ZSL has a long history of partnering
with Brunel and many of the universities in the
London NERC and we will offer our full support
at every level of this critical initiative.”
In 2012, IfE was awarded the Queen’s
Anniversary Prize for the impact of its pioneering
research in environmental toxicology. The
accolade highlighted the critical need to
better understand and address the impact of
hazardous chemical contaminants in the UK’s
annual 3.6 billion tonnes of sewage output.
Aerospace engineers
win prestigious prize..... pg 5
Thank you for
not smoking..................
1
pg 6
LEADINGeditorial
Contents
Editorial..............................................2
Brunel Researchers Awarded Gates
Foundation Funding...........................3
Communication Challenges in a
Changing World ................................3
London Science Week explores
‘21st Century Brunel’...........................3
Brunel to co-ordinate €1.6m
EU project..........................................4
Cancer research at Brunel...................4
Engineering team wins prestigious
international aerospace award for
pioneering glider................................5
Award of Fellowship to Dr Elena
Boguslavskaya....................................5
International Challenge Award
for Dr Hongying Meng.......................5
London Mayor’s Schools Excellence
Fund Success......................................5
Finding and Fixing Faults in Software
Systems..............................................6
Revitalizing German Opera.................6
Brunel’s RDF seed grant secures
€2 million external research funding...6
Measuring Social Values of Design
in the Commercial Sector...................7
Research funding to study scholarly
exchange............................................7
Research funding to explore use
of waste heat to generate electrical
power................................................7
Welcome to
Leading Edge
Welcome to the latest edition of Leading Edge, the
first since I assumed my new role as Vice-Principal
(Research). I am delighted to assume this new
position at a particularly interesting time in the
University’s research development. The last few
years have seen us make tremendous progress in
our research performance, as demonstrated by
a variety of measures, including the number of
research outputs, and their quality, the number of
research students and our research grant income.
We therefore have a very firm platform on which
to refocus the research agenda through the
Transformational Change Programme. The Institutes
created through TxP will allow us to address an
exciting set of global grand research challenges,
that should enable us to secure increased research
grant income and hence to do research that will
raise our profile as a research intensive institution.
Since the last edition we have also completed
our submission to the REF. I would like to thank
everyone who contributed to this activity for their
hard work and support. Our final submission looked
magnificent, and we can look forward to results
day with some optimism, anticipating the results
will reflect the progress we have made with our
research since 2008.
As usual, Leading Edge contains numerous
examples of successful research activity. The quarter
2 results are particularly pleasing; in the first half
of this year we have booked in nearly as much
income as in the whole of 2011/12. This is terrific
– congratulations to all those that have contributed
to this achievement.
With best wishes to you all
Professor Geoff Rodgers
Vice-Principal (Research)
Professor Asoke K. Nandi....................8
Joint AHRC/ESRC funded research
finds respect for religious diversity
among young people..........................9
LGBT Month 2014: Remembering the
Nazi persecutions of homosexuals......9
Contracts Awarded Quarter 1.............10
Contracts Awarded Quarter 2.............11
Brunel hosts automotive skill
development, training and
research event....................................12
Research management study to be
published by the International Society
of Research Administrators.................12
Brunel to deliver world class research training in Environmental
Sciences as part of the London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership
Continued from front cover
“The future of environmental science in is the hands
of today’s graduates and post graduates,” reflects
Professor Susan Jobling, head of IfE.
Leading Edge focuses on
research at Brunel University.
For details on how to submit
articles please contact Vic Gill
in the Research Support and
Development Office on ext 67398
or email vic.gill@brunel.ac.uk
Editor: Content and
production: Vic Gill, RSDO
University Photographer:
Sally Trussler, Media Services
Printed by: Brunel University Press
When you have finished with
this newsletter please recycle it.
“Environmental toxicology is one of a number
of critical research areas which fall within NERC’s
science remit and thereby will benefit significantly
from this interdisciplinary initiative. Being in
partnership with institutions engaged in such a
broad reach of environmental science research
presents a beacon of hope and opportunity for
effective collaboration.”
Six broad-based Research Pathways are defined
within the DTP training programme to best
reflect the expertise of the partners and maximise
opportunities for interdisciplinary research: these
are Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology;
Earth Dynamics; Environmental Pollution;
Natural and Biological Hazards; Past Life
and Environments, and Earth-Life System
Integration.
With some 375 FTE academic staff involved in the
Partnership, students will have access to a unique
2
pool of expertise within the consortium as well as
among external organisations, through the active
engagement of business, industry, international
NGOs and policy makers.
The first doctoral training programme will
commence in the autumn of 2014. All 36 students
(24 funded from the DTP and a further 12 funded
by University partners) will start at UCL and rotate
around the partner institutions during the first three
terms before going on to choose their research
project. This can be in any of the participating
institutions. They will then move to their allotted
institution in April 2015. Of the 36 students, 16
have expressed a preference for biodiversity and
conservation projects, four for earth dynamics,
three for environmental pollution, one for natural
and biological hazards, 10 for past life and
environments, and two for earth-life systems
integration. Students will each be allocated an
academic mentor from the DTP PhD Committee
providing guidance on the choice of PhD project,
specialised courses and pastoral issues.
RESEARCHnews
Communication Challenges
in a Changing World:
Special Seminar Series
On January 22nd the first of three seminars
involving high profile speakers on contemporary
issues took place in Council Chambers,
organised by the Centre for Culture, Media and
Regulation (CCMR), School of Social Sciences.
Speakers Max Mosley, Professor Will Self and
Jane Winter spoke eloquently on questions of
privacy in a post Leveson society and engaged
in debate with the audience. CCMR Co Director
Dr Lesley Henderson said, ‘I am delighted
to have won funding from Brunel Planning
Unit for this special series ‘Culture Clashes’
Communication Challenges in a Changing
World’. Our event was a great success with 80
people in the audience including academics,
students and members of the public and lively
debate continued over a networking wine
reception’.
Tackling the Grand Challenges:
Brunel Researchers Awarded
Gates Foundation Funding
I
nstitute for the Environment (IfE)
researchers, Dr Edwin Routledge
and Professor Rakesh Kanda, have
successfully secured $100,000 of
Phase 1 research funding from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The one year project titled ‘A Decoy Artificial
Snail Host (DASH) to Control S. mansoni’ hopes
to help find a solution for Schistosomiasis,
a parasitic disease which strikes 243 million
people worldwide, and has the second
largest human health impact after malaria.
Dr Routledge proposes to develop an artificial
‘decoy’ snail which interrupts the parasite life
cycle to reduce transmission rates to humans.
Dr Routledge commented on the news of
award:
“This is a really exciting opportunity to use
modern ecotoxicology approaches in a new
way to help address a global health problem.
If Phase 1 is successful, I will establish a
multidisciplinary team within Brunel to develop
a prototype product with Phase 2 funding”.
The latest round of the Grand Challenges
Exploration (GCE) initiative attracted 2,700
proposals from 14 countries, of which 84
were funded. GCE grants fund innovative
ideas to tackle persistent global health and
development problems. “Grand Challenges
Explorations is designed to foster the most
innovative ideas to save the lives of the world’s
poorest people,” said Chris Wilson, director of
the Discovery & Translational Sciences team at
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Grants support early-stage research projects
and innovative ideas that could lead to
new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs and
other technologies targeting diseases that
claim millions of lives each year as well as
improvements and innovations in agricultural
development and other Gates Foundation
priority areas.
For further details about the project, visit: www.grandchallenges.org/pages/GrantsMap.aspx
The next event (March 5th) focused on
surveillance society with Laurie Penny
(Contributing Editor, New Statesman), Duncan
Campbell (investigative journalist) and Michael
Smith (former British Army Intelligence Corps,
investigative journalist and author of The
Spying Game). The final seminar, ‘Margaret
Thatcher’s Legacy for Broadcasting’ (April 30th)
involves Professor Steve Barnett (Westminster
University) and David Elstein (Open Democracy
Board, The Broadcasting Policy Group). The
final event is now open for registration.
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/culture-clashescommunication-challenges-in-a-changingworld-tickets-10550911059
For more information contact
lesley.henderson@brunel.ac.uk
London Science Week explores
‘21st Century Brunel’
In October 2013, Brunel hosted a series of
talks on the theme of ‘21st Century Brunel’
as part of the London Science Festival,
which aims to engage the public in all things
scientific. Dr Mark Jabbal (Dept. Mechanical
Engineering) discussed aerodynamics in the
context of building a glider for the BBCís James
Mayís Toy Stories; Dr Richard Bonser (Dept.
Design) introduced the field of biomimetics
by describing a project to build a soft-bodied
robot inspired by an octopus; Dr Jo Cole (Dept.
Electronic & Computer Engineering) talked
about Brunel’s contribution to the discovery
of the Higgs Boson; and Dr Andrew Russell
(Institute for the Environment) argued that
the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases
could be traced back to the 19th Century
industrialists such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Of the event, Professor Geoff Rodgers (PVC
Research) said “Brunel University is delighted
to be involved in the London Science Festival.
The opportunities the festival provides to both
showcase our research, as well as engage the
public in exciting areas of science, is invaluable.”
For more information contact
mark.jabbal@brunel.ac.uk
3
RESEARCHnews
Brunel to co-ordinate
€1.6m EU project
D
r B r i a n M c K a y, B C A S T, i s t h e
co-ordinator of a new €1.676
million
euro
grant
(HardAlt)
to find an alter native for hard
chrome coatings. The research is
funded under the EU FP7 Research
for SME Associations programme
that aims to develop technical
solutions to problems faced by
large numbers of SMEs in specific
industrial sectors. The project
involves 12 partners (five of which
are SME Associations), from seven
EU countries and will run for three
years.
Hard chrome is one of the world’s most widely
used coatings as it exhibits excellent properties
that help prevent wear and corrosion. It is
estimated that corrosion alone accounts for
3.1% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) and protective coatings serve to reduce
the burden of in-service costs. However, hard
chrome faces many problems that include;
new EU restrictions limiting the use of
hexavalent chromium, health issues for the
plating industry personnel due to associated
cancers, characteristic functional defects of the
coatings and low current plating efficiencies.
The aim of this project is to eliminate the use
of hard chromium plating across the European
electroplating industry by delivering a suitable
alternative, which will be based on nanostructured Ni-P and Ni-P composite coatings
containing reinforcing nanoparticles such as SiC
or BC. The work will involve plating components
and investigating the characteristics of the new
coatings using state-of-the-art-techniques such
as Brunel’s new high resolution transmission
electron microscope which is housed at the
ETC.
For more information contact
brian.mckay@brunel.ac.uk
4
Cancer research at Brunel validating test
to minimise side effects of radiotherapy
R
esearcher Dr Christopher Parris
from Brunel Institute for Cancer
Genetics and Pharmacogenomics
(BICGP) has developed a simple
blood test which can predict how a
p a t i e n t w i l l r e a c t t o r a d i o t h e r a p y.
Around 10% of people treated
will experience severe side effects
such as bur ns, fibrosis (scarring)
and more rarely paralysis. For
some this will cause permanent
d i s a b i l i t y. D r P a r r i s c o m m e n t e d :
“Radiotherapy kills cancer cells by destroying
the DNA. However, normal cell DNA is also
damaged at the same time. We have developed
a DNA repair-based test in blood cells from
cancer patients and have discovered that those
experiencing severe side effects cannot repair
DNA damage very effectively. We are currently
validating the diagnostic test which will be
available to the private medical sector first and
then on the NHS.”
This work has been in collaboration with
Dr Nick Plowman, Consultant Oncologist and
Head of Radiotherapy at St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital.
Funding for this research was made available
from the Bart’s Charity with the help of The
Duke of Roxburghe. Guy Roxburghe, a cancer
patient of Dr. Plowman supported our research
by completing a “Coast-to-Coast” charity
walk which raised over £400,000 in support
of our research and other important projects
supported by the Bart’s Charity.
For more information contact
christopher.parris@brunel.ac.uk
Photo caption:
Dr Chris Parris’ research team (l to r): Dr Chris
Parris (Group leader); Dr Emma Bourton (PostDoctoral Scientist); Dr Sheba Adam-Zahir (PostDoctoral Scientist); Mr Hussein Al-Ali (PhD
student).
RESEARCHnews
International Challenge Award
for Dr Hongying Meng
Engineering team wins prestigious international
aerospace award for pioneering glider
Dr Mark Jabbal, Lecturer in Aerospace
Engineering (School of Engineering and Design)
and a team of Brunel aerospace graduates have
been awarded a Royal Aeronautical Society
Young Persons’ Achievement Commendation.
The Award recognises the pivotal role played by
the team, led by Mark, in developing and flying
an engineless, unmanned glider 22 miles across
the Bristol Channel – a new British distance
record. The project, filmed and funded by Plum
Pictures for the BBC, involved the team working
with Top Gear presenter James May to develop
the glider. The team received the award at the
Young Persons’ Lecture and Awards Reception
2013, held at Royal Aeronautical Society HQ,
Central London, in November. The Award was
presented by Jenny Body OBE, President of the
Royal Aeronautical Society. Brunel is the first
UK University recipient of this award since its
inception in 2007. Mark has written a research
paper based on the project, pending review for
the Aeronautical Journal.
Dr. Hongying Meng (School of Engineering
and Design) has attended the International
Audio/Visual Emotion Challenge (AVEC2013)
at the 21st ACM International Conference
on Multimedia (ACM Multimedia 2013:
http://acmmm13.org/general-info/aboutacm-multimedia-2013/) in Barcelona, Spain
in Oct. 2013. This is a research competition
to recognize emotional states from facial
expression and audio recordings for the
patients with depression. The international
competition event is designed to provide a
common benchmark test set to compare the
relative merits of the approaches to emotion
recognition under well-defined and strictly
comparable conditions within affective
computing society in the world. There are
two sub-challenges: affective recognition subchallenge and depression sub-challenge in
AVEC2013. Dr Meng and his collaborators from
Beihang University in China achieved excellent
results in both sub-challenges and won the
best entry award “Affect Recognition subchallenge”.
Detailed information can be found at
http://sspnet.eu/avec2013/
For more information contact
mark.jabbal@brunel.ac.uk
Daphne Jackson Trust:
Award of Fellowship to
Dr Elena Boguslavskaya
Dr Elena Boguslavskaya, who has been working
in the Department of Mathematical Sciences as
an hourly-paid lecturer, has just been awarded
a Fellowship by the Daphne Jackson Trust. The
aim of these Fellowships is to help scientists,
technologists, engineers and mathematicians
(STEM) to return to their careers after a
career break. Fellows normally carry out their
research part-time over 2 years, in a university
or research establishment in the UK. The
Fellowships are flexible and include a tailored
training programme designed to update skills
and knowledge and support the Fellows in their
return to research.
Dr Boguslavskaya’s research into a new integral
transform to use for pricing American and
European options, is sponsored by EPSRC. She
will be supervised by Professor Dorje Brody who
says, ‘I am delighted that Elena has secured the
Daphne Jackson Fellowship. Her mathematical
expertise gained in Russia and the Netherlands
will enable her to lead this exciting research
that touches on the intersection of function
theory, stochastic analysis and finance.’
London Mayor’s Schools
Excellence Fund Success
Education’s funding proposal to the London
Mayor’s Schools Excellence Fund has been
successful. The total value of the 2-year award
will be £275,400. The project entitled ‘Maths
Talk at Key Stage 1’ will be led by Professor
Valsa Koshy in collaboration with Professor Viv
Ellis and Dr Deborah Jones. It will offer a highquality professional development programme
for infant school teachers. This will enhance
their mathematical subject knowledge and
enable them to use cutting-edge pedagogical
approaches, with a particular focus on
language and interaction. The over-arching aim
is for the children in the age range 6-7 years to
achieve higher levels in mathematics through
the fostering of greater enthusiasm and a
more positive attitude towards the subject. It is
hoped that this will provide firm foundations for
more productive study of mathematics in later
school years. Reflecting on the success, Head of
Education Professor Viv Ellis commented “We
are exceptionally pleased as a team because
the project will continue the long tradition of
practice-developing research in Education at
Brunel – so strongly associated with Professor
Koshy – in combination with a theoretical
perspective derived from the study of language
in educational settings.”
5
RESEARCHnews
Finding and Fixing Faults
in Software Systems
D
r Tr a c y H a l l a n d D r S t e v e
Counsell, both Readers in the
School of Information Systems,
Computing
and
Mathematics
(SISCM), have been awarded three
years of EPSRC funding (£350,605)
to develop better ways in which to
detect faults in software systems.
Detecting faults in software systems is a very
important area of research. Most companies
now depend on software. Faults in that
software can have a devastating impact on
business success and human safety. Finding and
fixing faults before code is deployed in systems
is really important. For example, had the Royal
Bank of Scotland (RBS) detected faults in the
software patch that they deployed in July 2012,
customers would not have been locked out of
their bank accounts for almost a week, and RBS
would have not suffered devastating worldwide
publicity.
In this project Dr Hall and Dr Counsell, in
collaboration with Dr David Bowes from the
University of Hertfordshire, will be continuing
their longstanding and renowned work on
producing automated tools to accurately detect
faults in software. In collaboration with a
major international company the team will be
developing approaches to harness the most
effective elements of existing fault detection
approaches. The aim is to produce an ensemble
of different machine learning techniques that
is customised to the characteristics of faults in
software. The resulting approach should not
only increase the number of faults correctly
detected but also reduce the number of
incorrect detections (e.g. false positives). This
ground breaking approach will cost effectively
allow companies to significantly reduce the
number of faults in their software systems.
For more information contact
tracy.hall@brunel.ac.uk
Revitalizing
German Opera
Dr Nicholas Attfield, Lecturer in Music in the
School of Arts, has been awarded £7588 by
the British Academy to run an Early Career
Regional Networking event. Scheduled to take
place in central London in mid-September
2014, this will take the form of a study day
focusing on current German opera scholarship
in the UK – particularly relating to the postWagner repertoire of the first half of the
twentieth century. Invited speakers will include
specialist musicologists, graduate students
and early career scholars working in this area,
practitioners with repertoire experience, and
representatives of UK institutions dedicated
to German culture and history. The keynote
address will be delivered by Prof. Peter Franklin,
Professor of Music at the University of Oxford.
For more information contact
nicholas.attfield@brunel.ac.uk
6
Brunel’s RDF seed grant secures
€2 million external research funding
T
he
Research
Development
Fund (RDF) is an internal
scheme which supports initiatives
aimed
at
attracting
external
research
income.
Administered
b y B r u n e l ’s R e s e a r c h S u p p o r t a n d
Development Office (RSDO), the
scheme provides seed investment
for the pump priming of those
research initiatives deemed likely
to lead to the generation of
exter nal research financing.
The European-study on Quantifying Utility
of Investment in Protection from Tobacco
(EQUIPT) is a three-year research programme
dedicated to adapting the existing Tobacco
Return on Investment (ROI) tool from the UK
to create a new suite of tools for use in four EU
Member States: Germany, Spain, Hungary and
The Netherlands. The EQUIPT team then plans
to test the transferability of the ROI methods
to other EU countries with a view to guiding
comprehensive pan-European tobacco control
policies.
RDF funding can be used for activities including:
funding specialist support for research proposal
development;
providing
pump-priming
funding for new, less experienced researchers;
supporting
interdisciplinary
research;
supporting the development of the URC/UIRCs.
“Local policy makers and public health procurers
lack the data and financial justification to make
the case for investment in tobacco control,”
comments Dr Subhash Pokhrel.
In October 2013, a £2,960 RDF grant awarded
to Dr Subash Pokhrel helped to secure
€2 million of external funding for research into
EU policy for tobacco control.
Thank you for not smoking: The
business case for tobacco control
Under the auspices of Dr Subhash Pokhrel,
Senior Lecturer at the Health Economics
Research Group (HERG), Brunel University
has been quietly hosting ten institutions from
seven EU member states since October 2013 to
facilitate collaborative research into making the
case for tobacco control investments in a bid to
influence EU policy makers.
Coordinated on the Uxbridge campus by HERG
and funded by the European Commission’s
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the
initiative is a comparative effectiveness research
(CER) project that brings together multidisciplinary expertise with the goal of providing
policy makers and stakeholders with evidencebased information about the economic and
broader returns that investing in tobacco
control can generate.
“By developing a user-friendly decision-support
tool that synthesise costs, effectiveness and
other relevant data for a large number of
interventions in to a single return on investment
(ROI) metric, the project aims to fill in this
important gap”.
“On behalf of the 11 members of the
Consortium, our thanks go to the RDF team;
the £2,960 grant has been pivotal in securing
external funding to the tune of €2 million - and
potentially, to helping realise economic savings
at local government levels and to preserving
the health of EU citizens, once the research
findings start contributing to EU tobacco
control policies”.
For more information contact
subhash.pokhrel@brunel.ac.uk
EQUIPT project website: http://equipt.ensp.org/
For more information and to apply for RDF
funding visit: https://intranet.brunel.ac.uk/
research/rsdo/Projects/rdfhome.shtml
RESEARCHnews
Measuring Social Values of Design
in the Commercial Sector
D
r
Yo u n g o k
Choi
and
Dr
Busayawan Lam in the School
of Engineering and Design have
b e e n a w a r d e d A H R C ’s R e s e a r c h
Development Grants to understand
the
social
values
of
design,
especially in Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) practices.
CSR is increasingly regarded as a crucial
aspect of economic competitiveness. While
CSR takes an important role in brands,
design has the potential to be a critical
aspect of CSR, broadening activities from
corporate sponsorship and certification to the
incorporation of CSR principles throughout
product/service development. However, most
businesses do not yet use design effectively
in CSR practices, which they interpret as
supporting charities, and invest in design
only with apparent benefits, e.g. promotional
design. Moreover, the social value of design
is implicitly quantified, and existing financial
appraising tools for Return on Investment and
social impact assessment are unsuitable for
measuring social values generated through
design. As a result, companies find it difficult to
consider design as one of the tools to address
CSR requirements and integrate social values
into their mainstream products and services.
The six month collaborative research project
aims to understand the social value of design
and explore contextual issues, value and
the means of measuring the social impact of
design, providing an underpinning theory and
underlying knowledge to develop the tool for
measuring the social values of design. The
project will provide insight into the existing
state of knowledge about the social values of
design, with particular reference to the social
impact of CSR practices – especially where they
are taken into consideration during the new
product/service processes - and the limitations
of existing approaches of current social impact
assessment tools. The research will also
generate knowledge about the role(s) of design
in relation to social value and responsibility and
the critical notion of design value and, finally,
will explore issues relating to the potential
opportunities and benefits of developing the
impact measurement tool.
This project has an academic project partner,
Dr Andrew Walters, Cardiff Metropolitan
University, and five non-academic partners
which consists of three not-for-profit design
organisations, which promote the use of design
and innovation in the UK including BIDA (British
Industrial Design Society) and DME (Design
Management Europe), and two design and
brand consultants.
For more information contact
youngok.choi@brunel.ac.uk
Research funding to study scholarly exchange
Dr Tamson Pietsch has been awarded £5,000
by the Society for Research in Higher Education
(SHRE) to undertake a project entitled
“Organising scholarly networks: perspectives
from history and public policy”. Dr Pietsch
joined Brunel University in 2011 as Lecturer in
Imperial and Colonial History and is currently
on research leave as ARC DECRA Fellow at the
University of Sydney.
Recent years have witnessed the publication
of a succession of policy reports and the
adoption of legislation on student, scholarly
and researcher mobility that promotes the
value of academic exchange. But little is known
about the development of the idea of scholarly
exchange, of its long-term consequences, or
of its multiple benefits (societal, political, and
intellectual). While some studies on academic
mobility are beginning to emerge, the literature
is currently fragmented across different
disciplines and national constituencies, and
comparative and longitudinal studies are
needed. Drawing on the expertise in history
and public policy of its co-investigators, this
study will work across disciplinary and national
boundaries to provide a comprehensive survey
of existing work and present a research agenda
for the future study of scholarly exchange.
Research funding to
explore use of waste
heat to generate
electrical power
Dr Yunting Ge and Professor Savvas Tassou, of
the School of Engineering and Design, have
been awarded a £198,068 research grant by
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC) and Technology Strategy Board
(TSB) to investigate and develop advanced
power generation and heat recovery systems
with industrial waste heat.
In the UK, around 70% of electricity consumed
is generated by burning fossil fuels in central
power stations. This leads to significant CO2
emissions, atmospheric pollution, global
warming and rising energy costs. The overall
efficiency of centralised power generation and
distribution can vary between 35% and 45%
depending on the technology employed. The
balance is thermal losses to the environment
primarily through exhaust gases. In localised
power systems the waste heat can be recovered
and used for space or process heating,
improving significantly the overall efficiency of
energy conversion. Industry is a large user of
electrical and thermal energy. There are also
many streams of waste heat which can be
recovered and used in other parts of the process
requiring heating. Where the requirement for
heating is minimal, the excess heat can be used
to generate cooling, or electrical power.
The use of waste heat to generate electrical
power is not a new concept. A number of
commercially available technologies can do this
but their energy conversion efficiency is low
and capital cost is high. A technology currently
receiving increasing attention is the Organic
Rankine Cycle (ORC). The Brunel project will
involve the development of research facilities
for the investigation of design concepts and
component design and performance, heat
recovery potential and overall energy efficiency
of small scale ORC systems. The facilities will
also be used for the validation of mathematical
models which will be developed and used for
the simulation, evaluation and optimisation of
larger systems. The 12 month project started
in February 2014 and has already generated
significant interest for collaboration by a
number of companies in the UK and overseas.
For more information contact
yunting.ge@brunel.ac.uk
For more information contact
tamson.pietsch@sydney.edu.au
7
RESEARCHprofiles
Professor Asoke K. Nandi
Electronic and Computer
Engineering
P
rofessor Nandi joined Brunel
University in April 2013 as the
Head of Electronic and Computer
Engineering
(ECE)
from
the
University of Liverpool where
he held the David Jardine Chair
of Signal Processing. He was the
Head of the Signal Processing
and
Communications
Research
Group which he established in
1999. He published over 190
papers in refereed inter national
journals
(total:
490
technical
papers). His publications have
been cited over 15,000 times and
his h-index is 55 (according to
Google Scholar). Professor Nandi
has made pioneering theoretical
and
applied
contributions
to
statistical
signal
processing,
wireless communications, machine
learning, condition monitoring,
and biomedical signal processing,
with
growing
applications
in
genomic signal processing and
brain signal processing.
Professor Nandi received a PhD in Physics from
the University of Cambridge, and since then
worked in many institutions, including CERN,
Oxford University, and Imperial College. Early in
his career he co-discovered three fundamental
particles, known as W+, W- and Z0 for which
two of his colleagues (Professor Rubbia and
late Professor van der Meer) were awarded the
1984 Nobel Prize for Physics. His research spans
different topics, including automatic modulation
recognition in radio communications for which
he received the Mountbatten Premium of
Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1998,
machine condition monitoring for which
he received the Water Arbitration Prize of
Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1999,
machine learning (feature selection, feature
generation, classification, pattern recognition),
and higher-order statistics (blind source
separation and blind equalization) for which
he received the 2012 IEEE Communications
Society Heinrich Hertz Award from Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (USA).
Recently, Professor Nandi started addressing
genomic signal processing with micro-array
gene expression data, by relating clusters of
‘genes’ to ‘expressions’. A paper, reporting
twelve genes regulating gene expression
during terminal erythropoiesis, has been
published in the leading peer-reviewed medical
journal ‘Blood’. Functional magnetic resonance
imaging provides an opportunity to study brain
functions. Building on recent developments
in signal processing (blind source separation,
independent component analysis, etc.) and
machine learning, he and a team of scientists
8
with different specialities discovered spatiotemporal patterns in brains. These findings
have recently been reported in leading journals,
including NeuroImage.
estimation, and prediction. He will continue to
develop and apply his core insights in modelling
and data analysis (especially Big Data) across
disciplines.
Professor Nandi is open to research
collaborations across disciplines involving signal
processing, modelling, classification, detection,
For more information contact
asoke.nandi@brunel.ac.uk
RESEARCHpublications
Joint AHRC/ESRC funded research
finds respect for religious diversity
among young people
‘Youth On Religion: The Development, Negotiation and Impact of Faith and Nonfaith Identity’ by Professor Nicola Madge and colleagues was launched at the
London School of Economics on Thursday 16th January. Following a presentation
of some of the findings by Professor Madge, responses were provided by Professor
Linda Woodhead (University of Lancaster), Professor Grace Davie (University of
Exeter), Professor David Voas (University of Essex) and David Goodhart (Demos).
The Youth On Religion study was funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society
Programme to the tune of around £0.5M and led by Professor Nicola Madge at
Brunel University. The research took place in schools and colleges in Bradford,
and the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Newham, where over 10,000 13 to
17 year-olds responded to an online survey and around 160 17 and 18 year-olds
participated in interviews and discussion groups. These young people included
those from Muslim, Christian, Sikh, no-faith and other backgrounds.
A key message from the research is that participants in the study demonstrated
widespread liberalism as well as optimism and respect for diversity. They were not,
however, complacent about the challenges for inter-faith relations in multicultural
locations, and called for public policies that would help to promote greater mutual
mixing and understanding. Maintaining their optimism about social cohesion
would seem to be dependent on future patterns of societal equity as well as
the development of new forms of national identity. These findings, nonetheless,
emerge from this study of young people in diverse areas and there is a need for
further research to see whether the same is found among others living in less
mixed locations, including those from families who have actively decided to move
to more segregated areas.
For more details or to purchase a copy of the book visit: http://bit.ly/1gg6rHD
For further information contact nicola.madge@brunel.ac.uk
LGBT Month 2014: Remembering the
Nazi persecutions of homosexuals
Professor William Spurlin (English) gave a talk at the Wiener Library for the Study of
the Holocaust & Genocide in central London on 6 February 2014 and introduced
the documentary film Paragraph 175 about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.
The purpose of the event was to mark LGBT History Month. Paragraph 175 refers
to the article of the German Penal Code that criminalised homosexuality between
1871 and 1969 and was revised by the Nazis in 1935 in order to persecute more
aggressively men suspected of homosexuality and incarcerate them in concentrate
camps. Professor Spurlin argued that Nazi homophobia must be understood in
relation to the racial politics of the Third Reich, and he challenged the received
wisdom that lesbians were not as systematically persecuted. He was invited to
speak based on his recent monograph, Lost Intimacies: Rethinking Homosexuality
under National Socialism (2009), the research for which was funded by a grant
from the AHRC.
9
RESEARCHcontracts
Contracts Awarded Quarter 1 (1st August – 31st October 2013) £9,099,106
BCAST
School of Arts
Prof Zhongyun FAN: EPSRC - EPSRC Large
Equipment Account for Advanced Metal
Casting Centre (AMCC), £3,855,000
Prof Susan BROADHURST: ESRC - Bordercrossing digital arts and social science:
New methodological approaches to
embodiment, £4,334
Dr Hari-Babu NADENDLA: TWI Limited
- CASE studentship: Improved brazing
processes for joining ceramics to metals
to enhance structural integrity of the
assembly, £22,482
Brunel Business School
Prof Zahir IRANI (PI) Dr Vishanth
WEERAKKODY (Co-I) Dr Habin LEE
(Co-I): European Commission - DAREED
- Decision support advisor for innovative
business models and user engagement
for smart energy efficient districts,
£266,329
Dr Habin LEE (PI) Dr Afshin MANSOURI
(Co-I): European Commission - MINICHIP - MINImising Carbon footprint of
maritime sHIPing, £248,758
Health Economics Research
Group
Dr Louise LONGWORTH: EuroQol Group
Foundation - Overview of psychometric
properties of EQ-5D in a range of
conditions, £3,333
Dr Subhash POKHREL: European
Commission - EQUIPT - European-study
on Quantifying Utility of Investment in
Protection from Tobacco, £542,438
Institute for the Environment
Prof Rakesh KANDA (PI) Dr Alice
BAYNES (Co-I) Dr Mark SCRIMSHAW
(Co-I) Dr Martin SCHOLZE (Co-I): DEFRA
- Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs - For a comparative study on
the IC-MSMS and methylation GC-ECD
methods of analysis for haloacetic acids,
£87,363
Prof Andreas KORTENKAMP: Oak
Foundation - From policy to action:
testing the foundations for routine
regulatory mixture risk assessment,
£359,977
Prof Andreas KORTENKAMP: Norwegian
Environment Agency - Risk for
toxicological interactions between
deca-brominated diphenyl ether mixtures
(decaBDE) and other PBDEs, £51,895
Prof Suzanne LEROY: BP Exploration
(Caspian Sea) Ltd - Caspian climatic
cycles for improved petroleum
exploration (PhD Studentship), £154,268
Dr Lourdes LOPEZ-MERINO: The
Leverhulme Trust - FELLOWSHIP Posidonia as environmental archive:
long-term ecology and conservation
views, £75,189
Dr Edwin ROUTLEDGE (PI) Prof Rakesh
KANDA (Co-I): Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation - A decoy artificial snail host
(DASH) to control Schistosoma Mansoni,
£62,500
10
School of Engineering &
Design
Dr Camille BAKER (PI) Dr Lampros
STERGIOULAS (Co-I) Dr Yulia
MATSKEVICH (Co-I): European
Commission - FET ART - Connecting
ICT and Art communities: new research
avenues, challenges, and expected
impact, £103,759
Dr Richard BONSER: European
Commission - OCTOPUS - Novel design
principles and technologies for a new
generation of high dexterity soft-bodied
robots inspired by the morphology and
behaviour of the octopus, £198,744
Dr Alasdair CAIRNS (PI) Prof Hua ZHAO
(Co-I): Castrol Ltd - (Additional Funds)
- 3-year, Castrol-sponsored studentship
for student Mr Simon Dingle: The effects
of next-generation fuels and lubricants
on combustion in future spark-ignition
engines, £7,500
Prof Kai CHENG (PI) Dr Atanas IVANOV
(Co-I) Dr Richard BATEMAN (CoI): Korea Institute of Machinery &
Materials (KIMM) - (Additional Funds)
- Development of the functional surface
μ-texturing module with application
to micromilling: design, analysis,
performance testing and applications,
£37,534
Prof Kai CHENG: Mollart Engineering
Limited - AS9100 quality assurance
using computer-aided/SAP-based tools
and its implementation and application
perspectives, £36,000
Prof Kai CHENG (PI) Dr Richard
RAKOWSKI (Co-I): Technology Strategy
Board (TSB) - Westwind - Development
of the smart measurement devices and
systems for PCB air-bearing, £145,604
Prof Mizi FAN (PI) Dr Zhaohui HUANG
(Co-I): European Commission - VIP4ALL
- Highly sustainable and effective
production of innovative low cost
vacuum insulation panels for zero carbon
building construction, £360,248
Prof Tat-Hean GAN: European
Commission - DeICE-UT: Wind turbine
blade Anti / De-icing, combined
Ultrasonic guided wave and vibration
system, £242,354
Prof Tat-Hean GAN: European
Commission - InterSolar - Development
and Demonstration of intelligent
non-contact inspection technology
for concentrated solar power plants,
£412,554
Prof David HARRISON (PI) Dr Fabrizio
CESCHIN (Co-I): Technology Strategy
Board (TSB) - Circular design for an
economy drill, £9,843
Dr Tatiana KALGANOVA: Caterpillar
Inc - Supply Chain Network Modelling &
Optimization: Phase 2a, £38,297
School of Info. Systems, Comp
& Maths
Dr Tatiana KALGANOVA: Caterpillar
Inc - Supply Chain Network Modelling &
Optimization: Phase 2b, £38,297
Prof Panos LOUVIERIS: Charidimos (Harry)
Demetriou - Social Media for Intelligence
Harvesting in Financial Markets,
£152,756
Dr Harris MAKATSORIS: The University of
Southampton - Tracking Chemistry as it
happens: design of novel RF monitoring
probes for wireless chemical sensor
networks, £17,261
Dr Cormac LUCAS: Roma Tre University
- Mathematical Modelling & Computing
for quantitative finance problems,
£3,333
Prof Jim SONG (PI) Dr Bin WANG (Co-I):
TWI Limited - Determination of the most
appropiate parameters for butt fusion
welding PE pipes for maximum long-term
structural integrity of the joint, £36,000
Prof Savvas TASSOU (PI) Dr Yunting GE
(Co-I): Unilever UKCR Ltd - Reducing
the energy consumption of ice-cream
cabinets, £55,004
Dr Jun XIA: EPSRC - A Multiscale
Simulation Approach to Tackle Fuel Spray
Atomisation and Combustion, £98,639
Prof Hua ZHAO: The Royal Academy of
Engineering (RAE) - Distinguished Visiting
Fellowship award - Professor Mingfa Yao,
Tianjin University, China - ‘Research on
high efficiency and low emission heavy
duty engines for buses and commercial
vehicles’, £4,100
Dr Xiangming ZHOU: The Royal Academy
of Engineering (RAE) - Distinguished
Visiting Fellowship award - Professor
Zongjin Li, Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology - ‘Graphenebased smart skin material/sensors for
structure health monitoring’, £6,000
School of Health Sciences &
Social Care
Prof Peter BERESFORD: Joseph Rowntree
Foundation - Towards a social model of
Madness & Distress - Phase II, £14,200
Dr Priscilla HARRIES: Imperial College
Healthcare Charity - Prioritisation of
referrals for dietetic acute adult services,
£12,627
Dr Frances REYNOLDS: National Institute
for Health Research (NIHR) - A feasibility
study of a randomised controlled
trial of an ‘Arts for Health’ group
intervention to support self–confidence
and psychological wellbeing following a
stroke, £2,992
Prof Christina VICTOR: National Institute
for Health Research (NIHR) - Risks, roles
& responsibilities: Evaluating falls in
inpatient mental healthcare settings for
older people, £17,634
Prof Christina VICTOR: National Institute
for Health Research (NIHR) - Optimising
NHS service delivery to care homes: a
realist evaluation of the features and
mechanisms that support effective
working for the continuing care of older
people in residential settings, £7,648
Dr Larisa SOLDATOVA: Occams
Resources - The EXACT representation of
biomedical protocols, £10,000
Dr Simon TAYLOR: European Commission
- CloudSME - Cloud-based simulation
platform for manufacturing and
engineering, £284,418
School of Social Sciences
Prof Nauro CAMPOS: Department for
International Development (DFID) (Additional Funds) - Secondment of
Professor Nauro Campos, £73,729
Prof Clare WILLIAMS (PI) Prof Steven
WAINWRIGHT (Co-I): Wellcome Trust
- (Additional Funds) - The ethics of
translational research: from ‘unnatural
entities’ to experimental treatments.
(Transfer-in), £8,564
School of Sport & Education
Prof Celia BRACKENRIDGE (PI) Prof Tess
KAY (Co-I) Dr Laura HILLS (Co-I) Dr Daniel
RHIND (Co-I): International Inspiration:
International Development through Sport
- Safeguarding Children in Sport Working
Group: Are the standards appropriate
for global adoption to keep children safe
while participating in sport?, £149,819
Prof Viv ELLIS: AHRC - The uses of
poetry: measuring the value of engaging
with poetry in lifelong learning and
development, £1,618
Dr Laura HILLS (PI) Ms Amanda CROSTON
(Co-I) Prof Vasilios BALTZOPOULOS (Co-I):
The Football Association (FA) - Injury risk
in U15 mixed gender football, £24,910
Prof Mark WILLIAMS: West Ham United
F.C. Ltd - Technical and tactical demands
of youth football matches, £9,000
Prof Mark WILLIAMS: The Football
Association Premier League Limited Technical & Tactical Analysis of Youth
Matches (2012-13 season), £35,000
Wolfson Centre
Dr George FERN (PI) Prof Jack SILVER
(Co-I) Prof Peter HOBSON (Co-I) Dr David
SMITH (Co-I): Technology Strategy Board
(TSB) - High temperature radiation hard
detectors (HTRaD), £637,523
Prof Poopathy (PK)
KATHIRGAMANATHAN: The Royal
Society - Nanomaterials and Devices for
Energy and Environment, £5,380
Prof Paul SERMON: Dstl Commercial
Services - Nano-engineered optical
coatings, £66,350
RESEARCHcontracts
Contracts Awarded Quarter 2 (1st November 2013 - 31st January 2014) £7,758,032
BCAST
Dr Brian MCKAY: European Commission
- HardAlt - new generation of protective
coatings alternative to hard chrome,
£317,820
Dr Hari-Babu NADENDLA: London
& Scandinavian Metallurgical Co
Limited - Industrial CASE studentship
- Development of grain refiners for
magnesium alloys, £28,000
Brunel Business School
Dr Suraksha GUPTA: European
Commission - MNEmerge - a framework
model on MNE’s impact on global
development challenges in emerging
markets, £128,273
Dr Vishanth WEERAKKODY: European
Commission - ISIS - Social services:
Exploratory Study on ICT-enabled
innovation in social services in the EU,
£49,440
Dr Vishanth WEERAKKODY (PI) Dr Ramzi
EL-HADDADEH (Co-I) Prof Zahir IRANI
(Co-I): European Commission - SI-DRIVE Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social
Change, £336,187
Brunel Institute of Bioengineering
Prof Peter BRETT (PI) Dr Xinli DU (Co-I):
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
Charity - An innovative smart micro
hearing implant and implantation system,
£31,452
Brunel Law School
Mr Tony COLE (PI) Dr Christine RIEFA (CoI) Dr Federico FERRETTI (Co-I) Prof Ilias
BANTEKAS (Co-I): European Commission
- A study on the legal instruments
and practice of arbitration in the EU,
£231,825
Experimental Techniques Centre
Prof Ian BOYD (PI) Dr George FERN
(Co-I): TWI Limited - High Performance
Nanostructured Coatings, £22,482
Health Economics Research
Group
Prof Martin BUXTON: Medical
Research Council (MRC) - RESCUEicp
decompressive craniectomy, £109,750
Dr Claire DONOVAN: European
Commission - IMPACT-EV - Evaluating
the impact and outcomes of European
SSH research, £234,987
Prof Julia FOX-RUSHBY (PI) Dr Simon
TAYLOR (Co-I) Dr Joanne LORD (Co-I)
Dr Catherine MEADS (Co-I) Mr Nana
ANOKYE (Co-I): National Institute for
Health Research (NIHR) - Economic
Modelling of Physical Activity: Simulating
InterventionS (‘EMPHASIS’), £403,131
Dr Louise LONGWORTH: Gilead Sciences
Europe Limited - Estimating the cost
of liver transplantation in patients
diagnosed with Chronic Hepatitis B and
C in the UK, £32,637
Dr Joanne LORD: Foundation for
Circulatory Health - Researching
the UMPIRE processes for economic
evaluation (RUPEE), £3,655
Institute for the Environment
Prof Andreas KORTENKAMP: Danish
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Persistent health effects caused by widely
used pesticides with antiandrogenic
activity, £105,776
Prof Andreas KORTENKAMP (PI) Dr
Mark SCRIMSHAW (Co-I) Dr Svetlana
IGNATOVA (Co-I) Prof John SUMPTER
(Co-I): European Commission SOLUTIONS - Solutions for present and
future emerging pollutants in land and
water resources management, £420,000
School of Engineering &
Design
Dr Mark ATHERTON (PI) Dr Carola
KOENIG (Co-I): Heart of England NHS
Foundation Trust - Clinical-CFD Markers
of Type-2 Diabetes, £6,000
Mr Chris BROWN (PI) Dr Bin WANG
(Co-I): TWI Limited - Crack Tip Opening
Displacement (CTOD) formulae for
standard fracture toughness test
specimens, £36,000
Dr Fabrizio CESCHIN (PI) Prof David
HARRISON (Co-I): European Commission
- EduLink Lenses - Multi-polar and
open network for curricula and lifelong
learning capacity development focused
on locally-based Sustainable Energy
System Design & Engineering (SES.DE),
£74,407
Council (STFC) - GridPP4 Tranche-2
LondonGrid Brunel hardware grant,
£88,500
Dr Cristinel MARES (PI) Dr Narcis
URSACHE (Co-I): TWI Limited - A pattern
recognition approach for damage
detection in composite plates, £36,000
Dr Tom OWENS (PI) Dr Takebumi ITAGAKI
(Co-I): European Commission - CHOICE Strengthening Chinese collaboration on
ICT R&D with Europe, £183,451
Dr Parneet PAUL: UK Trade & Investment
- Trade Stand at Geotechnica Conference
and Exhibition, Doha, Qatar, £3,000
Prof Jim SONG: Technology Strategy
Board (TSB) - Design of re-usable
biomaterial packaging systems for the
chilled meat and fish industry, £3,850
Prof Jim SONG: EPSRC - Industrial CASE
Studentship with TWI, £68,648
Prof Jim SONG: Hydropac Ltd - Foaming
of biopolymer composites for food
thermal packaging applications, £27,000
Prof Savvas TASSOU (PI) Dr Yunting
GE (Co-I): European Commission STEAMDRY - superheated steam-based
process for low energy and high quality
drying of food and food residues,
£382,008
Prof Gareth TAYLOR: Open Grid
Systems Ltd (OGS) - Investigating
data standardisation and modelling
challenges to enable advanced analysis
and visualisation applications for power
systems, £129,500
Dr Bin WANG (PI) Prof Luiz WROBEL
(Co-I): TWI Limited - Validation of ‘Leak
Before Break’ (LBB) methods for piping,
£36,000
biorefinery by-products leading to closed
loop systems with improved economic
and environmental performance
(Biological Sciences), £485,041
School of Info. Systems, Comp
& Maths
Dr David BELL (PI) Mr Paul LASHMAR
(Co-I) Dr Alan E SERRANO-RICO (Co-I):
Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Interactive Social Experience Engine
(iSEE) for history and heritage - a Dorset
prehistoric feasibility study ‘iSee’,
£19,772
Dr Paresh DATE: EPSRC - Variable
sampling rate filtering for nonlinear time
series (Overseas Travel Grant), £8,775
Dr Tracy HALL (PI) Dr Steve COUNSELL
(Co-I): EPSRC - Using Fault Characteristics
to improve Software Fault Prediction,
£350,605
Dr Steven NOBLE: Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
- Provision of mathematical services,
£1,050
Dr Lampros STERGIOULAS (PI) Dr Munir
ABBASI (Co-I) Dr Annette PAYNE (Co-I) Dr
Camille BAKER (Co-I) Prof Zidong WANG
(Co-I): European Commission - CRe-AM
- creativity research adaptive roadmap,
£184,352
Dr Keming YU (PI) Dr Joanne LORD (CoI): National Institute for Health Research
(NIHR) - Exploring the role of dietary
and physical activity behaviours along
the BMI distribution: a Bayesian quantile
regression approach, £29,959
School of Social Sciences
Dr Youngok CHOI (PI) Dr Busayawan
LAM (Co-I): AHRC - Measuring Social
Values of Design in the Commercial
Sector, £33,662
Dr Bin WANG (PI) Prof Luiz WROBEL (CoI): TWI Limited - The investigation of the
effects of local post-weld heat treatment
on residual stresses relaxation through
synergistic use of experiments and FEA,
£36,000
Dr Tamson PIETSCH (PI) Meng-Hsuan
CHOU (Co-I): Society for Research into
Higher Education (SRHE) - Organising
scholarly networks: perspectives from
history and public policy, £5,000
Prof Mizi FAN: European Commission
- RubWPC - Rubber fusion of wood
plastic composite to make functional
composites for building applications,
£246,667
Dr Bin WANG (PI) Dr Cristinel MARES
(Co-I): TWI Limited - Development of
vibration based condition monitoring
for the assessment of rotating parts and
static structures, £36,000
School of Sport & Education
Prof Tat-Hean GAN: European
Commission - PileInspect - Integrity
testing of deep Foundation Piles,
£637,523
Prof Hua ZHAO (PI) Prof Thanos
MEGARITIS (Co-I): European Commission
- ENSPIRIT - Elimination of Nox, Sox
& particulates in rail transportation,
£320,102
Prof Tat-Hean GAN: Technology Strategy
Board (TSB) - MOSAIC - Monitoring,
Scanning and Active Inspection of
Cables, £210,206
Dr Yunting GE (PI) Prof Savvas TASSOU
(Co-I): Technology Strategy Board
(TSB) - Power Generation and Heat
Recovery from Industrial Waste Heat with
Advanced CO2 Thermodynamic Power
Cycles (CO2Power), £98,362
Prof Joseph GIACOMIN (PI) Dr Mark
LYCETT (Co-I): Jaguar Landrover (JLR)
- Fone Friend - research into potential
synergies between vehicle and mobile
phone and developing emotional
attachments between customer, vehicle
and mobile phone, £52,174
Prof Peter HOBSON (PI) Dr Roger POWELL
(Co-I): Science & Technology Facilities
School of Health Sciences &
Social Care
Dr Joanna BRIDGER (PI) Dr Ian KILL (Co-I)
Dr Christopher ESKIW (Co-I): Sparks (Additional Funds) - Testing the effects of
drugs used in the clinic on the genomic
health of cells from children suffering
with the premature ageing disease
Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome,
£28,473
Dr Mark POOK: Friedreich’s Ataxia
Research Alliance (FARA) - HMTase
inhibitors as a novel epigenetic-based
therapeutic approach for FRDA, £62,030
Prof Valsa KOSHY (PI) Prof Viv ELLIS
(Co-I) Dr Deborah JONES (Co-I):
Greater London Authority - Enhancing
Mathematical Learning Through Talk,
£275,000
Wolfson Centre
Prof Ashok BHATTACHARYA (PI) Dr Costa
KOMODROMOS (Co-I): European
Commission - BIOGO-for-Production Catalytic partial oxidation of bio gas and
reforming of pyrolysis oil (bio oil) for an
autothermal synthesis gas production
and conversion into fuels, £688,837
Prof Poopathy (PK)
KATHIRGAMANATHAN: Power OLEDs Ltd
- POLED - synthesis of hole and electron
transporters, £149,000
Prof Jim SONG (PI) Prof Karnik TARVERDI
(Co-I): European Commission - Valor-Plus
- Valorisation of biorefinery by-products
leading to closed loop systems with
improved economic and environmental
performance (Wolfson), £269,663
Prof Nigel SAUNDERS: European
Commission - Valor-Plus - Valorisation of
11
RESEARCHround-up
Brunel hosts
automotive skill
development, training
and research event
B
runel University and Babcock
Inter national Group plc cohosted a joint event to welcome
some 20 members of GERMAN
I N D U S T RY U K ( G I U K ) t o t h e i r f i r s t
visit to a major British company
t h i s y e a r. T h e j o i n t e v e n t , w h i c h
took place on Thursday 16 January
2014, was designed to showcase
B r u n e l ’s e x p e r t i s e i n a u t o m o t i v e
t r a i n i n g a n d r e s e a r c h a n d B a b c o c k ’s
global business experience and
expertise in automotive education
and training.
GIUK is a private organisation of 100
members of the Board of Industrial Companies
(manufacturing, trading, servicing) in the UK
with a German majority shareholding. They
represent 250 companies of which 150 are
selling and 100 are manufacturing in the UK,
employing approximately 200,000 people. As
well as providing forums for the discussion
and exchange of views on subjects relating to
the industry, GIUK keeps the British media up
to date about German Industry in the UK and
lobby government. Members present were from
ACI, ANT Telecommunications, AKG, Bosch,
CMR, Fuchs, Harting, Powell, Voith, WashTec
amongst others and the German Embassy.
Mr Kevin Thomas, Chief Executive, Support
Services
Division,
Babock
International
Group plc welcomed the group and gave an
overview of Babcock`s business in the UK and
Worldwide. Brunel University’s Vice Chancellor,
Professor Julia Buckingham, talked about the
University`s history and its current research, in
particular in the automotive sector. Dr Bernd
Atenstaedt, Chairman and Chief Executive of
GIUK, concluded the morning introductions by
giving an overview of the various industries and
members represented.
Following a buffet lunch, courtesy of Brunel
and Babcock, the group were split into groups
for separate lab tours led by Professor Alasdair
Cairns (CAPF, Motorsport), Dr Ian Stone
(BCAST) and Professor Joseph Giacomin (HCDI).
Mr Samir Maha, Director of Corporate
Development, Support Services Division and Mr
Kieron Bramall, Head of Automotive, Education
and Training talked about Babcock`s automotive
training. Mr Stefan Wolter, Managing Director
Germany, Defence Infrastructure presented
Babcock in Germany.
It is hoped that this joint event will foster
and deliver greater collaboration with the
automotive supply chain, bridge the gap
between the lab and the marketplace and
support Brunel academics to engage more
effectively with industry. The event was
organised by the Research Support and
Development Office (RSDO) as part of the
EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA). In
November 2012, Brunel University successfully
secured £600k funding to enable and enhance
the activities by which the University can
accelerate and maximise the impact of EPSRC
funded research, initially within the automotive
sector.
The group were then given an introduction to
Brunel`s automotive activities by Teresa Waller,
Director, Research Support and Development.
Professor Alasdair Cairns, Professor Joseph
Giacomin and Professor Zhongyun Fan then
talked about the training of engineers for the
automotive and motorsport industries, human
centred design of vehicles and liquid metal
engineering: developing high performance
metallic components.
For further information contact
iaa@brunel.ac.uk
Research management study to be published by the
International Society of Research Administrators
Alicen Nickson, Deputy Director of RSDO,
undertook a qualitative case study exploring
the nature of New Managerialism in UK
Higher Education and its impact on individual
academics’ experience of doing research. The
findings of this research were presented at the
UK’s Association of Research Administrators
(ARMA) national conference in June 2013.
Alicen has also had an article accepted
for publication by the Society of Research
Administrators (SRA) International, and it will be
published in the Spring 2014 edition of the SRA
International Journal (http://srainternational.
org/publications).
To find out more about this project
and Alicen’s ongoing work, email
alicen.nickson@brunel.ac.uk
Correction
In Leading Edge Issue 28 (Winter), there was a misprint on page 8. It should have read:
For further information on the CCSR and the Comedy Matters Research Seminar Series which
begins on 27th November 2013 please see: www.brunel.ac.uk/sss/sociology/research/ccsr
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