Today's scientists, tomorrow's entrepreneurs

8 May 2002

Joint EPSRC, ESRC, NERC and PPARC press release

Winner announced

The winner of the Joint Research Councils Business Plan Competition has just been announced.

The aim of this competition is to find the best business plan to commercialise British-funded science.

The judging took place at the Royal Society with a top prize of £25 000 awarded by Science & Innovation Minister, Lord Sainsbury.

The winning team is Critical Pharmaceuticals Ltd from the University of Nottingham: The future of medicine appears to be very exciting. New treatments are being invented that can reverse arthritis, diabetes, obesity and other long-term diseases. The discovery of stem cells that can regenerate damaged tissues and the information derived from the human genome project is making these new medicines a reality.

But these new treatments contain extremely fragile molecules and cells, whose disease-curing properties can be destroyed before they leave the factory.

This team has developed a new method of delivering the medicines to the patient that protects the drugs and cells. As a result medicines you receive in future will work better, and we can all share in the remarkable opportunities to improve our long-term health.

The Joint Research Councils Business Plan Competition involves the Economic & Social Research Council, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council (now part of the Science & Technology Facilities Council).

Runners up

The four runners up in the competition are:

Hale-Stephenson Ltd from the University of Newcastle

The researchers have developed a new type of vibration-sensor that can be sprayed onto the surface of any structure, just like paint. When the structure vibrates it produces an electrical signal that can be measured. The Piezoelectric paint can detect impacts and vibrations that can lead to long-term damage. The 'smart' paint has already been tested on the Gateshead Millennium Bridge over the River Tyne.

NanoCo Technologies Ltd from the University of Manchester

The company will manufacture and supply customised 'Quantum Dots' that will form the basis of new technologies in areas such as the security-tagging of banknotes (they could replace the silver strips). Quantum Dots are miniscule particles of material made from a semiconductor - they are so small that 80,000 of them will fit across the width of a human hair. They are the key industrial components of the 'nanorevolution' that will eventually impact on all of our lives in much the same way as lasers and liquid crystals have in recent years.

Southside Thermal Sciences from Imperial College, London

This team has developed a 'smart' ceramic coating for use in gas turbines, such as those in jet engines. At present , turbine blades are protected from extreme temperatures and weathering by a standard Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC). These TBCs can fail after a period of continuous wear or through crumbling and flaking. This team's novel coating will allow maintenance engineers to monitor the wear and tear on the turbine blades without having to shut it down. This will save money and increase safety in the power generation and airline industries.

Shibden Technologies from the University of Warwick

This team has produced a novel method for producing audible sound by using high frequency sound signals. This enables small loudspeakers to produce 'perceived sounds', in which the ear is fooled into hearing something different to that with which it is presented. This means that mobile phones, laptop computers, and even hi-fi systems can now have good quality sound in a small space, quite different to any previous technology. The age-old problem of your neighbour's music tastes impinging on your lifestyle will go away: the sound won't pass through walls very much at all! The technology is cheap, and the efficiency of loudspeakers can be much improved, using less than 5% of conventional audio power, and be much smaller and lighter.

Further information

Jane Reck
EPSRC press officer
Tel: 01793 444312
Mob: 0799 084 8751

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Press release: 03/02