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Trillions of tiny sensors are transforming almost everything we do. This data-voracious industry is a rapidly growing sector in Scotland with more than 170 companies. Darran Gardner speaks to Ian Reid, chief executive of CENSIS, the industry body promoting new technologies, and Dane Ralston, of the emerging smart-grid start-up, Losstex

SENSORS AND SENSIBILITY

The ubiquity of sensors in everyday life might

take some by surprise. An increasingly-

pervasive type of technology it can be found

in everything from smartphone touchscreens

and smart meters, to breathalyzers and

parking sensors. With billions of sensors

quietly working away globally, it’s perhaps

less surprising that the trillion sensor future

is already being talked about.

The fact that in Scotland alone sensors are

linked to an industry already generating

revenues of £2.6 billion, with 170 sensor-

focused companies employing 16,000 people

might also be surprising. However, with

research identifying 22 sub-sectors and 23

major sensor types globally, and a $69bn

market forecast to rise to closer to $500bn

expected, the opportunities for Scottish

companies and the importance of sensor

technology in underpinning innovation in

other sectors is clear.

This is the context that one of Scotland’s

newest Innovation Centres finds itself

operating in. The Centre for Sensor and

Imaging Systems (CENSIS) is aiming to support

a step-change in Scotland’s R&D capability in

sensors as it seeks to bridge the gap between

university research and industrial uptake,

assisting SMEs to develop new innovations

in partnership with Scottish university

research teams.

Ian Reid, CENSIS’s chief executive, is shaping

the Innovation Centre in partnership with

Scottish Enterprise, which already sees

roughly 20% of innovation grants and

Scottish Investment Bank funding ploughed

into the sector.

“We have a rich research base of industrial

renown and we are clearly strong in systems

and imaging systems research. There’s also

around 170 sensors companies and when we

look at the R&D activity we see a £50 million

spend annually,” says Reid, who has worked

in R&D roles with the likes of GEC-Marconi

and QinetiQ.

“However, there’s been a disconnect between

industry and university research. There’s a

lot of interesting stuff going on, but it’s not

necessarily relevant to industry. So we need

to make sure that it is and also that research

done 18 months to two years ago is re-used

by industry and ensure that industry is shaping

research activity going forward.”

With a £10m budget from the Scottish

Funding Council, the ambition of CENSIS

over the next five years is to deliver 150

collaborative R&D projects which bring

together industry, universities and SMEs

in tripartite project teams to bring new

products or services to the market. Projects >>

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will range from 6-18 month engagements to

longer, more strategic collaborations which

aim to define university research agendas,

delivering outcomes which meet common

needs and fill knowledge gaps of a wider

range of end users.

With the CENSIS team taking shape in its

Glasgow city centre headquarters, Reid is

focused on building on the success of its

Glasgow University-based predecessor, the

Scottish Sensors System Centre (dubbed

S3C), and developing a business development

resource capable of shaping new project

opportunities as well as internal technical

team able to support projects with the level

of expertise often limited to large companies.

“This is an attempt to do something quite

different which makes the role interesting,”

says Reid. “Taking research out of the

universities and applying a business focus,

making them industry-led or company specific

to help access new markets or create a new

product is our aim.

“We need to tease out from companies their

problems now and going forward. Some

problems could be industry-wide or company

specific – it doesn’t really matter. One of the

challenges when you talk to industry is to get

them to tell you what’s really worrying them.

To do this we need to develop relationships

where they will trust us with talking about

long-term challenges. You need solid

relationships to have these conversations.”

With CENSIS acting as the Hub, the plan is

to create ‘Spokes’, essentially industry groups

covering the key technology development

areas around what is known as the sensor

stack [U1] , to build this trust and identify

priority R&D areas. With the aim that CENSIS

projects deliver real economic value, they will

focus on development rather than research,

with internal investment and advisory groups

also steering activities. On the skills side, it will

fund post-graduate studentships and support

secondments between industry and academic,

and vice versa.

With up to £4m to spend on Scottish

university research teams focused on sensors

and imaging systems research, Reid recognises

the need to build strong and effective

collaborative links between industry and

university, with each party having their own

priorities, strengths and weaknesses. The

strengths are clear with dedicated research

groups at seven Scottish universities and

£100m of UK grant funding secured over

the last five years.

“But if you look at the research

commercialisation groups in Scottish

universities they spend £17m annually on

innovation, filing and maintaining intellectual

property. With only £6m generated in Iicensing

income, the questions is whether that

represents a sensible thing to be doing?

“If you look at Stanford University in the US,

they have a clear industry focus and lots of

research goes to Silicon Valley – and yet they

have admitted that they just about break

even on IP. One problem is that universities

generally underestimate the costs of filing and

maintaining IP and then overvalue it. They also

lose sight of the fact that with IP that it may

have little value unless you can enforce the

protection offered. You need to get it into the

industrial base and make new products for

new markets.

“While you seek to lock it up you will struggle

to get value out of it. The right place for IP

is in the industrial space. While we will need

sensible collaboration agreements to make

that happen, the market needs to be trusted

to get the innovation out there and get the

maximum value from it.”

Given the wide range of sectors already

utilising sensor and imaging systems

technology – from renewables, smart grid

and subsea engineering to food and drink,

life science and defence – early interest in

CENSIS from Scottish industry is strong.

In addition to the completion of legacy

projects developed by S3C, several projects

have already kicked off, with range of other

opportunities currently under review.

Among those companies talking to CENSIS

are smart grid-focused start-up, Losstek

Limited. Based in the Glasgow Entrepreneurial

Spark Hatchery, the company is a vehicle for

the technology and data analytics talents of

entrepreneurs Calum Smeaton, Blair Robertson

and Dane Ralston. Their ambition is to develop

a data analytics company capable of providing

insight into electricity distribution networks

for UK and international utilities, helping them

improve efficiency and tackle the impact of

ever-greater amounts of distributed generation

on an ageing grid which requires a multi-

billion pound upgrade spend over the

next decade.

“We started,” says Ralston, “looking at the

issue of network losses. But the real driver

for us is the growth of smart meters in the

network. We believe that the utilities are not

really ready to deal with the quantity of data

generated by more sensor-led measurement.

“So our interest in sensors is obvious: that’s

how we get our data. Sensors measuring

data is one thing but you then need to use

the analysis of it to do things more efficiently.

It doesn’t matter to us whether it is the

electricity or water industry, the need is the

same. The challenge for us is that meters are

in place and people tell us there’s plenty of

data, but they are just not doing anything

with it. We are, however, talking to Jersey

Electricity about a new substation monitoring

project with an international player and an

English SME.

Ralston adds: “Scotland is a great place to

be a start-up. There’s plenty of advice and

support, even if it can be tough to find

out about all the funding options. It’s also

frustrating being a little ahead of the >>

We need to tease out from companies their problems. Some could be industry-wide or company specific – it doesn’t really matter. One of the challenges when you talk to industry is to get them to tell you what’s really worrying them

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curve, with companies focusing on getting the

hardware out there, but not knowing what

to do what data that comes from whatever

they measure.”

Des Gibson, CEO of the Cumbernauld-

based innovator and producer of market-

leading Co2 sensors for a range of industry

applications, is among the first to formally

engage with CENSIS on a project designed

to determine if its technology could serve

as a low cost, accurate and lightweight

device for sports medicine applications. The

company, which started trading in 2008, has

developed its internal R&D and collaborative

muscle, working in partnership with Glasgow

Caledonian University and the University of

West of Scotland and securing four Innovate

UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board)

grants over the last two years. A fifth grant

is imminent.

“We focus on the market and try to address

market problems. The trick is aligning our

technology with what the market needs.

We saw the Technology Strategy Board route

as a way of opening up new opportunities,

allowing us to work with new companies

and universities. Universities are not always

easy to work with, as they don’t always work

to timescales and milestones, but they can

have expertise and equipment we simply

can’t afford.”

R&D and innovation, along with a determined

focus on understanding the market’s needs

and building up useful intelligence on the

medium and long-term opportunities,

says Gibson, are critical to the 22-strong

company’s ambitions for its collaborative

projects. With turnover now at a profitable

£2m, engagements with the likes of CENSIS

and Innovate UK, concludes Gibson, help the

company remain ahead of the market and able

to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

“Yes, it’s difficult to change from the business

plan or shelve it, but that’s a defined business

process for us. We spend a lot of time and

effort getting to know the market. Sticking

to one idea or path is really just a route

to disaster.”

Optos plc, the Dunfermline-based and stock

market-listed medical technology company

involved in the design, development and

manufacture of ultra-widefield retinal

imaging devices, is also engaged in a new

CENSIS project.

Derek Swan, senior research director at

Optos, highlights the company’s long record

of engaging with research institutions, in

Scotland and internationally, to support

R&D and product development in hardware,

photonics and algorithms.

Early this year, Optos kicked off its first CENSIS

project in collaboration with world-leading

optics experts Prof Andy Harvey and Prof Miles

Padgett of the University of Glasgow. The

project aims to advance the state-of-the-art in

ophthalmic imaging, helping to improve the

optical performance of the company’s product

and secure future access to a global optometry

market forecast to be worth $18bn by 2018.

“With the CENSIS project,” argues Swan, “we

have an immediate commercial need and a

university we have worked with before. I think

there’s often a mutual learning curve to get

through, but the more you collaborate, the

more you get to know what works in terms

of timeframes and deliverables. Some of our

previous projects were not well matched

in terms of what we needed commercially

and the timeframes of academics. The

technological expertise can also be hard

to reach in universities, with IP clauses and

development agreements to deal with, which

can be frustrating.

“For Optos the key to project planning

is understanding the market, seeing the

competitive landscape and understanding

customers’ needs. Working with CENSIS

means doing that market and SWOT analysis

and understanding the performance our

technology will need five years down the

line. The further you are from your market,

the harder it is to innovate.” n

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It’s difficult to change from the business plan or shelve it, but that’s a defined business process for us. We spend a lot of time and effort getting to know the market. Sticking to one idea or path is really just a route to disaster