Welcome to the December issue of the N8 Research Partnership ebulletin.
The second meeting of the N8 Industry Innovation Forum (N8 IIF) took place in November in Liverpool to look at new research and innovation opportunities to support business growth and help make life better for an ageing population. Attended by over 100 people from industry, the N8 universities, charities and the NHS, the event was a great success with 28 ideas emerging for new collaborations and innovative projects. You can stay up to date with the N8 IIF through the N8 IIF _Connect
page. You can also find out more about the N8 IIF by watching our new video on the N8 website.
We were really pleased to be featured as a case study in the fourth Annual Innovation Report published in November by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable. In the same month, Vince Cable also announced “Impact Acceleration Accounts” from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with the N8 universities awarded funding of £12.5 million to help scientists and engineers create successful businesses from their research, improve collaboration with industry and foster greater entrepreneurship.
From this month, the N8 High Performance Computing centre will provide a full service to researchers following a successful pilot phase. The facility is hosted by University of Leeds and will be run jointly with University of Manchester. An event will be held next year to launch the service to industry and to highlight the opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange that the HPC will offer, and we’ll have more information about this in our next ebulletin.
Since our last ebulletin, a number of METRC Innovation Awards have been made to help companies innovate in partnership with academic experts from universities in the north of England. One of the collaborations to be given an award is a team of academics from the School of Chemistry at Newcastle University and International Paint, part of AkzoNobel, to explore innovative marine coatings technologies. A further call for funding will open in February, and information about this will appear on the N8 website closer to the time.
Please get in touch with your comments and ideas. Have a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year – see you in 2013!
Best regards,
Sarah Jackson
Director, N8
|