April 2006

PPARC KITE Club - Technology and Industry News – April 2006

This month’s issue of Technology and Industry News focuses on forthcoming events.

2. Software for computer games and cinematography - June

3. Defence & Aerospace Workshop - October

4. Advanced Instrumentation & Research Facilities SIGs

5. Technology Programme – April call for proposals

1 KITE Club Grid Technology meeting, Cambridge 16.5.06

This meeting will bring scientists from Grid projects such as EGEE and GridPP and people from the Cambridge business community for an open discussion of technology transfer opportunities in this field. Our aim is to support further partnerships with UK groups and CERN in this field.

For further information please contact Alex Efimov. Registration for this event is at http://www.qi3.co.uk/events/event.asp?EventID=130.

2 KITE Club Software for computer games and cinematography meeting - June

We held a small but very successful meeting in November 2004 with a number of companies in the computer games and film post-processing industries. This has yielded three new partnerships between PPARC-funded research groups and companies in this sector. We shall be holding a further small meeting in June/July to discuss the outcomes of these collaborations and promote further projects. We are keen to engage with PPARC-funded research groups who would like to work with industry in this sector.

Registration is not yet open, so please contact Mark Littlewood for advance information and a chance to present your work.

3 KITE Club Defence and Aerospace Industry Workshop - October

Following the success of the first KITE Club Defence and Aerospace SIG meeting in March, we shall be holding a larger scale workshop in October. The objective is to engage further with industry in this sector for collaborative development. The defence and aerospace sector also presents numerous opportunities for ‘spin-in’ of technology for the PPARC programme.

Registration is not yet open, so please contact Glyn White to register your interest in this event.

4 Advanced Instrumentation and Research Facilities SIGs

PPARC, together with CCLRC, BBSRC and UKAEA have joined with the DTI, NPL and other supporting organisations to introduce two new Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the Sensors Knowledge transfer Network. This activity was announced in February and has now commenced activities. See http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/press/20060215sensorsktn.asp for details.

PPARC-funded researchers are invited to join these new SIGs:

Advanced Instrumentation SIG
Research groups with a strong interest in instrumentation are encouraged to participate in the Advanced Instrumentation Special Interest Group (AISIG). The AISIG stimulates innovation within the advanced instrumentation sector, and supports this sector by encouraging enhanced linkages throughout the supply chain, and between research organisations and industry. By ‘advanced’ instrumentation we are generally referring to the higher value, lower volume part of the instrumentation market, and to systems-level instrumentation rather than component technologies.

The AISIG aims to:
• Encourage a healthy ecosystem of instrument developers and suppliers across academia and industry;
• Improve UK industrial performance in competition for scientific instrumentation supplies;
• Encourage a higher rate of percolation of technology between academia and industry, along supply chains in industry, and from scientific instrumentation to other instrumentation;
• Ensure migration of skills and technology along the supply chain;
• Ensure coverage of the whole life sciences and physical sciences instrumentation sector.

Research Facilities SIG
Academic groups wishing to work with industry as a supplier or beneficiary of scientific research facilities are invited to participate in the Research Facilities Special Interest Group (RFSIG). The RFSIG aims to improve UK industry engagement with scientific research facilities around the world.

This should result in:
• Better understanding of business opportunities by industry, leading to measurable successes in supply to research facilities;
• Mobilisation of supply chains to develop and transfer technology, with a strong emphasis on the international dimension;
• Improved rates of spin-outs, licence opportunities, and collaborative R&D, including the use of research facilities by industry under contract (facilities access).

For further information and to register your interest, please contact Nathan Hill.

5 Technology Programme – April Call for Proposals

The spring 2006 funding competition for collaborative R&D was announced on 28th March as part of the Technology Programme. £80million is being made available to UK businesses to help take forward technology innovation and benefit the UK economy though the latest round of the Government’s £370million Technology Programme. For full details please visit http://www.dti.gov.uk/technologyprogramme/apr_2006_priorities.htm

Of the topics in the spring call, the most closely connected with PPARC groups are probably
• Design Engineering & Advanced Manufacturing: Management of complex fluid flow conditions
• Information & Communication Technology: Data, Scientific and Medical Visualisation for innovative products and services

Please contact Nathan Hill if you would like support in making a proposal to this programme.

Contacts:

KITE Club Innovation Advisors and CERN UK Technology Transfer Officer. Nathan Hill: email: nathan.hill@qi3.co.uk Tel: 01223 422405. Also Mark Littlewood mark.littlewood@qi3.co.uk, Glyn White glyn.white@qi3.co.uk and David Rafe david.rafe@qi3.co.uk. For enquiries about the Basic Technology Research Programme, please call 01223 422407. For enquiries about the Sensors Knowledge Transfer Network Advanced Instrumentation and Research Facilities Special Interest Groups, please call 01223 422406. Registration for events is available via www.qi3.co.uk/events