Leading Edge Issue 26, Spring 2013

Leadingedge

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Issue #26

Psychoanalytic Thinking in Occupational Therapy . pg 03

Indie 2.0 ................... pg 03

Season Spring

EPSRC feeds £6m into £12m funding of new Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains

P rofessor Savvas Tassou, Head of School at Brunel ’s School

of Engineer ing and Des ign, has secured £12m in funding f rom RCUK (Research Counc i l s UK) and Manufactur ing the Future Programme, UK industry partners and three partner univers i t ies for a research centre dedicated to energy reduct ion in the food chain .

In collaboration with Manchester and Birmingham Universities, the Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains will establish a cross-disciplinary hub of engineers, scientists and industry experts to develop energy-efficient food manufacturing, distribution and retail systems to support the UK Government’s target of 80% CO2 emissions reduction by 2050.

“There is a global imperative to dramatically reduce carbon emissions across all heavy-use industries; end-use energy demand in the food chain accounts for some 18% of the UK’s greenhouse gases alone, so it is critical to start addressing energy efficiency in food chain systems now,” commented Professor Tassou.

“Brunel has a widely respected reputation for research excellence in sustainability issues, particularly in food manufacturing and retail; we are well placed to house the new Centre and maximise the valuable skills, knowledge and experience of our industry and university partners in this project.”

The Centre will be supported by 33 partners, which include seven major food manufacturers such as Kraft, Heineken and Heinz; four retail partners, including Tesco, Waitrose and M&S; seven equipment manufacturers and suppliers and a number of professional institutions and trade associations.

With development already underway at Brunel’s School of Engineering and Design, the Centre will be one of five new End Use Energy Demand (EUED) research centres that will look into the complexities of energy use across society; how processing can maintain, or increase output efficiency utilising less power. The research will play a vital role in helping to meet the UK’s 2050

carbon reduction target.

A report by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) estimated the annual spend on food and soft drinks in the UK to be £172 billion¹ in 2007. This translates to annual contributions of over £80 billion in revenue to the UK economy which is approximately 7% of GDP. On the flipside, the industry is responsible for 160 MtCO2e (Metric Tonne Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) of emissions, 115 MtCO2e of which are from UK food chain activity with the remainder related to importing comestibles.

The UK food industry is also responsible for some 15 Mt of food waste per annum, which in itself generates long-term harmful environmental impacts - whilst a staggering 30%+ of all food purchased in the UK is simply thrown away.

Brunel has a widely respected reputation

for research excellence in

sustainability issues, particularly in food

manufacturing and retail

tt ConTinUED inSiDE: SEE PagE 2

AHRC Success for Professor Graeme Evans ........... pg 05

Research Contracts ..... pg 07

Research Profiles ........ pg 11

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Leadingeditorial

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The key objective of the EUED programme is to produce critical research which can be applied to assist in reducing energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, resource needs and related environmental impacts in the food chain, while in parallel, considering techno-economic and behavioural relationships.

“Energy efficiency measures, reduction in demand for energy, and reduction in demand for energy services and mobility will all contribute to reducing carbon emissions from energy use,” offers Professor David Delpy, EPSRC’s CEO.

“The breadth and depth of this collaborative research is without precedent; it will extend from the built environment to industrial processes and products, from materials to design and from markets and regulation to organisational and individual behaviour. “

The £6m of funding from RCUK for the Brunel initiative as one the five Centres presents a clear reflection of the University’s reputation for research excellence in addressing real-world challenges.

“The five centres chosen were considered to have best demonstrated that they could develop internationally leading research and apply it to help meet the Government’s 2050 challenges.” commented Professor Delpy. Professor Paul Boyle, Chief Executive of the ESRC concludes: “The centres must work together to ensure that the full potential impact of their programmes is realised. They will engage with the public, interact with users and promote synergies between the research projects which the ESRC fully supports.”

¹Securing food supplies up to 2050: the challenges faced by the UK - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Leading Edge focuses on research at Brunel University.

For details on how to submit articles please contact Vic Gill in the Research Support and development Office on ext 67398 or email [email protected]

Editor: Content and production: Vic Gill, RSDO

University Photographer: Sally Trussler, Media Services

Printed by: Brunel University Press

When you have finished with this newsletter please recycle it.

Stepping up to the plate: innovation in public engagement attracts £4m funding for ICT-enabled manufacturing research ...........pg 3

Indie 2.0 ..................................pg 3

Psychoanalytic Thinking in Occupational Therapy ..............pg 3

10th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology ...................pg 4

Centrally Heated Knickers ........pg 4

Professor Mark Williams set to make his mark on new Olympic project ........................pg 4

EPSRC funds research into computational methods for drug design ........................pg 5

ICE Manual of Structural Design: Buildings .....................pg 5

AHRC Success for Professor Graeme Evans ..........................pg 5

Further AHRC Funding Success for Research on Communities and Film .............pg 6

Gender-related and Homophobic Violence – Brunel leads EU funded international project .................pg 6

Staff-Student Conference: Journeys in Educational Research ..................................pg 6

Lifetime Achievement Award for Brunel Professor .................pg 6

Brunel Professor speaks on ‘Crises’ at Finnish Science Festival .....................................pg 6

Research Contracts ..................pg 7

Research Profiles – Dr Larisa Soldatova and Dr Alessio Malizia .....................pg 11

Horizon 2020 Update ..............pg 12

Automotive Research Impact Acceleration Funding Now Available ............pg 12

Welcome to Leading Edge

W elcome to the latest edi t ion of Leading Edge, the 26th i ssue

s ince i ts launch.

This edition contains an update on the soon to be launched Horizon 2020, which will succeed FP7 as the European Union’s main mechanism to support research and development in Europe. As its name

suggests, the programme will run to 2020, and with a budget of circa €70bn, it is a key part of the EU’s drive to create jobs and growth for the economies in Europe. It represents a substantial opportunity for universities in Europe to develop and expand their research programmes. Over the next few months we will be seeking to keep you updated on developments with this programme, as early as possible, so that we are all as well prepared as possible to seize the opportunities presented by Horizon 2020.

In this edition of Leading Edge there are several examples of new research grants we have secured, from a wide range of Schools and SRIs. These include a hugely prestigious award to a team led by Professor Savvas Tassou in the School of Engineering & Design for the Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains. This area of research will be very important for many years to come, and this award establishes our leadership in the area. Similarly the award to Dr Sharon Baurley of £4M to support future ICT enabled manufacturing establishes Brunel as a key player in a research field that is hugely significant for the future success of UK industry.

This edition also includes profiles of internationally leading researchers we have been able to attract to join our faculty and work with us here at Brunel.

As we continue to improve our research culture, we will receive further external recognition of our progress.

With best wishes to you all, Professor geoff Rodgers PVC (Research)

EPSRC feeds £6m into £12m funding of new Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains

qq ConTinUED FRoM FRonT PagE

ReseaRchnews

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Psychoanalytic Thinking in occupational Therapy

Dr. Lindsey Nicholls (Brunel University, School of Health Sciences and Social Care), Julie Cunningham-Piergrossi (University of Milan), Carolina de Sena-Gibertoni (University of Milan) and Margaret Daniel (Landsdown Psychotherapy Service, Glasgow) have co-authored a book on

‘Psychoanalytic Thinking in Occupational Therapy’, Wiley 2013. This book is the first text in 50 years which incorporates psychoanalytic thinking in occupational therapy to consider how activities have real and symbolic (unconscious) value in individuals’ lives, in groups and in societies. The book covers theory, application and research, incorporating a clinical practice model (the MOVI) that links the foundation theories in psychoanalysis to occupations with clients. Occupational therapy, which began with an emphasis on the therapeutic relationship and the symbolic value of objects, has returned (in this book) to explore psychoanalytic theory in clinical work with clients and research methodologies.

For further information contact [email protected]

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Stepping up to the plate: innovation in public engagement attracts £4m funding for ICT-enabled manufacturing research

a mid a c l imate of consumers concern about food sources and

process ing, des igners and sc ient is ts at Brunel and nott ingham Univers i t ies have secured funding f rom industry and the EPSRC to fund p ioneer ing research, which could shape the future of the food and packaging supply chain .

‘ICT-enabled manufacturing’ is an innovative initiative to harness the power of Information and Communication Technology to modernise food manufacturing by enabling consumers to take a pivotal role in the design and development of the process.

Led by Dr Sharon Baurley, Head of Design in the School of Engineering and Design, the Brunel-led project brings together a multi-disciplinary team of designers, manufacturing engineers, computer scientists and industry leaders, dedicated to addressing the environmental, waste, quality and choice issues inherent in current food and packaging systems.

“The opportunity for end users to be consulted on the choice and presentation of its food supply has been limited, but now we have the technology to draw consumer influence into the process,” explains Dr Baurley.

“Social media and information technology have revolutionised communication platforms, facilitating global social and political change; an evolution which can be effectively harnessed to tackle the bottle necks in our food manufacturing systems. By bringing together expertise in processing, technological advancements and consumer demand, we have the capability of addressing the issues of ever-diminishing food supply, environmental damage and public health.”

Underpinning the EPSRC’s ‘Manufacturing the Future’ theme, ICT-enabled manufacturing meets the requisite for streamlining food design and processing, meriting a £2m award to support the initiative and back the drive by British industry to

address the serious challenges facing the future of food supply and demand .

Reflecting the immediacy of the imperative, the project kicked off in February, expect to run until 2018. The team of experts from Brunel and Nottingham Universities aim is to design and develop a new ‘crowd-sourcing’ food and packaging innovation platform comprising of a suite of ICT tools for state-of-the-art manufacturing processes and pioneering a “customers in the loop” food design system.

A ‘cloud’-based’ software platform combined with engineering tools will enable content to be synthesised into an actionable format; harvesting consumer opinion via the social web and effectively integrating design and production systems.

Dr Baurley summarises the objectives and thinking behind the initiative: “We are in an age of participation, where consumers no longer need to be on the periphery of development. Companies are increasingly finding that ideas and innovations originate from outside their organisations. ‘Crowd-sourcing’ is gathering pace, as businesses seek to tap into the global knowledge base. Brands need to develop new relationships with Prosumers, embracing public demand and harnessing this societal groundswell.

“We propose to apply this model of behaviour to explore opportunities for open innovation whereby a disparate group of individuals congregate around food and packaging design and production. Packaging is not only a container, but a means of communicating important product information.”

In 2007, a report by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) estimated the annual spend on food and soft drinks in the UK to be £172 billion¹. This translates to annual contributions of over £80 billion in revenue to the UK economy which is approximately 7% of GDP whilst accounting for an alarming 22% of the UK greenhouse gas emissions creating 19 million tonnes of CO2.

The food industry is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector employing over 3.5 million people across 196,000 enterprises in the supply chain. Food packaging plays an integral and vital role in the food manufacturing and supply chain systems and in achieving greater sustainability in the food industry to meet a raft of EU environmental legislation and measures.

The EPSRC and industry funding for the project is a clear reflection of Brunel’s reputation for cutting- edge research and commitment to addressing socio-economic impacts. The University is also announcing a £12m award by the EPSRC and UK industry to establish a Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains, further cementing Brunel’s acclaimed work on current and future real-world challenges.

Dr Baurley concludes: “In backing this important research, British industry, science and academia are demonstrating a clear responsibility for public and environmental well-being; food not just for thought

– but for action.”

¹Securing food supplies up to 2050: the challenges faced by the UK – Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

indie 2.0

A new book by Geoff King, Professor of Film and TV Studies in the School of Arts, confirms his position as the leading international academic authority on American indie film. Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in Contemporary American Indie Film (London, I.B. Tauris), explores a range of new initiatives being explored by filmmakers in the low-budget sector, a sphere that stands in contrast to the high-gloss world of Hollywood, including various uses of the internet as a source of collaborative financing and distribution. Detailed case studies are provided of work that ranges from contemporary social realism to the exploration of the creative potential of digital technologies, demonstrating the existence of a combination of change and important sources of continuity with more established indie film practice.


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ReseaRchnews

Centrally Heated Knickers

S enior Lecturer in the School of arts , Dr Col in R i ley i s

current ly c reat ing the music for a new hybr id show for ch i ldren in co l laborat ion with the poet Michael Rosen. i t i s ca l led

‘Centra l ly Heated Knickers ’ an ‘explorat ion of sc ience and sound’ and based on Rosen’s book of the same name.

The work will make an extensive tour of the UK throughout 2013 giving over 50 performances and culminating in a residency at the Science Museum in December 2013. The project has been funded by the Arts Council of England and the Wellcome Foundation (£78K) and is the result of a period of research and development by a team of practitioners including jazz saxophonist Tim Whitehead and theatre director Tony Graham, as well as a range of science educators and consultants. Colin has a track record of composing for young people. Dr Riley commented:

“This show brings many elements together. Key ideas in science are explored through design, choreography, music and audience participation, but it’s more of a set of magical stories than lectures. It’s something that we hope will stimulate further exploration from the children.”

For further information visit www.colinriley.co.uk http://www.facebook.com/CentrallyHeatedKnickers

Professor Mark Williams set to make his mark on new Olympic project

P rofessor Mark Wi l l iams, Subject Leader for Sport Sc iences , wi l l

form part of a major government-funded project to invest igate the ro le of b iosc ience research in generat ing olympic and Para lympic medals in R io 2016 and beyond. The £1 .4 mi l l ion programme, which i s to be funded by the B iotechnology and B io logica l Sc iences Research Counc i l (BBSRC) , UK Sport , and the Economic and Soc ia l Research Counc i l (ESRC) , wi l l a l so focus on the ro le of b iosc ience in support ing longevity and funct ional l iv ing in o lder populat ions .

Professor Williams is set to play a leading role in one of the three projects funded by the scheme. The grant is for £430k over three years, with £220k awarded to Brunel. He will lead the project alongside Professors Michael Grey and Chris Miall from the University of Birmingham

and Professor Glyn Humphries from the University of Oxford, in partnership with GB Archery. Professor Williams and the team will seek to identify the behavioural and biological mechanisms underpinning elite performance in aiming tasks.

Professor Williams, whose research lies in the field of psychology and expert performance, expressed his enthusiasm for the project and Brunel’s role: “This project presents an excellent opportunity to work with world experts in academia and sport and brings together some of the leading UK institutions in an effort to identify the neural mechanisms underpinning expertise and its acquisition. The project will facilitate our nation’s competitiveness on the sports field as well as in other professional domains.”

For further information [email protected]

10th international Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology

The Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology at Brunel University held its 10th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB 2012) at the Royal Society, London, UK, on October 3-5 2012.

CMSB 2012 was an excellent opportunity to hear about the latest research on the analysis of biological systems, networks, and data. The conference brought together computer scientists, biologists, mathematicians, engineers, and physicists interested in a system-level understanding of biological processes. The invited talks, all of which were enthusiastically received, were given by: Denis Noble – Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford University; Peter Kohl – Chair in Cardiac Biophysics and Systems Biology, NHLI, Imperial College; and Boris Kholodenko – Deputy Director of Systems Biology Ireland, Dublin.

The next CMSB Conference will be held at IST (Institute of Science and Technology) Austria from 23-25 September 2013.


ReseaRchnews

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AHRC Success for Professor Graeme Evans

F ollowing an arts & Humanit ies Research Counc i l (aHRC) sandpit

last year in Br is to l on the theme of ‘Cul tures , Envi ronments and Susta inabi l i ty ’ , Professor graeme Evans (School of Engineer ing Des ign) has been awarded a one year grant (£40k) as Pr inc ipal invest igator to develop ‘Cultura l P lanning for Susta inable Communit ies ’ . The project wi l l focus on how arts and cul ture could feature in the nat ional Ecosystem assessment guidance (where i t i s current ly absent) and how art & des ign pract i ce can inform loca l community engagement with thei r envi ronment . The project wi l l use giS (geographic informat ion System) Part i c ipatory tools and v isual i sat ion to develop community based maps and cul tura l asset mapping.

Professor Evans is also a member of two (out of five) shortlisted consortium funded projects under this new programme which have been seed-funded (£15k each) to develop £1.5m+ bids. The first, ‘Eco-Cultural Production’ will focus on woodland and urban farming/growing communities; the second, ‘Hydrocitizenship’ will explore the relationship between communities and water, particularly in areas of flood risk. Both projects will develop cross-disciplinary arts and humanities approaches to these environmental scenarios, in collaboration with the national Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) organisation.


EPSRC funds research into computational methods for drug design

L ecturer Dr Lar isa Soldatova f rom the School of informat ion

Systems, Comput ing and Mathemat ics (S iSCM) has been successfu l in obta in ing an Engineer ing and Phys ica l Sc iences Research Counc i l (EPSRC) research grant to the va lue of £178,808. The Univers i ty of Manchester i s the lead research organisat ion (an EPSRC research grant to the va lue of £407,585) , in the project t i t led

‘Learning to learn how to des ign drugs ’ .

The 24 month project is an ambitious one: its goal is to change the way drug-design research is done, and to make it more efficient and cost-effective. The most important deliverable of the project would be a knowledgebase about how to better apply quantitative structure activity (QSAR) methods for drug design.

QSARs are mathematical functions that predict how well chemical compounds will act as drugs. QSARs are used to guide the synthesis of new drugs. The current situation is: (1) there is a vast range of approaches to learning QSARs; (2) it is clear from theory and practice that the best QSAR approach depends on the type of a problem; (3) currently the QSAR scientist has little to guide her/him on which QSAR approach to choose for a specific problem. The project therefore aims to make a step-change

in QSAR research. It will utilise newly available public domain chemoinformatic databases, and in-house datasets, to systematically run extensive comparative QSAR experiments. The research team will then generalise these results to output rules which target-type/ compound-type/ compound-representation /learning-method combinations work best together. This approach is called ‘meta-learning’, using machine learning to learn about QSAR leaning.

The beneficiaries of this knowledge will be drug design practitioners both in industry and in the public sector. The problem of how best to learn QSARs is of great industrial and medical importance. The average cost to bring a new drug to market is ~£500 million. A successful drug can earn £billions a year, and as patent protection is time-limited, even an extra week of protection can be of great financial significance. The UK (both academia and industry) is a leader in QSAR research and chemoinformatics. This project aims to help maintain this lead.

The research team is led by Professor Ross King (the University of Manchester, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology), and also includes Co-Investigator Professor Andrew Hopkins (the University of Dundee, College of Life Sciences).


iCE Manual of Structural Design: Buildings

Chartered Engineer and Head of Civil Engineering at Brunel University, Professor John W Bull was pleased to see the publication of his latest manual titled ‘ICE Manual of Structural Design: Buildings’. Published in October 2012 and part of the ICE manuals series, the new publication is an invaluable resource for all practicing engineers seeking best practice guidance in the structural design of buildings, regardless of their specialty or individual contribution to building projects.

Written and edited by recognized experts from industry and academia, the manual delivers best practice knowledge and practical guidance, covering all key aspects of building design in a single volume. The manual takes a practical, three-part approach to the structural design process – addressing fundamental principles, concept design and detailed design

– highlighting essential calculations and techniques.

This manual is available online at http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/book/101181


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newsRESEARCH

Further aHRC Funding Success for Research on Communities and Film

Following her funding success in 2012 with an AHRC Connected Communities award for a project titled ‘Diasporic Film in Communities’, Dr Sarita Malik from the School of Social Sciences has been awarded a follow up award from the AHRC. The new project is titled, ‘Community Filmmaking and Cultural Diversity: practice, innovation and policy’ (£54,390, Total Value of Award). Sarita will be the Principal Investigator working with two Co-Investigators; Dr Roberta Comunian (Kings College London) and Caroline Chapain (University of Birmingham).

The research aims to understand better how community filmmaking practices, in culturally diverse contexts, contribute to the wider film ecology and to representation, identity and innovation and how this contribution can be better supported by policy.

Sarita is delighted to have the opportunity to extend her research in the area of communities and film and also to build on the links and relationships that she has been developing within and beyond the academy. The British Film Institute, where the final project conference will be held, says that this new project will help, “enrich our own knowledge and contact with this area of film culture.”

www.communityfilmmaking.com


Gender-related and Homophobic Violence – Brunel leads EU funded international project

B runel Univers i ty i s the lead partner on a new four-country EU-funded

‘act ion’ project on gender- re lated v io lence and how best to t ra in teachers and other ‘youth profess ionals ’ to tack le i t . Dr Pam al ldred in the Centre for Youth Work Studies in the School of Health Sc iences & Soc ia l Care b id for €666,000 Euros a lmost a year ago. The Commiss ion was inundated with appl i cat ions to th is ca l l on the DaPHnE programme – which focuses on combat ing v io lence against women and chi ldren – and i t was s ix months before the outcome was known. The Brunel team inc ludes Professor ian R ivers and Dr F iona Cul len, and br ings two new staff to Brunel , Mal in Stenstrom (Research ass is tant , fu l l - t ime) and gig i guizzo (Pro ject Manager, part - t ime) .

The project will see new training courses developed in Italy, Ireland, Spain and the UK under the direction of partners at UNITO (University of Trentino), NUIM (National University of Ireland at Maynooth) and URV (University of Rovira I Virgili, Spain), as well as Serbian and Hungarian researchers in consultative roles. Central to the project is the idea of enabling teachers or youth workers to feel confident in skills sharing with their colleagues after their training and on trying to ensure such training is mainstreamed in university training courses in future.

The project began in February 2013 and will run for two years, culminating in a Findings Conference to be held at Brunel in November 2014. Its title is GAP Work: Improving gender-related violence intervention and referral through youth practitioner training.


Staff-Student Conference: Journeys in Educational Research

T he 2012 Brunel Educat ion Staff – Student Conference took p lace on

8th December with 35 part i c ipants , ranging f rom students just beginning doctorates to exper ienced professors .

Rosalyn George from Goldsmiths University of London opened the day with her keynote: ‘Looking Out For Little Miss Popular: The Insider story’. The day closed with our own Terri Kim’s keynote, where she shared her analyses of the research journeys of mobile academics (including her) during the extreme politics of Nazism and neoliberalism. In between these two talks the day was organised into three strands by our research groups: with five papers presented under the auspices of the Education, Identities and Social Inclusion Research Group, another five under Pedagogy and Professional Practice and three under Curriculum Adaptations and Educational Interventions.


Rosalyn George explores her research journey from her childhood as a grammar schoolgirl from a council estate to a professor sharing the BBC Breakfast couch with Sian and Charlie to discuss her work on girls’ friendship groups. Photo by Dr Richard Malthouse.

Brunel Professor speaks on ‘Crises’ at Finnish Science Festival

P rofessor Robin goodwin (School of Soc ia l Sc iences) , a long with the

F innish Minister for Educat ion and Sc ience, gave the opening keynote address for “T ieteen Paivat” , the nat ional F innish Sc ience Fest iva l (9 -13th January 2013) .

This Festival, which takes place once every two years, is the second oldest such event in Europe, and the largest ‘free to the public’ science festival, attended by more 15,000 members of

the public and academia. This year had as theme “Crises”, and Prof Goodwin spoke on his work on psychological reactions to societal threats, including his recent research on the Great Japan earthquake, swine flu, and the terrorist threat in London. His talk, which followed a short interlude from the country’s leading tango orchestra, can be found on http://bit.ly/VUciFB


Lifetime achievement award for Brunel Professor

The British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) has announced that Robin Jarvis, Professor in Accounting at Brunel Business School, has won a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of the contribution he has made to the advancement of the accounting and finance academic community. He will receive the award at the 2013 BAFA Annual Conference in April.

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ReseaRchcontracts

Contracts Awarded Quarter 1 (1st August 2012 – 31st October 2012) £2,752, 605

BCaST

Prof Dmitry ESKin:

EPSRC – UltraMelt – Fundamental Study of Cavitation Melt Processing: Opening the Way to Treating Large Volumes, £321,908

Dr Hari-Babu naDEnDLa (Pi) Dr ian STonE (Co-i) Dr Brian MCKaY (Co-i) Dr Yan HUang (Co-i) Dr Jesus oJEDa (Co-i):

EPSRC – Upgrading the small equipment base for early career researchers in the engineering and physical sciences, £380,304

Brunel Business School

Dr Suma aTHREYE:

ESRC – Patent use, technology licensing and IP management in UK firms, £68,073

Brunel institute of Bioengineering

Dr Svetlana ignaToVa:

AstraZeneca – Industrial part of EPSRC CASE Studentship: Further development of Counter Current Chromatography (CCC), £23,100

Health Economics Research group

Prof Julia FoX-RUSHBY (Pi) Dr Joanne LoRD (Co-i) Mr nana anoKYE (Co-i):

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – Full economic analysis to inform the development of NICE public health intervention guidance on Physical activity – brief advice for adults in primary care, £40,082

Prof Stephen HannEY (Pi) Prof Martin BUXTon (Co-i):

Medical Research Council (MRC) – Time lags in the translation of medical research: Developing a case study approach to achieve a better understanding, £143,771

institute for the Environment

Dr Mark SCRiMSHaW:

Atkins Limited (Additional

Funds) – UKWIR EQ01 Chemical

Investigation Programme, £5,000

School of Engineering and Design

Prof Wamadeva BaLaCHanDRan (Pi) Dr Maysam aBBoD (Co-i):

TWI Limited – Electron beam probing for

quality assurance (PhD Studentship), £36,000

Dr alasdair CaiRnS:

Mahle Powertrain LLC – Particulate

emission formation in future boosted direct

injection spark ignition engines, £35,100

Prof Kai CHEng:

General Motors – (Additional Funds)

– Design of Sustainable Industrial

Networks for GM (subcontracting to

IfM – Cambridge University), £11,250

Prof Peter HoBSon (Pi) Dr Paul KYBERD (Co-i):

Science & Technology Facilities Council

(STFC) – GridPP4 Tranche-II LondonGrid-

Brunel Staff Grant, £233,027

Prof Peter HoBSon (Pi) Dr Joanne CoLE (Co-i) Prof akram KHan (Co-i):


(STFC) – Support for Particle Physics

at Brunel University, £221,742

Prof Peter HoBSon:


(STFC) – Doctoral Training Grants

2012/13 Allocation, £162,758

Dr Harjit SingH (Pi) Prof Maria KoLoKoTRoni (Co-i):

Technology Strategy Board (TSB) – Vacuum insulation and phase change material based cooling and ventilation for enhancing the energy efficiency of an existing office building by 80% (VIPh80), £19,136

Dr David SMiTH (Pi) Prof akram KHan (Co-i):

TWI Limited – Physics of electron beam gun design (PhD Studentship), £36,000

Dr Yanmeng XU:

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) – Metrology for Printed Electronics, £36,000

School of Health Sciences and Social Care

Dr Priscilla HaRRiES:

UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation (UKOTRF) – Development of a web-based decision aid to assist occupational therapists to make optimal fitness-to-drive decisions for disabled and older drivers, £79,968

Prof Rob nEWBoLD:

Unilever UKCR Ltd (Additional Funds) – Unilever CASE Training Grant, led by Prof Newbold, in conjunction with BBSRC (R84016), £4,000

Dr georgia SPiLioToPoULoU (Pi) Dr anita aTWaL (Co-i) Mrs anne MCinTYRE (Co-i):

UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation (UKOTRF) – National guidance for measuring home furniture and fittings to enable user self-assessment and successful fit of minor assistive devices, £79,185

Prof Christina ViCToR:

ESRC – Loneliness in later life: a longitudinal analysis using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, £149,144

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ReseaRchcontracts

School of information Systems, Computing and Maths

Prof Julie BaRnETT (Pi) Prof Robin gooDWin (Co-i) Mr Timothy CRiBBin (Co-i):

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Improved methods for the early detection of Oak Processionary Moth, £33,346

Prof Panos LoUViERiS (Pi) Dr gheorghita gHinEa (Co-i):

Dstl Commercial Services – Serious Gaming for Predictive Situational Awareness and Deconflicting Decisions in Cyber Network Defence, £75,985

School of Social Sciences

Prof guglielmo CaPoRaLE:

European Commission – YouthUnemployment – The Political Economy of Youth Unemployment, £28,983

Dr Mauro CoSTanTini:

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK – Research in Economics and Finance (PhD Studentship), £30,192

Dr Filippo DEL LUCCHESE:

Higher Education Academy (HEA) – Developing multimedia resources: a flexible learning approach to the history of political thought, £5,750

Dr Peggy FRoERER:

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK – Deaf culture and education in UK and Cyprus (PhD Studentship), £38,611

Prof Fernand goBET:

ESRC – Developing a psychologically realistic generalisation mechanism within MOSAIC, £15,470

Dr Melissa PaRKER (Pi) Dr Dominique BEHagUE (Co-i):

Kemri-Wellcome Trust Research Programme – Who cares about continuity of care? Exploration of community and health worker perceptions and experiences of continuity of care for maternal and child health in Kenya. (MSc studentship), £11,330

Dr Matthew RaBLEn:

ESRC – Optimal Audit Portfolio Design

for a Tax Authority, £166,096

Prof Clive SEaLE:

Cancer Research UK – Understanding

the role of Nurses in Decisions to use

Anticipatory Prescriptions to Manage

Symptoms and Distress in the Last Days of

Life: a Prospective Community Based Case

Study using Mixed Methods, £35,249

School of Sport and Education

Dr Vassil giRginoV:

Ecorys UK Ltd – Running Programme

Evaluation, £8,400

Prof Mark WiLLiaMS:

BBSRC – Identifying the behavioural and

biological mechanisms underpinning

elite performance in aiming tasks

(transfer-in), £217,645

Contracts Awarded Quarter 2 (1st November 2012 – 31st January 2013) £11,014,577

BCaST

Dr Shouxun Ji (Pi) Prof Zhongyun Fan (Co-i):

Technology Strategy Board (TSB) – Recyclable Aluminium Structural Casting Alloy (RASCAL), £220,308

Dr Hari-Babu naDEnDLa:

Technology Strategy Board (TSB) – Grain refiner for high performance lightweight aluminium automotive castings, £118,928

Dr Hari-Babu naDEnDLa:

University of Cambridge – Processing of bulk MgB2 superconductor, £97,021

Brunel Business School

Prof Ray HaCKnEY:

British Council – India – Travel Grant to India, UK-India Staff Exchange Programme, UKIERI, £3,000

Dr Cristina SToian (Pi) Dr Joyce (Wai Wai) Ko (Co-i) Prof Robin JaRViS (Co-i):

Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship/Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund – Small and medium-sized accountancy practices advisory role in SMEs’ Internationalisation efforts: An exploratory study in the UK, £10,250

Brunel institute of Bioengineering

Dr Svetlana ignaToVa (Pi)

Prof ian SUTHERLanD (Co-i)

Prof Derek FiSHER (Co-i):

Roche Diagnostics GmbH – Roche

Feasibility Study – Particle separation using

Countercurrent Chromatography, £39,516

Dr Svetlana ignaToVa (Pi)

Mr Peter HEWiTSon (Co-i):

Pierre Fabre Institut de Recherche – Pierre

Fabre Pharma Scale up Study – 150, £9,761

9

ReseaRchcontracts

Dr ashraf KHiR:

British Heart Foundation (BHF) – Evaluation of the hemodynamic of a new intra aortic balloon: A step towards better counterpulsation, £233,254

Experimental Techniques Centre

Prof ian BoYD:

TWI Limited – Laser Cutting of Fibre Reinforced Plastic Composites (PhD Studentship), £36,000

Dr Benjamin JonES:

The Home Office – Mechanisms of latent fingerprint development interaction, £42,000

institute for the Environment

Prof John SUMPTER:

MISTRA – The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research – MistraPharma – Identification and Reduction of Environmental risks caused by Human Pharmaceuticals, £204,991

Miscellany

Prof geoff RoDgERS Ms Teresa WaLLER:

EPSRC – Impact Acceleration Account, £600,000

Prof geoff RoDgERS:

Research Councils UK (RCUK) – Implementation of Research Councils UK policy on Open Access, £218,226

School of Engineering and Design

Dr Maysam aBBoD:

TWI Limited – Development of real time structural health monitoring of complex structures (PhD Studentship), £36,000

Dr Marco aJoVaLaSiT (Pi) Prof Joseph giaCoMin (Co-i) Dr Liu Xiao (Co-i):

European Commission – Light.Touch.Matters: Design driven development of touch sensitive luminous flexible plastics for applications in care & well-being, £216,131

Prof Wamadeva BaLaCHanDRan:

TWI Limited – Development of novel guided wave technique to inspect and monitor large and complex structures (PhD Studentship), £36,000

Dr Sharon BaURLEY:

EPSRC – (Additional Funds) – Artefact Cafe: a local ‘open design’ and fabrication hub, £29,550

Dr Sharon BaURLEY (Pi) Dr Harris MaKaTSoRiS (Co-i) Dr Shengfeng Qin (Co-i) Dr Sarah SiLVE (Co-i) Mr Stephen gREEn (Co-i) Prof Jim Song (Co-i):

EPSRC – Full-Prototyping Open Innovation Models for ICT-Enabled Manufacturing in Food and Packaging, £1,070,735

Dr Sharon BaURLEY (Pi) Dr alisa LEBoW (Co-i) Mr Stephen gREEn (Co-i):

AHRC – Stories of User Appropriation, £109,190

Dr alasdair CaiRnS (Pi) Prof Hua ZHao (Co-i):

Ministry of Defence – A novel hydraulic kinetic energy recovery system for military land vehicles, £49,819

Prof Kai CHEng:

Mollart Engineering Limited – Technical and managerial services on Abrasive Flow Machining (AFM), £7,500

Dr Tze Pei CHong:

EPSRC – Reductions of aerofoil self-noise by surface plasma technique, £97,827

Prof Mizi Fan (Pi) Dr Zhaohui HUang (Co-i):

European Commission – ICECLAY – Highly efficient production of ultra-lightweight clay-aerogel materials and their integrated composites for building insulation, £321,308

Prof Tat-Hean gan:

European Commission – REMO – Online remote condition monitoring of tidal stream generators, £208,471

Prof Tat-Hean gan:

European Commission – CHAPLIN – High power transmission line cable inspection, £215,040

Prof Tat-Hean gan:

European Commission – Comp-Health – Radio Frequency Sensing for Non-Destructive Testing of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Composite Materials for Structural Health Monitoring, £291,116

Prof Tat-Hean gan:

European Commission – SAFEWIRE – Long Range Ultrasonic Inspection of Aircraft Wiring, £310,582

Prof Joseph giaCoMin:

Jaguar Landrover (JLR) – Naturalness framework for person-automobile dialogue, £81,200

Dr atanas iVanoV:

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) – Structured surfaces to affect function, £30,000

Dr Tatiana KaLganoVa:

Caterpillar Inc – Supply Chain Network Modelling & Optimization, £31,646

Dr Tatiana KaLganoVa:

Scientific-Technical Center REB – Real-time sound recognition and visualisation, £66,092

Prof Tassos KaRaYianniS (Pi) Prof David KEnning (Co-i) Prof Kai CHEng (Co-i):

EPSRC – Boiling in Microchannels: integrated design of closed-loop cooling system for devices operating at high heat fluxes, £419,132

10

RESEARCHcontracts

Dr Busayawan LaM:

AHRC – Unearth Hidden Assets through Community Co-design and Co-production, £43,869

Dr Leonid PaRaMonoV:

WABCO Development GmbH – Evaluation of different scroll compressor approaches, with different rotation prevention mechanisms, £18,829

Prof Savvas TaSSoU (Pi) Dr Yunting gE (Co-i) Prof Maria KoLoKoTRoni (Co-i) Dr Michael BoURLaKiS (Co-i) Prof Jim Song (Co-i):

EPSRC – Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains, £2,961,766

Dr gareth TaYLoR (Pi) Dr Maozhen Li (Co-i) Prof Haifeng Wang (Co-i):

EPSRC – Developing Scalable Smart Grid Infrastructure to Enable Secure Transmission System Control, £670,923

Dr gareth TaYLoR (Pi) Dr ahmed ZoBaa (Co-i):

European Commission – e-HIGHWAY2050 – Modular Development Plan of the Pan-European Transmission System 2050, £191,098

Prof Hua ZHao:

Mahle Powertrain Ltd – Advanced Downsized SI Engine Operation, £72,000

School of Health Sciences and Social Care

Dr Pam aLLDRED:

London Borough of Hillingdon – Research on the London Borough of Hillingdon programme ‘Pre-view’, £5,000

Prof Peter BERESFoRD:

Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Assisted Dying: From Conflict to Communication?, £10,000

Dr Paola VagnaRELLi:

Breast Cancer Campaign – Role of the Repo-Man/PP1 signalling pathways in breast cancer progression (Pilot Grant), £20,000

School of information Systems, Computing and Maths

Dr David BELL (Pi) Prof Terry YoUng (Co-i):

Technology Strategy Board (TSB) – Tea-PoCT: Tools for evaluation around point of care testing, £349,040

Dr Sergio DE CESaRE (Pi) Dr Mark LYCETT (Co-i):

EPSRC – Empirical Modelling of Business Process Patterns with Ontologies, £318,135

Dr Mark PERRY:

EPSRC – 3rd party dematerialisation and rematerialisation of capital, £145,452

Dr Simon TaYLoR:

European Commission e – I4Africa (e-Infrastructures for Africa) – teaming-up for exploiting e-Infrastructures’ potential to boost RTDI in Africa, £115,900

Dr allan TUCKER:

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) – A data-oriented predictive ecology approach to modelling fish communities during regime shifts, £6,000

Prof Terry YoUng:

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust – Mental health commissioning pack, cost benefit tool, £41,750

School of Social Sciences

Prof Elke KRaHMann:

ESRC – Markets in the making of multilateral military interventions (4MI): International organizations and private military and security companies, £225,251

School of Sport and Education

Dr Laura HiLLS (Pi)

Ms amanda CRoSTon (Co-i)

Prof Vasilios BaLTZoPoULoS (Co-i):

The Football Association (FA) – Mixed gender

football injury risk assessment, £24,910

Wolfson Centre

Dr Paolo CoPPo:

European Commission – Light.Touch.Matters:

Design driven development of touch sensitive

luminous flexible plastics for applications in

care & well-being – ‘RTD’ Account, £190,585

Prof Paul SERMon:

Ministry of Defence – Advanced

Design: Scalable bio-manufacturing

of nano-engineered foam composite

monoliths, £98,764

ESRC Future Research Leaders

Dr Daniel Rhind (Sport Sciences) along with Dr Gwen Ineson, Geeta Ludhra and Anne Chappell (Education), have all successfully applied to Brunel’s Grant Academy (BGA) for ESRC Future Research Leaders. This scheme entails a series of workshops, feedback tutorials and mentoring from leading Brunel academics to facilitate the development of a funding application. The School has won four out of the 13 places on offer across the University, which augurs well for future funding applications.

For further information about the Brunel grant academy contact [email protected]

11

ReseaRchprofiles

Dr Larisa Soldatova | School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics

D r Lar isa Soldatova jo ined Brunel Univers i ty as a Lecturer

in Comput ing in June 2012. Before coming to the School of informat ion Systems, Comput ing and Mathemat ics (S iSCM) Lar isa was an RCUK Fe l low at the Department of Computer Sc ience at aberystwyth Univers i ty, Wales . Lar isa ’s research interests are in Semant ic Web (or Web of data , or Web 3 .0) , the development of formal methods for knowledge representat ion and thei r appl i cat ions to the natura l and soc ia l sc iences .

Larisa obtained her M.S. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science in Russia. She then worked at Osaka University under supervision of Professor Riichiro Mizoguchi, the leader of Semantic Web in Japan. In 2004 she moved to UK to work on a high profile Robot Scientist project led by Professor Ross D. King in Aberystwyth. Her work has been published in leading high impact journals and short-listed for the World Technology Award for Software 2006. Her work on an ontology LABORS constitutes an essential part of the work reported in Science and what was featured by Time Magazine as one of the most significant scientific discoveries of 2009.

The impact of Larisa’s research on knowledge representation has been recognized through award of several research grants and a RCUK Fellowship. Larisa is involved in several international projects on standards development, e.g. the Ontology of Biomedical Investigations, the Metabolomics Standards Initiative.

Larisa joined the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology at Brunel and launched the development of an Ontology for Biomodelling (OBM). This work has been supported by the recent BRIEF (Brunel Research and Innovation Fund) award. OBM follows a structural approach for the engineering of biochemical network models proposed by Professor David

Gilbert (Head of SISCM) and his colleagues. Biomodel engineering provides an approach for designing, constructing and analysing computational models of biological systems. OBM aims to provide a foundation for an environment that would support the key steps of the construction and analysis of models of biological systems. Such an environment would assist in the selection of methods and tools for the construction and development of a model, searching over already available models and their re-usable parts, advising appropriate validation methods, and reporting output models in standard formats.

Larisa also joined the Centre for Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM). She is teaching CS5669 Advanced Data Analyses and Management and CS5513 Semantic Integration Frameworks.


Dr Alessio Malizia | School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics

D r aless io Mal iz ia jo ined Brunel as Senior Lecturer in Human-

Computer interact ion in october 2012. He moved to Brunel f rom Univers idad Car los i i i de Madr id , where he was assoc iate Professor of Human-Computer interact ion (HCi ) and Soc ia l Comput ing. He has previous ly worked at Sapienza Univers i ty of Rome, iBM, Sgi and Xerox PaRC where he was with the Human-Document interact ion group.

Alessio’s research and teaching interests focus on Human-Centred Systems. Alessio is interested in the design of Ubiquitous Interactive Systems with a special focus on the End-User Development community. He is particularly interested in systems where the physical and digital become seamlessly intertwined producing a new hybrid landscape and the study of problems arising from designing such complex hybrid environments involving collaboration of various disciplines and stakeholders.

His work is multi-disciplinary in nature and he has published over 70 papers, in different and renowned venues, such as: IEEE Pervasive Computing, ACM Communications, IEEE Computer, the Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, and proceedings of conferences relevant for his field, such as: ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM CHI, ACM AVI and IEEE VL/HCC among others. He wrote the book “Mobile 3D Graphics” published by Springer and he is currently on the editorial board of two international peer-reviewed journals. He has been awarded two times with the Research Council of Norway grants for highly qualified, international Ph.D. students and younger researchers. He is an IEEE and ACM member, and winner of two selected best paper awards in international conferences.

His research work has been supported by the EU 6th and 7th framework programmes, the Spanish Ministry of Innovation, the Norwegian National Research Council and the EU regional funding for Italy.

He has an extended experience in teaching in multidisciplinary and International contexts. His teaching activities focus on basic courses for HCI curricula such as User–Interface Design or Ubiquitous Interaction. He was awarded two years in a row with funding for Teaching Innovation Initiatives by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. In 2012, he gave a series of invited seminars, funded by the EU Erasmus programme, in the doctorate programme at the University of Florence, Italy. He has supervised many postgraduate students in different institutions.

In his new role at Brunel, Alessio is keen to develop novel approaches and attract funding for improve scientific methods to design almost invisible interfaces embedded in a physical environment naturally exploited by users’ innate interaction modalities.


ReseaRchround-up

1212

Automotive Research Impact Acceleration Funding Now Available

B runel Univers i ty has success -fu l ly secured an EPSRC impact

acce lerat ion account ( iaa) that wi l l provide £600k funding over the next three years (2012-2015) .

As part of this initiative, a range of activities will be delivered to:

• accelerate the impact of EPSRC funded research targeted at the automotive sector

• deliver greater collaboration with the automotive supply chain

• bridge the gap between the lab and the marketplace

• support Brunel academics to engage more effectively with industry

applications are now invited for:

1. Knowledge Transfer Secondments – accelerating impact through the sharing of facilities, expertise and knowledge between Brunel and companies in the automotive supply chain

What are the aims of the scheme?n to enable industry secondees to: (i)

understand the facilities, expertise and knowledge base within the University; (ii) discuss and formulate potential future research collaborations.

n To enable academics and researchers to: (i) gain a fuller appreciation of the culture, needs, constraints, and

‘language’ of those companies within the automotive sector; (ii) help define their future research within this context.

What is being supported?n Costs and expenses associated with

short-term ‘Taster’ Secondments – between 2 weeks and 2 months.

2. Readiness activities – turning research outputs into commercial propositions with application in the automotive industry

What is the aim of the scheme?

To provide flexible funding that will support the development of EPSRC funded research results to realise commercial potential and impact in the automotive sector.

What is being supported?

Short projects; proof-of-concept projects; follow on funding; technology evaluations and demonstrators; business case development; market research and evaluation and technology brief preparation.

3. Engagement – engaging with businesses in the automotive sector to develop new collaborations


To support industry targeted engagement activities to showcase and create a wider awareness of Brunel’s expertise in automotive research, to develop new collaborations and build more strategic engagement.


The organisation and delivery of: company visits; exhibitions; joint seminars; dissemination activities; technology roadmapping sessions; workshops and seminars.

4. impact Training – developing research exploitation skills and driving culture change


To establish an Impact Academy and a cohort of academics and researchers in the automotive sector with the skills to develop and lead research exploitation activities.


Internal training events; personal research impact planning; showcasing impact achievement; annual ‘Dragon’s Den’ event.

For further information on activities being delivered, and details on how to apply for available funding, visit https://intranet.brunel.ac.uk/research/rsdo/iaa/

Horizon 2020 Update

o n 30th november 2011 the European Commiss ion

announced Hor izon 2020, an est imated €70 b i l l ion programme for investment in research and innovat ion. Between 2014 and 2020, Hor izon 2020 wi l l br ing a l l EU research and innovat ion funding together under a s ingle programme.

It focuses more than ever on turning scientific breakthroughs into innovative products and services. At the same time it aims to drastically

cut red tape, with simplification of rules and procedures to attract top researchers and a broader range of innovative businesses.

The EU budget was agreed by the Heads of member State governments on 8th of February. However, whilst the agreement allocates budgets at a higher level, it does not yet detail an amount for Horizon 2020. Though, extrapolating the figures suggests a total amount of approximately €70 billion. Discussions on budget distribution within Horizon 2020 are expected to commence once there is an official figure for the Horizon 2020

programme. It is expected that the budget will be approved (or vetoed) at the next European Parliament plenary session at Strasbourg in March 2013.

The full text of the European Council Conclusions is at the following link: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/135344.pdf

Bridging the gap between research and the marketOn Tuesday 5th February 2013, EARMA (European Association of Research Managers and Administrators) organised a workshop in Brussels, seeking answers to the question:

“How to improve collaboration between academia and industry in Horizon 2020?” Three different stakeholder’s perspectives were presented. Taken together, the presentations on the day demonstrated different views on

“innovation” by the individual stakeholders. Visit the link below to download presentation slides.

https://intranet.brunel.ac.uk/research/rsdo/events/moreevents.shtml

For more information [email protected]

Leading Edge Issue 26, Spring 2013

Documents

Transcript of Leading Edge Issue 26, Spring 2013