Have you graduated from a UK University in the last five years and have a business idea you’d like to put into action?
Launch Space provides free desk space and business support for graduate-led, innovative and high-tech businesses at various stages on the start-up journey. Launch Space is offering their business support package virtually, whilst the desk space is made safe for working.
Launch Space is part of a wider entrepreneurial community based on our Frenchay Campus in our University Enterprise Zone, housing the Future Space flexible workspace; the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the Health Tech Hub – making it a great environment for graduate start-ups to flourish.
Since opening in 2017, Launch Space has supported over 100 businesses, with over £4.2 million funds raised by its residents and employment created for more than 120 people.
Launch Space is now well established in the regional start-up community, and is recognised for its unique ability to connect start-ups with the support and collaboration of the wider university and business communities.
Find out more and apply today to grow your start-up business.
If you have any questions, please get in touch via email: launchspace@uwe.ac.uk or call +44 (0)117 3286168.
The Department of Architecture and the Built Environment within FET at UWE Bristol have seen great success in a recently launched CPD course on an “Introduction to Zero Carbon Buildings” designed and delivered by Patrick O’Flynn (BEng, MSc, FHEA).
Looking to continue to grow their established presence in
this remit with the new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), the course had over
750 applicants for the first iteration and drew a wide audience from the UK and
internationally.
Course Leader Patrick O’Flynn said “In
times of such change, we wanted to ensure as a department we could support
our industry to transition to a future that embraces Zero Carbon building
design. Through offering this MOOC, it allowed both established and early
career professionals an opportunity to develop their knowledge and engage with
us as a department.”
Attendees came from across the construction industry
including Architects, Building Services Engineers, Civil and Structural
Engineers, Surveyors and well as those in other roles.
Delivered virtually, the course gave an introduction to a
number of zero carbon factors including:
Building physics;
Renewable Energy & Green Technology;
Energy simulation
Human factors.
The course worked its way through the topic using weekly
online session, preparation reading and follow up exercises to embed knowledge.
The course worked its way through the topic using weekly online session,
preparation reading and follow up exercises to embed knowledge.
Delegates could catch up in an online café space to discuss
the topics covered further.
This course provided an opportunity as a taster session in a
range of topics which UWE provides further opportunities to study at a deeper
depth.
The next run for this course is confirmed for 12 June. Find out more about the course here.
UWE Bristol Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) team have secured a new KTP with Harris Evolution, increasing the KTP portfolio to 13 live projects. The project will see Harris Evolution work with the UWE Bristol Business School (BBS).
The application, led by Ellen Parkes from UWE Bristol, was funded under Innovate UKs Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (MKTP) scheme, which was announced in 2019 following a £25m pledge in funding over the next three years from BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy).
Based in Kingswood, Bristol, Harris Evolution is a commercial refurbishment company, specialising in quick turnaround projects carried out whilst the buildings are still in occupation. Harris’ work is targeted within three main sectors; Education, Healthcare and Hotel/Leisure.
The 24-month KTP project aims to implement transformational innovation through an Advanced Services approach to contract development and development of leadership capacity and will be led by Dr Kyle Alves , Dr Mel Smith and Professor Gareth Edwards (BBS). Through the collaboration with UWE, Harris will move from a standardised service offer to implementing outcome-based service contracts, tailored around individual customer value.
This partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme. KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK, is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.
Based in Bristol, Powerline Technologies Ltd deliver next generation Smart Grid distribution automation solutions to utilities and Distribution Systems/Network Operators (DSO/DNO) worldwide. Since starting in June 2019, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership with UWE Bristol has been working to create a novel simulator of electrical distribution assets for Smart Grid application development.
Minh Trang has been leading the project as the KTP Associate.
We spoke to Trang, 9 months into the project to find out how she has found the
KTP so far:
How long have you
been a KTP Associate?
I started the role in June 2019 so I’ve almost been in the post
for a year.
What attracted you to
the KTP role?
I came from a PhD and what I liked about the KTP was the
possibility of continuing to manage my own project whilst working for a local
company with the potential to be employed with the company on completion. The
KTP also offers great opportunities for continuing professional development
alongside the project via the £4,000 development budget.
How is the
partnership between UWE and the company working?
It’s been working really well. I’ve been learning a lot from
UWE Power Systems Research Laboratory about algorithms and methods for
analysing and driving the project and Powerline Technologies have been
supporting me with the practical knowledge for running the project more
efficiently.
What are the current
challenges of your role?
The challenges have mostly been technical, ensuring the
correct application of data, getting used to new software packages and
determining the most effective models for the project. However, I have been
supported by my company and academic supervisors throughout all of this, which
I’m really grateful for.
What do you enjoy
most about your job?
It would have to be the experience that I’m gaining in managing
a challenging, real-life project, which I think is a vitally important skill for
my future career plans.
What do you think about
the support available from UWE and the Company?
It’s been great, my Academic Supervisor (Hassan Nouri) is
really knowledgeable and has deepened my understanding of the field. I also
feel really engaged with the team at Powerline and enjoy being part of their
working environment.
To find out more about the Knowledge Transfer Partnership opportunities at UWE, visit our website
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are funded by UKRI through Innovate UK with the support of co-funders, including the Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government, Invest Northern Ireland, Defra and BEIS. Innovate UK manages the KTP programme and facilitates its delivery through a range of partners including the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Knowledge Bases and Businesses. Each partner plays a specific role in the support and delivery of the programme.
Launching today (14/01/2020), UWE Bristol will partner with TechSPARK to deliver a pioneering programme to help catalyse investment into fast-growing startups in Bristol, Bath and the West of England. The programme is the first of its kind in the UK and will launch activities to increase the flow of money into the area and showcase the region as a leading start-up hub.
The Investment Activator Programme (IAP) will begin as a 2 year pilot bringing together 8 public and private sector organisations who recognise the impact of working collaboratively to strengthen the ecosystem and jointly deliver activity.
In the last few years Bristol has seen a dramatic rise in the level of investment into the city’s businesses and in 2019 outperformed the likes of Dublin, Zurich, Amsterdam, Oxford and Brussels. However there’s still a long way to go before the regions can compete with more traditional investment hubs like London where over $8.2bn raised this year versus $418m locally.
Investment Activator Briony Phillips said “According to the UKBAA, we have the third largest community of angel investors (early stage) in the UK, behind London and the South East. And yet 85% of the angel investment from our region goes into the golden triangle of London, Cambridge and Oxford.”
“Little do they know that Graphcore and Ovo Energy are Bristol-grown unicorns, and Ultrahaptics, Blu Wireless, Immersive Labs and Open Bionics are just a few examples of real power-hitters when it comes to raising investment and making their mark on the global tech scene. The Investment Activator programme will add some much-needed capacity to help solve this challenge.”
The programme will build on some of the work done by TechSPARK and Engine Shed by expanding on the successful Silicon Gorge pitch competition which has worked with over 250 companies pitching for over £150 million between them, and the Quarterly Investment Briefing (QIB) events, which has brought together over 300 investors to network, share knowledge and learn about potential investment opportunities.
The IAP has three areas of delivery – Events / Content and Community / Data and Connections – with the core objectives being:
To accelerate and catalyse the investment ecosystem
To make investment support more accessible for founders
To build the network of investors and founders or leaders locally
The programme will deliver over 30 targeted investment events, articles and tools to support founders raising money. It will offer a relationship management programme to build connections with investors across the UK and showcase the opportunities in the West on a national stage.
Tracey John, Director of Business and Innovation at UWE Bristol says: “We are really excited to be supporting the new Investment Activator Programme. The start-up ecosystem in the West of England needs initiatives that bring startups and early stage companies together with investors; investors who not only provide access to funds, but also offer real business experience that is invaluable to any early stage growth company. We have over 85 high tech businesses in the University Enterprise Zone at our Frenchay Campus and are excited to see the IAP support their growth.”
Other specialist partners for the programme include Delaware (enterprise software), Engine Shed (economic development), Rocketmakers (Venturetech), Sanderson (talent), Smith & Williamson (accounting), TLT (legal) & the West of England Combined Authority (Business Support).
A revolutionary new type of intelligent building made with green construction materials and capable of adaptively reacting to changes in light, temperature and air pollutants is being developed by UWE Bristol academics in collaboration with partners from Denmark (Centre for Information Technology and Architecture), Italy (MOGU) and the Netherlands (Utrecht University).
Researchers from the UWE Bristol’s Centre of Unconventional Computing will lead the construction of a smart home for the future using fungi, a carbon free material, as part of a £2.5 million project funded by the European Commission.
Using a novel bio-electric system developed by scientists, living fungi grown inside the building’s framework structure will act as a sensor detecting changes in light, pollutants and temperature, and computers will analyse the information. When particular changes are recognised, the system will have the potential to respond adaptively by controlling connected devices such as lights and heaters.
UWE Bristol computer scientists will work with European experts in architecture, biophysics and mycology on the project, which has been heralded as a potential breakthrough for the building industry due to its eco-friendly credentials. By using fungi as an integrated structural and computational substrate, buildings would have low production and running costs, embedded artificial intelligence, and could be returned to nature when no longer in use.
The three-year FUNGAR (Fungal Architectures) project will mark the first time intelligent biological substances have been used as construction materials. It will see living organisms and computing function integrated into designing and building.
Professor Andrew Adamatzky, Director of the Centre of Unconventional Computing, said: “Our overarching goal is to design and bio-manufacture a sensing and computing building with fungi. This is a radically new approach as it proposes to use a real living organism in the material structure, which is also tuned to perform computation.
“If successful, the building as a whole will be able to recognise lighting levels, chemicals in the environment, the presence of people, and will respond to touch. Acting as a massively-parallel computer, the building will control devices depending on the environmental conditions. For example, a warning light could be lit if high levels of air pollution were detected or inhabitants could be warned about high or low temperatures. It’s our vision for an alternative version of a smart home.
“This type of building would be ecologically-friendly as it will be made from natural materials, and will be lightweight, waterproof and recyclable when it reaches the end of its life.”
Professor Adamatzky discovered fungi could be used as a type of functional computer following a studyat UWE Bristol three years ago. He found that the organism reacts to external stimuli such changes in lighting conditions and temperature with spikes of electrical activity.
Fungi is already used as a building material in Europe but the existing approach involves growing the organism to the shape of bricks or blocks, before drying it out to harden. However, fungi have never before been used in live form in self-growing construction. For the FUNGAR project, the fungi will be combined with nanoparticles and polymers to make mycelium-based electronics. This material will then be grown inside the building’s triaxial woven structure. The full-scale fungal building will be constructed in Denmark and Italy, with a smaller scale version being created at UWE Bristol’s Frenchay campus.
UWE Bristol Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) team have secured another KTP with Reusaworld and the Centre for Machine Vision. The new KTP means that UWE Bristol now has 11 live KTPs. The KTP which is based in Gloucester will see innovative changes to the world of second hand books.
This KTP will be with Reuseabook, a part of Reusaworld.
Reuseabook was founded in 2008 by Rob Hollier and Ami Hollier with the following mission: NEVER to allow a single book to go to landfill.
Strong believers in conscientious capitalism, they wanted to create an earth-friendly sustainable business model while helping others. After much hard work what emerged was the Reuseaworld group: an award-winning, ethical, environmentally-friendly and technology-savvy enterprise that uses the internet to sell second-hand books worldwide.
Working with the Centre for Machine Vision, the aim of the 30 month KTP is to develop innovative machine vision techniques and deep learning methodologies to test the viability of data outputs of a 3D Book Vision System and its application to the book grading process. Ultimately, increasing the speed and quality of inbound book sorting, in-house data management and book cataloguing.
The UWE Lead for the KTP is Professor Lyndon Smith and the
Academic Supervisor is Dr Abdul Farooq, who are both part of the Centre for
Machine Vision at UWE Bristol. The Centre for Machine Vision is part of the
Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL). They solve real-world practical computer
vision problems. Their particular
excellence lies in three-dimensional reconstruction and surface inspection.
Innovate UK scored the proposal very highly (4th out of 60 applications) so congratulations to all involved!
This
partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
programme (KTP). KTP aims to help businesses to improve their
competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge,
technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This
successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, funded by UK Research and
Innovation through Innovate UK, is part of the government’s Industrial
Strategy.
Scale Up 4 Growth (S4G) has won best External Knowledge Exchange (KE) Initiative of the Year at the PraxisAuril KE Awards 2019.
The KE Awards, organised by PraxisAuril – the UK’s world-leading professional association for Knowledge Exchange (KE) practitioners – and sponsored by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), celebrate the contribution of KE professionals in enabling and facilitating the societal and economic impact of research.
S4G is an innovative, £2.7m programme, designed by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)’s Research, Business and Innovation (RBI) team and funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The programme is delivered by the unique S4G Partnership of UWE Bristol (lead), NatWest’s Entrepreneur Accelerator and Corporate and Commercial Banking Teams, and Foot Anstey LLP
The S4G team beat the University of Manchester for
their Manchester Law and Technology Initiative (MLaTI) and the University of
Kent for their Employability Points Scheme to claim the prize.
Tracey John, Director of Research Business
and Innovation (RBI) at UWE Bristol said:
“We are extremely proud of the S4G programme, the valued Partnership we have created with NatWest and Foot Anstey, and our impact on the West of England’s scaling businesses in the regional economy.”
Nathan Peacey, Partner at Foot Anstey commented:
“It’s fantastic to see Scale Up 4 Growth recognised as a standout example of university and business working in partnership. We have a huge amount to gain by working with exciting growth businesses and we have been delighted to support them on this journey through sharing our expertise and experience. This collaboration is another great example of how businesses are successfully working together to raise the South West’s profile as being at the forefront of tech and innovation and build the regional economy.”
Matt Hatcher, NatWest
Director of Corporate and Commercial Coverage, South West, said:
“As a bank we’re hugely committed to supporting the growth of entrepreneurism in the region and helping more start-up and scale-up businesses achieve success. Collaboration and innovation is key, which is why we are delighted with the success of the S4G scheme. It is making a real impact and along with our Entrepreneur Accelerator Hub in Bristol, helping support the rich vein of talent we have in the West of England achieve national and international success.”
The S4G team collecting their award
Olly Reid, Scale
Acceleration Manager at NatWest, added:
“Through our accelerator programme we’re working with hundreds of exciting start-up and scale-up businesses from across the region in multiple sectors. The cross-team collaboration involved with working with the team at UWE and our corporate and commercial team at NatWest has allowed us to develop a real exciting programme that is crucially expanding the network of opportunities available to local businesses. This is where the success of the S4G programme lies and why we hope more local entrepreneurs will benefit in the years ahead.”
S4G is a 3-year, free programme of support for
businesses in the West of England (WoE) that are looking to grow, expand and
scale. It includes:
Two-day ‘business growth’ workshops, delivered
across the WoE by leading Bristol Business School academics and industry
experts from the S4G Partnership
Grants of £10k–40k for projects that help
businesses address barriers to growth
S4G is an excellent example of an External KE
Initiative that brings together the very best in university-business
partnership working, sharing knowledge and expertise from academia and industry
with growing businesses, to benefit the regional economy.
Since its launch in November 2018, over 300
businesses have registered to be part of the S4G network and benefit from the
programme.
S4G is the latest in a series of projects led by
UWE Bristol to support innovative high growth businesses in the West of
England. These projects have supported 100’s of businesses across the region
and created over 1,000 new jobs. NatWest’s Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme
has supported nearly 900 businesses from the South West since it opened in
Bristol in 2015. Applications are now open for its
latest intake.
Congratulations to the Scale Up 4 Growth team. You can find out more about S4G here
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between UWE Bristol and
Viper Innovations has been graded as “Outstanding” by Innovate UK.
Viper Innovations Ltd is an established provider of
industry-leading products for integrity monitoring of electrical cabling in
subsea oil and gas production.
At the start of the 18 month KTP, Viper’s business was in
subsea oil and gas, but it recognised its technology had potential for other
sectors. A new opportunity in rail highlighted the need for different models of
engagement to drive forward technical innovation in new sectors. The original
aim was to use UWE’s co-creative innovation expertise to establish an
integrated user-led product innovation process, speeding up time to market and
de-risking technical developments. Kim Mahoney, the Associate, brought
outstanding marketing skills and experience and her proactive approach was a
key element in the success of the project.
Overall, the KTP realised some significant achievements over
a relatively short period, enabling an innovative SME to accelerate development
of its CableGuardian product in collaboration with a large national operator,
Network Rail, and many other partners. It has provided a clear route to grow Viper’s
business through an effective diversification strategy. For the academics, it
provided opportunities for research publications and extremely useful
practitioner contacts. The Associate gained invaluable experience in both
industry and academic fields, undertook a range of professional training and is
taking up a new role in industry as well as a part-time Lecturer position at
UWE.
“We would like to
thank our Academic Partners at UWE for their invaluable contribution and
dedication to this project. The KTP has proven to be an excellent vehicle for
transferring and embedding a level of knowledge and understanding to the
business which would likely have not taken place without it. Consequently,
Viper Innovations has taken a step change in its approach to product
development, which ultimately ensures alignment to our clients’ needs, reduces
our cost and time to market and provides a level of clarity in understanding of
new market opportunity and how best to communicate the benefits of each product
to each user.”
Max Nodder, Business
Development Director at Viper Innovations
This partnership received financial support from the
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme (KTP). KTP aims to help businesses to improve their
competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge,
technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This successful Knowledge Transfer
Partnership project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK,
is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.
Congratulations to all involved.
To find out more about KTP’s please visit our
website.
Chris Skidmore MP, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, attended the official launch of the Foundry Technology Affinity Space at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).
The Minister, who is also MP for Kingswood, met a number of university and digital industry representatives during the visit, including Professor Jane Harrington, UWE Bristol Deputy Vice-Chancellor; co-chairs of the Institute of Coding Jacqueline de Rojas, President of techUK and Professor Bernie Morley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath; and Dr Rachid Hourizi, Director of the Institute of Coding. The purpose of the visit was to hear more about this new facility, which is funded by the Institute of Coding and will equip students with vital digital skills and ensure they are ready for the workplace. This is a key part of the objectives of the Institute of Coding, a £40million project funded by the Office for Students and led by the University of Bath.
Developed through a research-led design process led by UWE Bristol Associate Professor Andy King, the industry-themed Foundry at UWE Bristol is intended as an ‘other space’ on campus, where students can build their professional identity through working with industry partners on paid projects that fit around their studies. Aside from being home to UWE Bristol’s Enterprise Studios, the Foundry will also be a digital event space, hosting a high-profile calendar of technology outreach and engagement events across cybersecurity, computer science, creative technologies and STEM subjects designed to widen participation around coding and digital skills.
Science and Innovation Minister Chris Skidmore said: “As we rely more on new technologies and cyber threats become more sophisticated, the Foundry Technology Affinity Space will provide the vital skills needed to meet the opportunities and address the challenges of the future. The impressive state-of-the-art facility with its cutting edge technology will introduce a range of innovative new courses for students, enabling them to go on and compete successfully in the global digital economy.
“This builds on our commitment to tackle this issue, and this government is funding projects to design out many forms of cyber threats to online and digitally enabled products and services through our modern Industrial Strategy.”
Professor Harrington said: “We were delighted to welcome Minister Skidmore to this fantastic new facility on our Frenchay campus alongside the Institute of Coding. The Foundry is a major investment that will connect our students with globally-renowned industry partners, and will give them invaluable insight into what digital skills and innovation the future workforce will need. Deep and meaningful collaboration with industry and the world of professional practice will hugely benefit our students not just during their degrees, but in their futures as they progress into the digital industry. I look forward to seeing what our students will create in this innovative new space.”
Dr Hourizi said: “The Institute of Coding is pleased to launch and support a new Foundry Technology Affinity Space, which will serve as a gateway for students to gain critical on-the-job experience through paid work with industry without disrupting their academic studies. With employers crying out for new candidates who are workplace-ready, and students seeking valuable experiences to bolster their CVs, this new facility will enable thousands of young people to begin the first step in their career.”
The Institute of Coding is a national consortium announced by the Prime Minister in January 2018 and UWE Bristol is a full member. To help fund its contribution to the Institute of Coding, UWE Bristol was awarded £1 million from a £20 million funding pot allocated by the Office for Students (formerly known as the Higher Education Funding Council for England -HEFCE) to improve the way universities train people for digital careers.
