Industrial Fellowships for promising researchers

The Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851 has awarded 10 early-career engineers and scientists £80,000 each to fund potential profitable technologies.

These projects have been chosen based on their potential to impact health, environment and business. The grant money is part of the Industrial Fellowships offered to these students. The Royal Commission was set up by Prince Albert to organise the Great Exhibition in 1851, with profits made from the event used to further British industry.

Chairman of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Bernard Taylor, said: “Now more than ever, we need be doing everything we can to turn fledgling ideas into commercial reality to maintain the pace of innovation. Our Industrial Fellowships are a crucial part of bridging the gap between research and industry, ensuring the very best ideas that have the potential to impact society are given every chance to succeed.”

The three year Fellowships are carried out in collaboration with an academic institution and a business partner. There are also Enterprise Fellowships, worth up to £50,000 to help doctoral graduates commercialise early-stage engineering innovations.  These fellowships will enable them to become members of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and receive mentoring and investment.

Some inventions made by these graduates include a bioengineered water-filter to catch pollutants, a smart camera to improve transport planning and a 3D sensing material to replace electronic controls.

Taylor said: “Our new Enterprise Fellowships, an award made in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, will give graduate entrepreneurs help, guidance and funding to bring their inventions to market. It is an exciting new initiative for the Commission and we are looking forward to watching the first Fellows progress through the year.”

The 2016 Industrial Fellows are:

• Susanna Challinger, KP Technology and the University of St Andrews: Applying electronic imaging to forensics: using Kelvin Probe technology to recover fingerprints from metal surfaces and improving the efficiency of novel solar cell technology.
• Fergus Watson, Bioquell UK and the University of Southampton: Research to eliminate biofilms, which are thought to be one of the main causes of hospital superbugs and multi-drug resistant infections.
• Aaron Chadha, BAFTA Media Technology and University College London: High speed analysis of big video data for classification and retrieval purposes, using state-of-the-art deep learning and compaction techniques.
• Arnau Garriga Casanovas, Rolls-Royce plc. and Imperial College London: Snake-robot technology to enable on-wing inspections of aeroplane engines, eliminating the costly need to dismantle.
• Sheun Oshinbolu, GlaxoSmithKline and University College London: Developing a high speed method to analyse aggregation of monoclonal antibodies developed by biopharmaceutical companies to treat diseases.
• Thomas Fleming, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford: Restoring the efficacy of chemotherapy on cancers that have developed resistance to anti-cancer drugs by inhibiting DNA repair processes in cancerous cells.
• Jordan Homan, QinetiQ and Imperial College London: Acoustic mixing technology as an alternative to metal mechanical mixing in developing volatile/explosive materials.
• Louisa Waine, AkzoNobel and the University of Sheffield: Low energy curing technology that can eliminate the need to heat large vessels, such as ships, to apply paint.
• Adam Funnell, BBC Research and University College London: A network capable of supporting 8k Ultra-High Definition broadcasting.
• Tim Sudmeier, Siemens Corporate Technology and the University of Oxford: Creating ammonia for ammonia storage by electrolysis, using the electricity produced by wind farms and other renewable sources as an alternative to the CO2 intensive Haber-Bosch process.

Applications for the 2017 Industrial Fellowships can be made here. Entries close 27^th January 2017.