CONTENTS

BRITISH INNOVATION

A springboard to global growth
Andrew Cahn, UK Trade & Investment

Innovation: the business of shaping our world
David Golding, Technology Strategy Board

Going global
Jonathan Kestenbaum, NESTA

Diversity is good for innovation
Annette Williams, UKRC for Women in SET

Promoting physics supporting physicists
Institute of Physics

The cost-saving CEO
Taylor Wessing

The BIC network
UK Trade & Investment

Innovation inspires R&D tax relief
PricewaterhouseCoopers

OPEN INNOVATION

KEY TECHNOLOGY

Addressing cross sectoral issues
Integrated Products Manufacturing KTN

Research Councils

Meeting the global challenge
Research Councils

The UK?s National Science and Innovation Campuses
Science & Technology Facilities Council

Aerospace & Defence

Enabling technology through innovative approaches
Aerospace & Defence KTN

Defence technologies for civilian applications
Ploughshare Innovations

Biometrics

Securing the future
Intellect Association for Biometrics

Biotechnology

Supporting life sciences in the capital
London First

Tackling the threat of electronic crime
Cyber Security KTN

Electronics

From invention to innovation
Electronics KTN

Grid Computing Now! KTN

Energy

A global fusion
UK Atomic Energy Authority

Design for a one planet economy
Giraffe Innovation

Managing carbon in the corporate and public sectors
Greenstone Carbon Management

Towards an energy efficient future
British Electrotechnical and Allied

Manufacturers Association (BEAMA) Home help
Energy Institute

Healthcare

Connecting people and technology
Health Technologies KTN

A centre of excellence for innovative translational research
University of Birmingham

Feeling your way to design success
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement

University-industry collaborations
Imperial College London

Lost in translation
Pearson Matthews Innovation Consultants

Location and Timing

Location and Timing KTN
Intelligent Transport Systems

Mapping the route to intelligent transport systems deployment
Innovits KTN

Drive down fleet costs and reduce carbon emissions?
Energy Saving Trust

DRIVENet and sustainable vehicle engineering
Oxford Brookes University

Manufacturing

Breaking the mould
Manufacturing Technologies Association

University of Nottingham

An innovative history
Scott Bader

Innovation for tomorrow?s built environment
Modern Built Environment KTN

MATERIALS

Innovations in materials deliver value for money
Materials KTN

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology in the UK
Nano KTN

Linking technology push with market pull
NanoCentral

Running the risks
European Nanotechnology Trade Alliance

Nanofabrication solutions
Kelvin Nanotechnology

Innovative science for global applications
Oxford Instruments

Leading positive change for global industry
The Centre for Process Innovation

PHOTONICS

Making light work for industry
Photonics KTN

SENSORS & INSTRUMENTS

Unlocking the potential of the UK?s sensing community
Sensors & Instruments KTN

CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE

Investing in the future
Invest Northern Ireland

Ulster innovation delivering business success
University of Ulster

Focus: Northern Ireland

Belfast ? a city of creativity and innovation
Belfast City Council

A natural centre for innovation
London Development Agency

England?s East Midlands ? an innovative region
East Midlands Development Agency

Making it in Leeds
The City of Leeds

Collaboration in wireless technologies
Wireless Centre of Industrial Collaboration

Industrial Collaboration at the University of Leeds
Engineering Design CIC

Innovations
One North East

Focus: North West of England

Connectivity, Catchment, Cost
St. Helens

Focus: South West of England

Be part of the equation
West of England Partnership

All change for Hastings
Innovation Centre Hastings

ITI Scotland

UK SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PARKS

Raising the standards
UK Science Park Association

Special focus: collaboration
Edinburgh Science Triangle

Innovation: the key to economic growth
County Durham Development Company

Solutions across boundaries
Norwich Research Park

Partnership provides innovation success
Wolverhampton Science Park

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

The outsourcing advantage
Business Services Association

Fast start UK
Tenon Outsourcing

Inward investment trends
HSBC

Divine intervention
British Business Angels Association

Know your rights
Intellectual Property Office

A perfect patent
Beresford & Co

Putting IP at the centre of business strategy
Cambridge Intellectual Property

USEFUL INFORMATION

Science lessons
GovNet Communications

Useful addresses

KEY TECHNOLOGY

Aerospace & Defence: PLOUGHSHARE INNOVATIONS LTD

Ploughshare Innovations Ltd:
defence technologies
for civilian applications

Ploughshare Innovations: providing expert commercialisation services to government. Since trading began in 2005 Ploughshare has successfully signed 23 license agreements across many different markets. Although the technologies are almost exclusively from Dstl, non-Dstl MOD technologies and also IP created in academia are being commercialised.

Ploughshare Innovations Ltd

Historically, the commercialisation of defence research has given rise to advances such as supersonic air travel, liquid crystal displays and infrared detectors. It has contributed to UK competitiveness and has brought the commercial world?s resources to bear on meeting defence needs.

Based at several sites in the south of England, including Porton Down, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is a trading fund agency and the centre of scientific excellence within the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Through in-house science and engineering expertise and a worldwide technology network, Dstl provides impartial scientific and technological advice to the UK Armed Forces and wider government.

An atypical technology transfer company

Commercialisation of the intellectual property (IP) created by Dstl?s 3,500 scientists and engineers in non-MOD markets, most notably civilian, is a necessary, important, high-profile and sometimes sensitive dimension to Dstl?s work. Dstl created Ploughshare Innovations Ltd to ensure the effective commercialisation of its MOD-owned technology and IP.

Ploughshare is wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Defence and is designed to actively pursue the government?s technology transfer agenda on behalf of Dstl. With exclusive rights to promote Dstl technologies for commercial exploitation in non-MOD markets, Ploughshare has a significant pipeline of new technologies across all markets and technological domains.

Through the use of interdisciplinary teams the technology arising from Dstl research tends to be innovative yet practical. ?Listening to other perspectives is a prolific way of sparking new ideas and new approaches, but of course that?s just the start,? commented Dr Michael Steeden, Dstl?s Technical Director. ?Finding the time and resources to develop the ideas and then connecting them with industry to turn those ideas into a reality is the challenge.? This is where Ploughshare fits in ? linking Dstl?s inventions with industrial partners and supporting commercial validation where necessary. If appropriate, Ploughshare may also create spin-outs to develop the commercial proposition further, using venture finance. ?Ploughshare operates an atypical technology transfer model, because of the context in which we operate,? explains Dr Andrew Tulloch, Ploughshare Innovations? Chief Executive Officer. ?The challenge for those at the interface between Ploughshare and Dstl is to think about the Dstl technical output in a broad and novel way. A good example of dual use is the Dstl spin-out P2i who are now working with shoe manufacturer Hi-Tec to make their shoes liquid repellent-using technology originally developed to make military clothing resistant to nerve agents.?

From crustaceans to vaccine delivery systems

In March 2008, Ploughshare licensed a portfolio of patents related to the use of a more water-soluble form of chitosan in vaccine delivery. Chitosan is a biocompatible and biodegradable derivation of the exoskeleton of crustaceans. The licensee was Archimedes Development, a subsidiary of Archimedes Pharma, which plans to drive future growth through developing innovative therapeutics using its drug delivery technologies.

Archimedes? technology platforms include ChiSys®, a system for intranasal delivery of a wide range of products including small molecules, peptides and proteins. The technology licensed from Ploughshare is expected to extend ChiSys? utility to include vaccines, potentially making vaccines against diseases such as Influenza and Norovirus more effective and more widely available.

Reflecting on underwater location devices

Subsea Asset Location Technologies Ltd (SALT) is a company set up by Ploughshare in February 2008 to commercialise a passive acoustic sonar reflector. The SonarBell is technology invented by Dstl to mark and find underwater locations.

Most traditional location devices send a signal back to a sonar system using a battery, which needs periodic replacement. The SonarBell instead uses a passive reflector that returns a strong echo to the sonar, rather like a cat?s-eye reflecting headlights. This technology significantly reduces through-life maintenance costs. Unlike existing passive products the new device does not use toxic chlorofluorocarbons.

Successful trials in the North Sea have demonstrated that the SonarBell can reflect a signal and reveal its location to existing sonar systems, such as those mounted on maritime vessels. The trials and development work were funded by a combination of a Ploughshare Innovations Fund grant and a Rainbow Seed Fund Pathfinder Award.

A springboard to succes

Dr David Harris, Head of Technology Transfer at Dstl, is extremely pleased with the progress the company has made. ?In its first three years Ploughshare Innovations has transformed the technology transfer landscape in Dstl and shown that it can deliver defence technologies into civilian and other non-MOD markets,? he said. Through the InterAct Partnership, Ploughshare also works with other government agencies.

Since its inception in 2005 Ploughshare has successfully signed over 23 license agreements for Dstl and non-Dstl technologies in areas as diverse as healthcare, coatings, materials and communications. Ploughshare has also expanded its portfolio to carrying out similar commercialisation activities for other parts of the MOD. David Owen, Chairman of Ploughshare said: ?The licensing activities and spin-out company creation over the first three years will form the springboard for further success.?

Links/further information:
www.ploughshareinnovations.com
www.dstl.gov.uk
www.cesalt.co.uk
Dr. Taj S. Mattu
E-mail:
Tel: 01980 590060