October 2006

PPARC KITE Club - Technology and Industry News – October 2006

The clocks may have gone back, but it’s still October, so time for some news from the PPARC KITE Club Innovation Advisory Service.

Content:

New £2.75m PIPSS Themed Call for defence and security projects

HEP Detectors Workshop – 22nd November 2006

What science can be done on low-cost space platforms? – 24th January 2007

Advanced Instrumentation Special Interest Group – Join now

Have you made a difference? Case Studies

1 New £2.75m PIPSS Themed Call for defence and security projects

We are pleased to announce a joint call for funding between PPARC and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) through the PIPSS programme in the areas of technology for security and defence. This is supported by the MOD Joint Grants Scheme (£2m) and ring-fenced PIPSS funding of £0.75m. Applications will be subject to the normal PIPSS review process and will be considered in the 3rd April, 3rd July and 2nd October 2007 quarterly calls. This is an excellent opportunity to engage in technology development with dual (your research + security/defence) or triple (your research + industry + security/defence) application.

There are two main modes of operation; (a) academic / industry: in this case, both the MOD and the partner company will be customers for the project results and (b) academic only: in this case, the MOD will be the customer for the project results.

The MOD has also recently launched a £10m Competition of Ideas www.ideas.mod.uk and we can provide support for both funding methods and advise you on which is best suited to your proposed project (you may not apply for both funding streams for the same project).

For further information, please contact Glyn White. General guidance on PIPSS is at www.pparc.ac.uk/in/sc/list/pipss.asp .

2 HEP Detectors Workshop – 22nd November 2006

The PPARC KITE Club will be hosting a workshop on Detector Technologies from CERN and UK High Energy Physics groups. The workshop is to be held in London on the 22nd November 2006.

The forum will promote advances in a range of detector technologies including active pixel sensors in the MI3 programme, fast column parallel CCD devices in the LCFI consortium and CERN such as GEM and FGLD and Medipix. We already have a good range of companies registered and welcome further industry and academic registrations.

For more information and registration details see www.pparc.ac.uk/In/Events.asp or contact Alex Efimov.

3 What science can be done on low-cost space platforms? – 24th January 2007

The PPARC KITE Club will be hosting a workshop on the potential science returns from low-cost space platforms. The workshop is to be held in London on 24th January 2007.

We are all aware of the financial pressures on the ESA science programme. It has often been argued that the key science goals of PPARC and NERC are only achievable on sizeable missions. The UK has demonstrated strength in industrial capability for low-cost platforms together with both industrial and academic strength in low-cost or miniaturised instrumentation. So how far could we achieve the science objectives of Cosmic Visions and future Earth Observation programmes with lower cost platforms?

The workshop will include briefing from key industry and academic players on their technical capabilities, perspectives on the international issues and plenty of chance for debate.

Registration will open soon, in the meanwhile, please email Sue Peffer to register your interest.

4 Advanced Instrumentation Special Interest Group – Join now

The Advanced Instrumentation Group of the Sensors Knowledge Transfer Network was established recently as the UK forum for industrial and academic innovation in instrumentation. We have been visiting a number of companies to establish their needs and developing a programme of activities. We are now inviting academic instrumentation groups to join this network (this is free of charge). Registration will allow you to be listed in the community directory and to receive information about events, partnership and funding opportunities relevant to instrumentation. If you have interest in this field, please sign up at http://www.qi3.co.uk/sktn/registration.asp or email christine.pearce@qi3.co.uk .

5 Have you made a difference? Case Studies

Have you worked with industry recently, licensed your Intellectual Property or established a spin-out company? We are producing a new series of case studies to demonstrate the industrial and economic impact of PPARC investment in technology development. Recent case studies are published at www.pparc.ac.uk/In/Artcl/csindex.asp and we are now looking for new examples to feature.

Please contact Nathan Hill if you have good ideas.

Contacts: KITE Club Innovation Advisors, ESA 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 , Alex Efimov alex.efimov@qi3.co.uk , Sue Peffer sue.peffer@qi3.co.uk and Chris Appleyard chris.appleyard@qi3.co.uk . 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 .