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Knowledge Centre For Materials Chemistry
NEWSLETTER November 2011 - Edition 4
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DIRECTOR’S OVERVIEW |
Pleasingly, H1 in 2011/12 has continued last year’s strong momentum across all our key performance indicators (see story below).
Perhaps most significant is that our effective focus on academic/industry collaboration is now generating more than half our revenue via private investment. The business model not only works, but is well ahead of our launch expectations of three years ago.
This is a firm foundation for the step-across in Spring 2012 to a sustainable business model to take KCMC into its second phase. This is strongly supported by our partners and will see continuing high-focus on our proven strengths.
And while project numbers are clearly an important measure, a less obvious – but vital – bonus is in the longer-term “win win” relationships that are triggered from conversations where KCMC has added real value.
Societal needs in energy, healthcare and sustainability will continue to head the Centre’s agenda towards commercializing innovation through materials chemistry.
So expect to hear more in the wake of key drivers including renewable energy generation, energy harvesting and storage and energy efficiency. Clean water, infection prevention, drug delivery and personalized medicine will be key themes in Health. And replacing scarce and toxic raw materials and bio-derived functional materials will be our dominant themes in Sustainable Materials.
The emphasis will of course continually adjust, but increasing the number of companies that can gain competitive advantage from leveraged materials chemistry will continue to be our underlying mission.
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Dr John Conti-Ramsden
KCMC Director
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"First half” 2011/12 numbers……
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Key numbers for KCMC’s 2011/12 “first half” show pleasing acceleration – and that just half-way through “year three”, KCMC has significantly exceeded the majority of its key five-year targets.
From 102 projects and £6.3m revenue at the end of Q1, the Centre had moved to 119 projects and £8.9m in revenue at the start of Q3. Overall, an impressive 52% of revenue (£4.6m) has come from industry investment.
By the end of Q2 (30 September), the standout achievements included almost 250% of five year target in Business Engagements and slightly more in Grant Income.
Most notable – especially given the business climate of the past two years – is the private industry investment of more than £4.6m. This is well in excess of double the target figure originally set for KCMC’s first three years.
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MANCHESTER
UoM strengthens Solvay connections
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KCMC has played a key role enabling major collaboration in new materials design and development between the University of Manchester (UoM) and international chemical company Solvay SA. Applications will be in the healthcare, sensors and biocatalyst sectors.
Marking a major milestone in open innovation, a new framework agreement builds on existing collaboration between UoM and Solvay, one of Belgium’s leading industrial companies.
The agreement will accelerate new and interdisciplinary projects, involving lead academics from schools in the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. It represents an investment by Solvay of more than £1.4m over four years.
KCMC’s key contribution was to introduce Solvay to the key experts at UoM, facilitate the development of the scope the projects and the discussion of the contractual arrangements.
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LIVERPOOL
Personal care: the sugar alternative…..
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In line with its focus on sustainability and industry collaboration, KCMC is supporting a major new project at University of Liverpool (UoL) that will research alternatives to petrochemicals in personal care products.
UoL is to work with consumer goods major Unilever and AB Sugar in a bid to develop plant-based alternatives to petrochemical ingredients.
Fast growing plants such as sugar cane could potentially offer a renewable resource of alternative ingredients in products such as shampoos, cleaners and moisturizers.
The research is being funded by a £2.8m grant from the government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) – which will fund the building of a micro-biorefinery at the University.
UoL’s Centre for Materials Discovery and the Unilever research laboratories at Port Sunlight will collaborate on the project.
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BOLTON
Composites – focus on fire performance
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Fire performance is key to many composites end uses, especially in the transport and construction sectors. Proscriptive legislation and design codes requiring non-combustible materials are changing, opening even more opportunities for lightweighting using composites with the right fire performance.
To survey the current landscape, University of Bolton (UoB), Materials KTN and KCMC jointly organised an October event to look at current issues for fire retardant materials. These include the role of nanotechnology, life cycle analyses, the strengths and weaknesses of halogenated fire retardant materials and practical advice to address regulatory requirements.
KCMC senior academic Professor Baljinder Kandola at UoB was the keynote speaker and the event was well attended, with over 60 delegates from across industry and academe.
As part of the current FP7 funding call, the event has helped to develop new partnerships for European R&D collaboration.
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STFC DARESBURY
Daresbury investment will benefit KCMC projects
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In one of two developments with major leverage potential for KCMC projects, the Centre’s research partner STFC Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus was named this Summer as one of 11 new “second wave” Enterprise Zones (EZ).
The government also announced a £10m investment into STFC Daresbury Laboratory – which hosts KCMC’s Project Scientist resource
in computational science.
Of the total, £7.5m will be invested to boost Daresbury’s simulation and modelling expertise. Installation of upgraded computer capability will make the lab an international-class centre of excellence for software development and demonstration.
Access to this enhanced capability will directly benefit many future projects utilising the KCMC/Daresbury partnership.
Meanwhile, the Local Enterprise Partnership has estimated that EZ status for Daresbury could create 1,000 new jobs and over 30 new science and technology-related businesses by 2015.
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People: |
We are pleased to note and welcome the following new appointees as Project Scientists within KCMC:
• Dr Ghazala Sadiq (University of Manchester, Physical / Crystallisation Chemist)
• Dr Rob Evans (University of Manchester, NMR scientist)
We would also like to congratulate Cong-duan Vo (until recently a KCMC Project at the University of Manchester) on his appointment as a Senior Research Scientist at Nanoco Technologies in Manchester
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KCMC on display…. |
In recent months, KCMC has exhibited or presented at events covering a broad range of industries. This programme has included:
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Royal Society of Chemistry MC10, Manchester
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Chemicals Northwest Innovation and Industry, Runcornn
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Chemistry Innovation Stakeholder Event, Birminghamm
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Suschem NMP Brokerage Event, Brussels
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Technology Strategy Board Innovate ’11, Londonn
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UK Tech Events UK Plastic Electronics Show (joint with PETEC), Birmingham
Plus our latest Annual Report is available at http://www.materialschemistry.org.uk/KCMC_annual_report_2011.htm
See our website for further details of events and activities……
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KCMC partner organisations:
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