IMPACT Issue 9

ImpactResearch and Innovation at the University of LeedsIssue 9

ENERGY LEEDS SAFER DRUG DELIVERY / TERAHERTZ TECHNOLOGY / CREATING COMMUNITY ARCHIVES / QUANTUM IMAGING / ARCTIC ENCOUNTERS / SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES / BIG DATA / GOLD STANDARD BUSINESS SUPPORT

A spotlight on Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds© University of Leeds 2015

Steering Group:Professor David HoggPro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation

Martin HolmesMarketing Director

Andy DuleyDirector, Innovation ServicesResearch & Innovation Service

Paul BarrettStrategic Marketing Manager

Sue UnderwoodHead of Communications ProductionCommunications

Written by:John Yates, Paul Barrett, The Lenny Agency, Campus PR, and Communications, University of LeedsDesigned by:Leigh Marklew, CommunicationsIllustrations:Zeppo CreativePeppertree Creative LtdEdited by:Paul BarrettChris Emmerson

Visit the Impact website atwww.leeds.ac.uk/impact

This publication is available in other formats.Please contact [email protected]

Front cover image: Energy at Leeds (Zeppo Creative)

Impact 9 University of Leeds

CONTENTS

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04SAFE DELIVERYMany UK hospitals are now using safer devices to deliver drugs into patients’ bodies, thanks to ground-breaking research and extensive testing procedures established by a University of Leeds team.

06TERAHERTZ TECHNOLOGYAward-winning advancements in terahertz science and technology, with potential real world applications as diverse as satellite remote-sensing, chemical analysis, medicalimaging and telecommunications.

10PARALLEL LIVESHarnessing the power of digital technology to enable people to share their stories and access previously hidden public archives.

14GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTERA new device, developed by a University of Leeds spin-off company Quantum Imaging Ltd, looks set to change the way that heart disease is diagnosed.

18ENCOUNTERING THE ARCTICThe increasingly important role and impactof tourism in this fascinating region, and how this is changing our understandings of both contemporary travel and of the Arctic itself.

24ENERGY LEEDS – THE POWER OF CONNECTIONSEnergy Leeds is bringing togetherour considerable strengths in engineering, environmental and social sciences to address global energy challenges of demand,security, sustainability and environmentalmitigation.

30GOOD ENOUGH TO EATCan we feed 10 billion people with high-quality diets from our planet? Leeds researchers are working to discover how food production can be made more secure and sustainable for the future.

34BIG DATA, BIG OPPORTUNITYThe £12m Leeds Institute of Data Analytics (LIDA) will raise the bar in standards of data quality, access, protection and interrogation far beyond the University.

38GOING FOR GOLD2014 saw Leeds become one of only three UK universities to be awarded a new Gold Standard ‘Small Business Charter Award’, recognising our commitment to kick-starting British enterprise.

LEEDS UNIVERSITYBUSINESSSCHOOL

GOLDMANSACHS

THE10,000 SMALL

BUSINESSESPROGRAMME

GRADUATESTEACH, MENTOR, OFFER PLACEMENTS

AND GIVE ADVICE TO OTHER SMEs

02FOREWORD: THE REAL IMPACT OF RESEARCH Professor David Hogg, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research & Innovation

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Impact 9

3

The real impact of research

Whilst the REF in and of itself does not necessarily mean a great deal to many beyond the higher education sector, it does offer unequivocal proof that research carried out at Leeds has real impact and benefits felt far beyond academia, in areas as diverse as energy, food, health and culture to name but a few. Two very different examples – both featured in this issue of IMPACT – spring to mind to illustrate the breadth of our research impact.

In the first, our cover feature around Energy Leeds, the impact of our energy expertise is explored through our collaborations regionally and nationally. Our collaborative work with Leeds City Council has focused on energy efficiency, from the ‘Living Energy Lab House’ to identifying the top 20 buildings in the city most suitable for solar photovoltaics, and together we are making the city of Leeds a real-world test-bed for the University’s energy research, with major benefits for both partners. Elsewhere Bio-CAP-UK, a major consortium project led by the University of Leeds is looking at carbon capture solutions for biomass, and through working with partners such as Alstom we are exploring how biomass might offer zero carbon or even carbon negative solutions to energy supply issues which affect the world.

The second example of our international impact took place far from Yorkshire, and saw our academics heading for the far North. ‘Arctic Encounters’, a Leeds-led international collaboration, seeks to better understand the impacts of tourism on this unique region.

Though research is in its early stages, the project’s findings have already revealed how whale species are following fish stocks which are moving north because of increased water temperatures, closing some whale watching operations and opening new ones. It’s a powerful demonstration of the mutual dependence of environment and industry in such sensitive regions.

Of course, these are just two examples of the sheer breadth of research taking place at Leeds. Over 80% of our research is now rated 4 star or 3 star – that is world leading or internationally excellent. These results are consistent with independent evidence about the improved performance of UK research in international comparative terms. Here at Leeds initiatives such as the recruitment of 250 University Academic Fellows and 220 new PhD studentships are now in place, and our Strategic Plan is firmly aligned to boosting our research performance. Through the plan we are identifying and addressing how we can further improve our future research performance and consistency, and we have clear plans and targets to increase the range and volume of our world-leading research. Our substantial investment in three key areas – people, infrastructure, and the means to tackle global challenges – will help us build on our existing success.

Professor David HoggPro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation

The results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) confirms the University of Leeds standing as one of the UK’s top 10 universities for research power, and particularly highlights the positive impact of our research in the wider world.

THE REAL IMPACT OF RESEARCH

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Impact 9 Health

The use of standard connectors for the administering of drugs had led to fatal mistakes. Following the death of 14 patients in the UK over the space of 15 years, the Department of Health funded a call for these standard connectors, or Luer-locks, to be evaluated, with the aim of ‘reducing to zero the number of patients dying or being paralysed by the maladministration of spinal injections.’

IMPROVING PATIENT SAFETY As part of the Patient Safety Research Programme, the team from Leeds were successful in being selected to deliver research to address this aim.

Professor in Psychology of Healthcare, Rebecca Lawton, explains their background. “We’d already started looking at the development of new connectors which could work on different parts of the body, not just the spine.

“Working with consultant anaesthetist, Philip Bickford-Smith, and a team of designers from Sheffield Hallam University, we were already well into our research into alternatives for the Luer-lock to prevent misconnection errors. We’d drawn the conclusion that differentiating the different locks in some way could eliminate error.

“Colour coding was ruled out due to the fact that these connectors are often fitted in the dark or under drapes. So we were working on tactile cues – creating different shape connectors to be used on different part of the body. Clearly it was this work that stood us in good stead when applying for the project.”

Conceived and led by Professor Lawton, the project also involved Dr Peter Gardner, Senior Lecturer in Statistics and Human Factors. The relevance of his academic interests in design and use of technology in healthcare settings made it a natural collaboration.

Professor Gardner says: “Getting involved in this research represented an outstanding opportunity to apply some basic psychological thinking from a human factors perspective, to a real-world problem with a focus on improving care and patient safety.”

THE LEEDS APPROACH In bidding for the project, the team proposed how they would approach their research. Professor Lawton explains, “We said we wanted to understand the nature and the scale of the problem first of all. Then undertake a Prospective Hazard Analysis, working with clinicians to understand the processes involved and minimising risk introduced by new equipment.”

The next stage involved the use of a simulator – a torso dummy – to enable clinicians to practice using the new design connector without any risk to patients. The initial designs were narrowed down to one – the prototype Neuraxial connector, which was identified as an improvement on standard methods, but still required development before its smooth and safe implementation could begin.

“We worked closely with teams at Leeds, Sheffield and Pinderfields hospitals, who trialled the new connector for use with chemotherapy drugs and epidural anaesthetics.” Professor Lawton continued, “It was vital to have their feedback and their support was invaluable.”

Professor Lawton said the clinicians they worked with were also positive about their involvement. “They fed back to us that on many occasions, new technology comes into the Health Service with little or no warning or training provision for the staff who are going to use it. This was surprising.

“The teams we worked with at the hospital trusts in Yorkshire embraced the opportunity to feedback on the equipment, enabling tweaks to be made before it was put into commercial manufacture.”

IMPACT The Leeds research has not only shaped the provision of new, non-Luer spinal connectors in the UK, but has also led to alerts issued by the National Patient Safety Agency, requiring that all ‘ epidural, spinal and regional infusions and boluses should use non-Luer connectors.’

It’s fair to say transition to the new equipment hasn’t been as swift as hoped, due to issues experienced by hospitals in procuring the precise equipment associated with the new devices from manufacturers.

However adoption across the UK continues to grow, with as many as 55 UK hospital trusts having purchased, and already using, the new connectors at the point the last report was written in 2013.

Professor Lawton and the team’s findings have been published in the BMJ Quality & Safety (previously Quality & Safety in Health Care), an internationally respected journal focused on the quality and safety of health care and the science of improvement, as well as the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy.

As well as influencing policy change, the research has also had commercial impact. Professor Lawton commented, “whilst our testing procedures ultimately didn’t result in an actual product being developed, our findings have proved to be extremely valuable to the manufacturers who have since brought the Surety system, which is currently accepted as the non-Luer connector of choice, to market.”

Since 2009, there have been no reports of fatal or paralysing misconnection errors in the UK involving non-Luer designs. The Neurax connector design, which has been modified based on the Leeds research, is now the basis for a draft ISO standard, which will also influence international adoption.

Looking ahead, the commercial future for the new equipment looks as bright as the health and welfare impact. The potential UK market for non-Luer spinal devices is estimated at £5-21m per annum, with a potential international market of £2bn.

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Safe Delivery

5

Thanks to ground-breaking research and extensive testing procedures established by a University of Leeds team, many UK hospitals are now using safer devices

to deliver drugs into patients’ bodies. And with a directive in place for the equipment to be adopted by every hospital trust, their work looks set to

have significant impact on the future of patient safety.

SAFE DELIVERY

We would like to emphasise the importance of your work in developing and testing the Neurax design, a variation of which is likely to be the new ISO standard design used globally in a few years time.

Head of Medication Safety at the National Patient Safety Agency

‘‘

£2bn

140

55

Patient deaths in the UK attributed to standard 'Luer-lock' connectors in 15 years

Since 2009, there have been no reports of fatal or paralysing misconnection errors in the UK involving non-Luer designs

At least 55 UK hospital trusts are now using the new connectors

Potential international market for non-Luer spinal devices

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Impact 9

AWARD SHINES A LIGHT ON TERAHERTZ TECHNOLOGY AT LEEDSThe University of Leeds’ School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering is leading the way in terahertz frequency research on a global level. World-class research has led to award-winning advancements in terahertz science and technology, with potential real-world applications as diverse as satellite remote sensing, chemical analysis, medical imaging and telecommunications.

An innovative approach to medical devices

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Terahertz technology

“Our current research is a carefully considered balance of ‘blue sky’ discovery-led work and challenge-led research where the end-user is integral. Both are vital in ensuring that our research remains innovative yet has practical impact too.” says Professor Giles Davies, who, along with colleague Professor Edmund Linfield was honoured as a joint winner of the 2014 Institute of Physics Faraday Medal and Prize. Whilst both refer to the award almost in passing, this esteemed gold medal was awarded in recognition of their (and their research teams’) outstanding and sustained contributions to understanding the physics and technology of the far-infrared (terahertz) spectral range over a period of some twenty years.

It’s almost two decades since Davies and Linfield – now Professors of Electronic and Photonic Engineering, and Terahertz Electronics, respectively – began their research into terahertz frequency technology whilst at Cambridge. Relocating their research to Leeds, at a time when the University was investing in cutting-edge new laboratory facilities, gave them the opportunity to shape a world-leading research environment almost from the outset.

“Leeds already had a very strong reputation in the wider field by virtue of its internationally-recognized Institute of Microwaves and Photonics. Terahertz radiation lies in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum between the infrared and microwaves, and this is where we wanted to push our research” says Professor Davies, and the reasons why soon become clear.

WHAT IS TERAHERTZ SCIENCE?Terahertz radiation has a number of possible uses ranging from chemical analysis to security scanning, and from telecommunications through to medical imaging. A wide range of materials exhibit characteristic vibrational modes at terahertz frequencies, which means that they can be uniquely identified and analyzed by terahertz techniques. Furthermore, terahertz radiation can penetrate materials that block visible light, potentially allowing analysis of otherwise concealed objects.

However, despite these useful attributes, terahertz technology has proven stubbornly difficult to harness effectively:

“Although it is possible to build large and expensive instruments that generate powerful beams of terahertz radiation, these instruments are only useful for a very limited set of applications. We need terahertz lasers that not only offer high power but are also portable and low cost.” says Professor Linfield.

Terahertz radiation can be produced using miniature lasers, known as quantum cascade lasers. Those being developed at Leeds are only a few square millimetres in size. The production of the lasers demands tailor-made semiconductor layers painstakingly assembled on a nanometre scale. Professor Davies stated: “Terahertz radiation corresponds to much lower frequencies than visible and near-infrared radiation, which can be conveniently generated using conventional semiconductor lasers, such as those found in CD and DVD players. Suitable semiconductors necessary for terahertz lasers do not exist in nature, and so we have to create artificial semiconductor materials. We stack thousands of very thin layers of different semiconductors, one on top of the other, to create a kind of ‘club sandwich’. This is the basis for the terahertz quantum cascade laser. However this painstaking process takes around 12 hours and it’s imperative that every layer is of a specific thickness defined to an atomic-scale resolution - so we’re faced with the challenge of managing the whole process very carefully in order to be successful.”

Professor Linfield added: “The process of making these lasers is extraordinarily delicate. Layers of different purpose-made semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are built up one atomic monolayer at a time. We control the thickness and composition of each individual layer very accurately to build up a semiconductor material of between typically 1,000 and 2,000 layers. The recent record output power of our lasers is due to the expertise that we have developed at Leeds in fabricating these layered semiconductors, together with our ability to engineer these materials subsequently into suitable and powerful laser devices.”

THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL TERAHERTZ LASER CHIPThe record power in question has seen the Leeds team exceed a 1 Watt output power from a quantum cascade terahertz laser, a new record which more than doubles the previous mark. Professor Davies said:

“The University of Leeds has been an international leader in terahertz engineering for many years. This work is a key step toward increasing the power of these lasers while keeping them compact and affordable enough to deliver the range of applications promised by terahertz technology.”

This unique and exciting work has played a pivotal role in keeping the University’s profile high globally too. As Professor Davies explains, “Leeds is now one of the few places in the world where these specialised lasers are available. We’re inundated with requests for samples and currently supply a range of research departments in other world-class universities, including: Harvard University; École Normale Supérieure; Université Paris-Sud; Université Paris Diderot; Nanyang Technological University; and, the University of Queensland.”

Quantum cascade lasers are pioneering in the world of lasers, and different to anything that’s been traditionally used over the last 20 to 30 years. Whilst other parts of the spectrum have been widely explored, from radio and TV through to x-rays and optics, terahertz frequencies have largely been avoided due to the complexity of work involved.

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Impact 9

Although it is possible to build large and expensive instruments that generate powerful beams of terahertz radiation, these instruments are only useful for a very limited set of applications. We need terahertz lasers that not only offer high power but are also portable and low cost.

Professor Edmund LinfieldProfessor of Terahertz Electronics

‘‘

u Left: Professors Davies and Linfield, with Dr Lianhe Li.Centre: satellite remote sensing is one potential application of terahertz science and technology.Right: The 2014 Faraday Medal and Prize recognizes the work of the whole team, a number of whom are pictured.

In parallel to their development of quantum cascade lasers, the Leeds team are also working to use terahertz spectroscopy to characterise materials in a way that has not been possible before.

“Terahertz spectroscopy enables us to look at materials on a different level,” Professor Linfield explains. “It provides a different way of studying crystalline substances, seeing how the crystals vibrate or ‘breathe’ - its unique ‘fingerprint’ if you like, allows us to identify what a material is – something which can be very useful in the pharmaceutical industry. We can scrutinise drugs-of-abuse, cocaine and heroin for example, looking at ‘pure’ and ‘street’ versions for analysis purposes.We’ve examined explosives, too – including Semtex, RDX and PETN. Working closely with the Home Office and other organisations, we have identified the spectroscopic signatures of a number of explosives.”

APPLYING THE SCIENCE While the ultimate role of terahertz technology is still evolving, it’s clear the work of Professors Linfield and Davies and their team has underpinned fundamental understanding of the interaction of terahertz frequency radiation with matter, and in particular the complex interplay of inter-molecular and intra-molecular vibrations. This is now being exploited by Leeds researchers across a range of disciplines from biology, chemistry and medicine, through to physics, materials science, and astronomy.

Working with the School of Chemistry, new technology for studying the composition of gases is being explored. Whilst with the Faculty of Biology, the technique is being used to provide valuable insights into the structure of proteins. The Schools of Physics and Astronomy, and Chemical and Process Engineering are also interested in the use of terahertz techniques in conjunction with their work in magnetic and piezoelectric materials, inter alia.

However, it is perhaps in space where one of the most compelling applications of terahertz engineering may lie.

The Leeds team is part of a project funded by the UK and European Space agencies to develop a satellite-based laser to quantify key gases involved in climate change in parts of the atmosphere that other technology cannot reach. Deployment on a satellite requires compact systems, and hence a quantum cascade laser provides a potential solution. The laser must be portable, durable and power efficient. Alongside other leading universities and commercial developers, Leeds is a partner in the LOCUS Project, aiming to develop a Low Cost Upper Atmosphere Sounder, which will meet this need.

“Quantum cascade lasers suitable for use on board satellites could be used to measure gases in the atmosphere as part of investigations into climate change, or for more fundamental missions to investigate the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moons, for example” says Professor Davies.

This work is part of a collaborative programme involving colleagues from across the University, including Professor John Plane’s Atmospheric and Planetary Chemistry Group from the School of Chemistry. As Professor Davies notes:

“The Chemistry team provide the science, and we will provide the technology. The potential is that if we can develop the right instrument, it could very well be deployed in future space missions.”

If successful, the satellite laser would also move Davies and Linfield closer to one of their long-term research goals, the ability to assimilate terahertz technologies into integrated systems, enabling research and applications in other areas. The future for terahertz technology, for so long one of the less explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, is beginning to look very exciting indeed.

9

Terahertz technology

PRIZE-WINNING RESEARCH

Almost 20 years of pioneering work on terahertz science and technology was recognized by Professor Giles Davies and Professor Edmund Linfield winning the 2014 Faraday Medal and Prize.

The Institute of Physics’ esteemed gold medal prize was awarded in recognition of their and their colleagues’ outstanding and sustained

contributions to the physics and technology of the far-infrared (terahertz) frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Their work is now being exploited by researchers across a range of disciplines from biology, chemistry and medicine, through to physics, materials science and astronomy.

Quantum cascade lasers suitable for use on board satellites could be used to measure gases in the atmosphere as part of investigations into climate change.

Professor Giles DaviesProfessor of Electronic and Photonic Engineering

‘‘

Terahertz Waves• Emit in the far-infrared region of the

electromagnetic spectrum• High chemical sensitivity, and provides

structural information• Non-ionizing, but penetrates clothing,

paper, cardboard, plastics

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Impact 9

Britain’s leading science museums – along with archivists at the BBC – have joined forces with community researchers and academics at the Universities of Leeds and York to improve access to collections, photographs and films. New digital tools will help community groups make better use of these materials through storytelling and civic engagement.

Pararchive is the brainchild of Simon Popple – archive researcher and Deputy Head of the University’s School of Media and Communication – and is one of just 11 projects to be funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of its £4m Digital Transformations in Community Research Co-Production capital programme.

The project – short for Parallel Archive – will create a virtual suite of simple-to-use software tools, designed with the active involvement of community-based researchers in Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, and the Isle of Bute. The new tools will be free to use and allow even those who are new to digital-storytelling to quickly undertake research incorporating a range of archive materials, film and photographs which can also be linked to their own materials.

“This project is all about co-production,” says Simon. “We are drawing on the skills of a range

of communities to develop open source tools that will allow people to tell their own stories more effectively; tools that can also be used in campaigning and advocacy, or simply in the creation of personal family histories.”

NATIONAL COLLABORATION A key element in the project is also the collaboration with the BBC and the Science Museum Group – which includes Science Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, the National Railway Museums in York and Shildon, and the National Media Museum. Simon believes this partnership could open up archives that have never seen the light of day.

But the new project has had to hit the ground running. “We have had to move very quickly as this is an 18-month project that has to be completed by 2015,” says Simon. “Right now we are co-designing prototypes of the storytelling software that will be tested and evaluated by our community partners. These will be fully developed and officially launched at a conference we will be holding in Leeds to showcase the new tools.”

He adds that the free-to-use digital resource will enable anyone to search and collect on-line resources and to combine them with their own media (film, photographs and other ephemera) in order to tell their own stories, make new

archives, be creative, start new projects and do their own research.

Indeed, Simon and his research colleagues Dr Fiona Philip and Dr Daniel Mutibwa are already thinking of how their open source tools could be used in other fields: “We can see them having beneficial impact on health care, where patients and clinicians are able to share their experiences and stories,” Simon said.

The inspiration for Pararchive grew out of an earlier collaboration between Simon and the BBC which focused on the way the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike had been portrayed in the mainstream media. “The initial idea had been to have former miners and police officers use archive film footage and photographs to help them tell their own stories,” he said. But problems with access, time constraints, and copyright made that impossible.

Instead, the two groups spoke directly to camera, reflecting on their experiences and how these had been misrepresented on television – the result was Strike Stories, a series of powerful verbal vignettes that invariably confounded the ‘official’ history of the strike.

Although buoyed by the success of that project, it was the difficulty in accessing archive

PARALLEL

LIVES

A virtual network of community research groups is being created in a new project that harnesses the power of digital technology to enable people to share their stories and access previously hidden public archives.

LIVES

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Parallel Lives

material to use in these films that prompted Simon to think about better ways of enabling often marginalised and ignored communities to get their stories heard.

“We hope that Pararchive will be that resource,” he said. “We want it to become the go-to place for community research, a one-stop shop which draws together existing online resources and tools in one place and allows us to think beyond existing provision and develop innovative new tools. The best way to achieve this is through collaborative working.”

Archeologist, Paul Duffy, whose research group in Bute is one of the community partners in the new project, agrees. Pararchive “fits fantastically into what we are doing on the island. It has given us a way of telling the stories we were just starting to produce and has given us new ways of looking at how we can do that.”

Paul admits the idea of using digital technologies to support the work of the Brandanii Archaeology and Heritage group raised a few eyebrows on the island, as many of its members are unfamiliar with new technology. “Our group might best be described as technology immigrants rather than technology natives,” he says.

But their involvement in designing the new software has been vital to the success of the project. “This was very much an alien landscape for us to navigate at first,” says Paul. “So it was great for us to come to the first design meeting and find there were no laptops, no tablets, not even a smartphone. Instead there were post-it notes and index cards, which is cutting-edge stuff for our group. This approach has enabled us to make a remarkable journey of discovery and we are now much more comfortable in the digital world and are beginning to explore how it can help us tell our stories.”

One such story is the rise and fall of dairy farming on the island, where a post-war boom in production which was stimulated by the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) came to an abrupt end with Britain’s accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973.

“Since joining Pararchive we have learned that one of our other partners, the Science Museum, has an extensive collection of documents, posters, and material that directly relates to the MMB and the national push to increase milk yields – so we now have access to the actual documents that relate to the boom in dairy farming on the island,” Paul said.

And this is another key to the success of the project – the opening up of hitherto hidden archives. For Alison Hess, Associate Curator of Research and Public History at the Science Museum, being part of the Pararchive Project is both a challenge and an opportunity to connect with wider communities of interest.

“We have more than 300,000 objects in our collection dating back more than three centuries, but only a small portion of that collection is ever on display. Most of it –perhaps 80 per cent of it – is still in store rooms hidden away.”

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80%“Most of our collection –perhaps 80 per cent of it – is still in store rooms hidden away.”Alison Hess, Associate Curator of Research and Public History at the Science Museum

OPENING UP THE ARCHIVES “Pararchive has really got us thinking about the ways into our collections,” she added. “There are shelves and shelves of objects in room after room, and sometimes there are hundreds of objects in a single drawer, where do you start with that?” she asked.

She also acknowledged that there was sometimes nervousness within the museum world about handing collections to community groups to present in different ways. But she said museums have to ask themselves what is the value of collections that never get displayed?

In the future, she said, museums could explore the role digital technology might play in widening access to materials, perhaps through the use of affordable 3D printing technologies. If such ideas seem a long way off, Simon, Paul and Fiona have just secured Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Sustainable Society Network Plus funding for a pilot study on the island. This will look at how its 6,300 strong population can best exploit the arrival of superfast broadband in 2016. “If the pilot study is successful it should help maximise the benefit from broadband by exploring how the island’s digital community heritage can best be harnessed to promote sustainable tourism and improve social confidence and cohesion,” said Simon.

Meanwhile, Pararchive’s private sector partner, Carbon Imagineering, has been working closely with the project’s community researchers to develop the new software tools. “We are trying to create a neutral digital space that focuses on the narrative rather than concerns with truth or veracity,” says Carbon’s Imran Ali. “We want a platform that allows the storytellers to orchestrate pieces of media from wherever they might come from, whether that is respected sources and trusted institutions or personal recollections. The metaphor we are working with is a fabric or tapestry of connected stories, small or large, fictional or factual.”

To achieve this the team have deconstructed the key elements of a story into blocks – “we call it the atoms or DNA of the story,” says Imran – and then work out how all these fit back together. “We arrived at the notion of a block being almost a paragraph or line to which we could attach metadata which would help form the rich connections that augment and add power and value to the stories.”

Andy Turner, a specialist in data linking and exploration based in the University’s School of Geography, is working with the project to see how data from multiple stories might best be processed. “The stories that are made public are relatively simple to index and link,” said Andy. “But we are also interested in how we can broker connections and links using more private stories. Being able to identify similar stories may help connect people with those who have a shared history, and this may help those experiencing unsettling changes develop coping strategies by drawing on the experience of others.”

“Simon brought different perspectives of the miners’ strike together in Strike Stories by telling personal stories in the medium of short films. The basis of this is the sharing of personal experiences, which serves as a model for reconciliation following a conflict. This is something we are trying to harness. The digital world is bringing people together and making connections that would otherwise have been all but impossible.”

And that, for Simon and his colleagues, is the ultimate goal. “Pararchive is bringing people closer together, it is getting them to share skills, giving them the tools to tell their own histories, to run their own campaigns. In short, it is enabling them to get their voices heard and allowing them to hear the voices of other people.”

Since Spring 2015 the pararchive resource has been rebranded YARN, better reflecting its core aim of helping individuals and communities tell and share stories.

To find out more please visit:http://yarncommunity.com

Impact 9

“This project is all about co-production,” says Simon. “We are drawing on the skills of a range of communities to develop open source tools that will allow people to tell their own stories more effectively; tools that can also be used in campaigning and advocacy, or simply in the creation of personal family histories.”

u(Clockwise from top right) ‘Rothesay’, BR poster, 1948-1960. Poster produced by British Railways (BR) to promote rail and sea services to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. Credit: National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library Victorian letters, sent in 1841 without envelopes, using sealing wax. ‘Miners arrive for mass meeting’,Dodworth miners in the Welfare Ground at Dodworth.Credit: Manchester Daily Express / Science & Society Picture Library ‘Goodnight milk for bright good mornings’, c 1960s-1970s.Public health poster produced by the Milk Marketing Board promoting milk as a nutritious food.Credit: Milk Marketing Board / Science & Society Picture Library

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300,000“We have more than 300,000 objects in our collection dating back more than three centuries”Alison Hess, Associate Curator of Research and Public History at the Science Museum

Parallel Lives

"We want it to become the go-to place for community research, a one-stop shop which draws together existing online resources and tools in one place and allows us to think beyond existing provision and develop innovative new tools. The best way to achieve this is through collaborative working.”

"This approach has enabled us to make a remarkable journey of discovery. We are now much more comfortable in the digital world and are beginning to explore how it can help us tell our stories.”

"Pararchive is bringing people closer together, it is getting them to share skills, giving them the tools to tell their own histories, to run their own campaigns: in short, it is enabling them to get their voices heard and allowing them to hear the voices of other people.”

"We want a platform that allows the storytellers to orchestrate pieces of media from wherever they might come from, whether that is respected sources and trusted institutions or personal recollections. The metaphor we are working with is a fabric or tapestry of connected stories, small or large, fictional or factual."

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Impact 9

GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER

A new device, developed by University of Leeds spin-off company Quantum Imaging Ltd, looks set to change the way that heart disease is diagnosed. Early stage clinical trials are currently underway to prove the technology’s efficacy. If successful, these could open the door to potentially establishing the device as a key diagnostic tool across a number of fields of medicine.

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Quantum Imaging

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A GLOBAL ISSUE A major, global health issue, heart disease accounts for 5% of all emergency visits – equating to around 20 million presentations to A&E departments or ER each year.

On admittance to A&E, patients presenting with chest pains are presumed to have suffered a heart attack until proven otherwise. However, studies show that actually between 2% and 8% of patients are inappropriately discharged from emergency rooms with an undiagnosed heart attack.

Major guidelines for patients reporting with chest pain are broadly the same, relying on a series of ‘rule in’ tests including electrocardiogram (ECG) and the measurement of a protein biomarker in a single, or series of, blood tests. This protein can take as long as 12 hours to be diagnostic, and it’s widely accepted that the longer a patient waits for treatment following the onset of chest pain, the worse their outcome can be.

The new device from Quantum Imaging Ltd could play an important role in changing all this. It can also help with the financial implications of people attending hospital thinking they are having a heart attack when they aren’t – this currently can cost a UK hospital in excess of £2,000 per patient.

Research led by Professor Ben Varcoe, Chair of Quantum Information Science at Leeds, has resulted in new and patented methodology to detect and record the magnetic physiological signals associated with electrical signals present in certain body tissues. This can help with the diagnosis of a range of potentially life threatening medical conditions, including heart attacks. Professor Varcoe was working with Physics PhD students using magnetic detection in a completely unrelated field when he began to explore the link between magnetic field and cardiology, and is now Chief Technology Officer of the fledgling company.

He explains, “I started working on this as far back as 12 years ago. I was looking at the curvature of space time, but the biggest problem was the magnetic field as it stopped an accurate measurement being taken.

“So we looked at other fields where measuring a magnetic field might be of benefit. This took us to cardiology, where we began to focus our studies. It took us a while to show people that there was a connection between our research and a viable product. It’s sometimes very hard to link a product prototype to research.

“The big breakthrough came in summer 2010. We were able to tie down the fundamental requirements to create the product, and demonstrate that the requirements were met. We were also able to make the machine into a compact, lightweight and moveable piece of equipment that didn’t need expensive support facilities.”

Using quantum information principles, the team at Quantum Imaging Ltd has developed a device that is portable, battery powered, and most importantly, can be used in a routine and acute hospital setting, including emergency triage. Where the portable magnetometer comes into its own is that it can be used to immediately rule out cardiac-related conditions in a simple five-minute test. Not only is this test non-invasive, but it is also passive so it can be used safely across a wide range of patient groups.

The potential market for such a device is huge, as Steve Parker, Quantum Imaging’s CEO, explains, “Conservative estimates suggest that the total available market in Europe for such a cardiac range device would be around £700m, and globally in excess of £2bn. These estimates don’t take other diseases into account.”

Securing investment worth £1.6m in April 2014 boosted the company’s ability to develop the new technology. It enabled them to build on their research and focus on further studies so they can better understand the diagnostic capabilities of the device.

NEXT STEPS A clinical study at the Leeds General Infirmary involving 120 patients – 60 healthy individuals and 60 with heart defects, has recently been completed. Initial results indicate a strong differentiation between healthy patients and those with a heart defect as well as the ability to detect heart attacks and angina in a patient with unresolved chest pain.

Professor Mark Kearney, Chair of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research at the British Heart Foundation, has led investigations around the testing of the new machinery and is about to embark on the next range of studies.

Summing up the significance of this innovation he explains, “Our first range of studies are now complete and have gone very well. Next we are going to run more studies, looking at emergency patients who are presenting with chest pain rather than looking at its efficacy on patients with known heart problems.

“Magnetocardiography is the first new cardiac imaging modality since MRI and could well be a game changer. Now the equipment is smaller and more mobile, its potential is huge.”Clinical studies will remain in Leeds, and Quantum Imaging Ltd is also sponsoring a Leeds PhD student to continue this research. In addition the University is licensing the technology to Quantum Imaging Ltd so the benefits will be felt more widely, too.

Professor Varcoe adds, “In the meantime, we will also continue to work on the magnetometer machine with regards to cost reductions, weight savings and making it more portable. One day we hope it could even be suitable for use in ambulances and surgeries.”

Impact 9

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‘‘

Magnetocardiography is the first new cardiac imaging modality since MRI and could well be a game changer. Now the equipment is smaller and more mobile, its potential is huge.

Professor Mark Kearney, Chair of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research at the British Heart Foundation

20mHeart disease accounts for around 20 million presentations to A&E and ER departments globally each year

£700mEstimated potential European market for such a cardiac range device

£1.6mInvestment secured in April 2014, enabling the company to build research and understand the diagnostic capabilities of the device

Quantum Imaging

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QUANTUM IMAGING LTD Quantum Imaging Ltd, based at Leeds Innovation Centre, is a privately held medical device company supported by, and directly linked to, the University of Leeds. Headed up by CEO Steve Parker, whose background is in launching new medical devices with blue chip American health sector giants, the team is dedicated to using quantum principles to detect a range of potentially life-threatening medical conditions.

Having established the initial proof of concept for the emerging technology with the support of the University of Leeds Medical Technologies Innovation Knowedge Centre (IKC) and University’s Research and Innovation Service (RIS), Quantum Imaging has received significant investment from the IP Group to commercialise this disruptive medical imaging platform.

SO HOW DOES IT WORK?Quantum information principles, which underpin the technology featured in the new device, have been around for half a century. However, Quantum Imaging Ltd have now found a way to transfer these principles into a new technology platform, making it viable for use in today’s emergency rooms. While originally working on establishing two separate pieces of technology that would detect and record the magnetic field, Professor Ben Varcoe and his team found that one solution solved both problems. By marrying existing understanding with an innovative new breakthrough they were able to establish the missing link, providing the necessary equipment to record and detect the magnetic field around the heart.

The device performs a simple and passive scan at the patient’s bedside in around five minutes. This creates various data points and a 2D representation of the heart as a whole. Cells in the heart that lack oxygen (angina related) or are necrotic (indicating heart attack) distort the data points, allowing events to be recognised and the image of the distorted map to be displayed.

Designed to be used by existing emergency room staff, the device is simple to use and staff will require little additional training. Already proving useful in the field of cardiac medicine, other areas including urology look set to benefit too.

To find out more visit:www.quantumimaging.eu

Font: Playfair Display regular

Impact 9

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Encountering the Arctic

Since the 19th century, when photographs and stories of Arctic regions began to make their way back to the centres of imperial power, people from all over the world have been inspired to take trips to the far reaches of the North. While most early visitors were explorers and scientists, recently improved infrastructure and transportation networks, coupled with the local effects of climate change, have meant that traditional as well as new forms of tourism have been flourishing. The United Nations Environmental Program reports a 500% increase in marine tourism traffic and close to an 800% per cent rise in land-based tourism in the last decade alone.

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From cruises, driving holidays, sailing tours, skiing and husky driving, to active outdoor pursuits including hiking and mountain biking in the less snowy months, today’s Arctic tourists have a host of options for discovering the region. Whilst most of these activities generate revenue for the local economy, it is crucial that increased tourist activities have as few negative impacts on the region as possible.

ARCTIC ENCOUNTERS The European Arctic’s tourism boom is the focus of a Leeds-led international collaborative research project, Arctic Encounters, which seeks to further understanding of this crucial balance between environment and commerce.

With Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures, Graham Huggan, at the helm, this groundbreaking project looks at the increasingly important role and impact of tourism in this fascinating region, and how this is changing our understandings of both contemporary travel and of the Arctic itself – with particular attention paid to modern travel writing and creative representations of the European High North.

As Professor Huggan explains, “The project looks to put tourism studies in dialogue with the study of travel writing: two research areas which, despite their obvious overlaps with one another, have remained largely separate until now. Travel writers have sometimes tended to look down their noses at tourism, while tourism scholars haven't seen travel writing as part of the tourist industry: both of these views are misguided, and the project looks to set the record straight.”

Arctic Encounters is funded by a HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) Joint Research Programme II Grant from 2013 to 2016. Headquartered at the University of Leeds’ School of English, the project is a truly international undertaking, with academic partners in Denmark, Iceland and Norway, as well as a range of non-academic stakeholders including North Yorkshire-based specialist sustainable travel company, Inntravel.

Dr Roger Norum, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School and researcher on Arctic Encounters, is particularly interested in the relationship between tourism and its representations. As he puts it, “One thing we are interested in is how the collective range of images, stories, myths and ideas that have come back from early expeditions – as well as contemporary narrative representations such as travel journalism and photographic imagery – is used and understood by contemporary tourists. More specifically, we’re asking what ideas they bring with them when they visit the Arctic, and how then does this tourism affect the people who currently live there.”

Currently immersed in their second year, The Arctic Encounters team comprises 11 researchers, four of whom are PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Social anthropologist Dr Simone Abram, a Reader at Leeds Beckett University, oversees the ‘Green Travel Writing’ activities in the project. Dr Abram explains the breadth of research that has taken place in the first year:

“The variety of ethnographic fieldwork carried out includes research into whale watching and Northern Lights tourism, and cruise tourism in Greenland. We have also attended a number of public events about tourism, including World Travel Market in London and the Society of American Travel Writers annual convention, which was held this year in Reykjavik.”

IMPACT OF TOURISM While research is still in its early stages, project findings so far are revealing how the rapidly expanding tourism industry in the European Arctic is tied to anthropogenic climate change. One example of this is illustrated by developments in the whale watching business. In the North Atlantic, whale species are following fish stocks, which are moving further north on account of increased water temperatures, taking the whales with them and opening up whale-watching operations in new places.

This new tourism is in turn having an effect on the environment. This is especially the case in areas where there has until recently never been any tourism to speak of, such as more remote parts of Greenland. Norum explains that “While state authorities are aware of the possible detrimental effect of these changes, there is very little understanding of how tourists actually interact with other social groups, with the environment and with non-humans (such as whales or other wildlife) in these regions.”

INTERDISCIPLINARY As well as being internationally collaborative, Arctic Encounters is also a multi-disciplinary project, which Norum believes is vital: “The beauty of this project is that it gives us the opportunity to meet and work with colleagues across a host of other countries as well as diverse backgrounds. We’re anthropologists, geographers, tourism scholars, writers and photographers, and our belief is that this interdisciplinary mix will add a unique dimension to the work we publish – giving it wider audience appeal”.

The work which Arctic Encounters produces is being continuously showcased online for both academics and the wider public to see, which Abram sees as vital to the project’s outward facing ethos: “Our blog at www.arcticencounters.net includes reports from team members, podcasts, workshops and articles featured in the media, and we’ve already published some of our findings. In 2015/16 we have two books coming out: Unscrambling the Arctic takes a postcolonial approach to what’s happening in the European Arctic now, and Green Ice focuses on eco-tourism matters such as whale watching and the Northern Lights. We’re in talks with global academic publisher Palgrave Macmillan, around publishing opportunities that will allow for the most exposure. We are also publishing a special issue of the journal Moving Worlds, which includes articles from our research team, stories about Arctic travel and tourism development, as well as artwork inspired by landscapes of the North.”

Looking ahead, Arctic Encounters have a full programme of events planned this year, including their second international conference, New Narratives of the Postcolonial Arctic, to be held at Roskilde University, Denmark in May 2015. They will also be holding several special screenings of Arctic films and related lectures at the 2015 Leeds International Film Festival. The team then have a slate of workshops, publications, a travelling exhibition and field research lined up for the coming years.

Impact 9

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‘‘

We hope to link communities who are geographically diverse, but share a new interest in tourism. By bringing them together we hope they can learn from one another.

Professor Graham Huggan, Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures

There is very little understanding of how tourists actually interact with other social groups, with the environment and with non-humans (such as whales or other wildlife) in these regions.

Dr Roger Norum, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

‘‘


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The researchers hope that the international nature of their project will give their findings wider appeal – helping communities to improve their tourism methods through a symbiotic exchange of information. “We hope to link communities who are geographically diverse, but share a new interest in tourism,” Norum explains, “by bringing them together we hope they can learn from one another.”

Professor Huggan was inspired to start this exploration into ethical, socially and environmentally aware tourism following a trip he took with Inntravel.

As Huggan explains, “Inntravel offers a good example of how to market responsible travel at a time when tourist practices, especially those attached to mass tourism, are increasingly questioned.”

(continues over)

125 daysWarmer seas could lead to ice- free conditions for as long as 125 days each summer by 2050 (UN Climate Panel report)

x2

800%

The Arctic has warmed at about twice the global rate in the past three decades.

increase in land-based tourism in the last decade alone. (The United Nations Environmental Program)

12.5%1 in 8 Alaskan jobs dependent on tourism (Resource Development Council for Alaska)

“As Arctic tourism expands into Greenland,” Abram adds, “It’s vital that it is led by ethical companies – it’s a very sensitive area so we’re pleased to be working with Inntravel who have an explicitly ethical approach”.

In addition to its research on different forms of Arctic tourism, Arctic Encounters is helping to expand the market potential for ethically-minded groups. At the Society of American Travel Writers convention held in Reykjavik in September 2014, the team put on a series of lectures and discussions for the attending journalists, including a roundtable discussion with the Inntravel team. “The talk on the future and sustainability of Arctic tourism was very well received by the journalists and travel writers who attended,” recounts Abram.

The team is also showing that they practice what they teach, too, since several members of the team, in addition to being academic researchers, are travel writers in their own right. “I travelled to the Faroe Islands and wrote my first piece in the guise of travel writer for The Scotsman” says Abram. Norum, meanwhile, has recently written features for Departures Magazine about the new Arctic art project SALT and for Inntravel’s online magazine, The Slow Lane, detailing a trip to their latest Arctic destination, Svalbard.

CHALLENGE FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY The collaboration between the School of English-based project and Inntravel brings together academic thinking and the real world. Simon Wrench, Head of Marketing at Inntravel explains, “The partnership with Arctic Encounters has provided us with access to a depth of knowledge and expertise which has impacted favourably upon our product offering, in turn, increasing interest in the Arctic as a destination.

“The challenge, both for Inntravel and Arctic Encounters – to say nothing of the global tourism industry as a whole – will be to ensure that this new tourism interest does not have detrimental effects on the Arctic itself. The fear that we may be ‘loving the Arctic to death’ is something that the Arctic Encounters team is well aware of.” Wrench adds, “Still, as an ethical business concern, Inntravel is committed to close local engagement in its destinations so that the decisions it makes are the right ones.”

Wrench is extremely keen on the positive role academic researchers are able to have on business. As he puts it, “Relationships with suppliers and understanding local dynamics are the key to successful product initiatives. By working closely with the project we are gaining valuable insights into both existing and new destinations. This helps us to define our product portfolio and to make well-informed strategic decisions. This is highly advantageous as it means that we can expedite bringing a product to market or re-allocate R&D resource as appropriate.”

Other collaborative project outputs will be squarely aimed at audiences beyond the purely academic ones. One key aspect of Arctic Encounters is the research, writing and publication of an all-new guidebook to Greenland – the first such title to the country to be written in English, which is earmarked for publication by Bradt in 2017. The intention is that this title will be a group output, involving several project researchers, who are experts in fields such as sustainable tourism, environment, landscape, Arctic literature, eco-criticism and travel writing. Norum, who has co-authored multiple guidebook titles for Rough Guides, is excited about the innovative nature of this endeavour. As he explains, “This could prove to be a new model for guidebook writing, and perhaps travel writing more generally: one where regional academic experts are engaged to pen culturally-engaged travel advice for tourists. It’s a win on many fronts – it gets academics out of the library to engage with a wider public, and it provides tourists with some seriously well informed guidance about the destinations they are travelling to.”

The project as a whole has high aspirations for what its enduring impact might be with regard to tourism in the region. As Norum sums up, one fundamental mission for Arctic Encounters, is “To inspire individuals, travel companies and business to look at the bigger picture when planning activity in the region. In other words, make decisions based not just on a narrow commercial level – but by looking at the world with new and curious eyes.

Impact 9

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u Watch out for polar bears, Svalbard


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“Rather than just setting out to make recommendations at the end of our research,” Norum says, “We want to generate and circulate knowledge that can empower people to discover and experience good tourism practices by having the information they need to make informed decisions.”

Find out more:www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/arcticencounters

Impact 9 Energy Leeds

Building links between organisations essentially means connecting people. Fostering direct relationships between Leeds academics and the people who can put their research into use yields the fastest results. Energy Leeds has been particularly successful in helping to establish new ways of making and maintaining, those key connections.

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ENERGYLEEDSTHE POWER OF CONNECTIONS

The power of connections

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PEOPLE POWERHead of Sustainable Energy and Climate Change at Leeds City Council, Tom Knowland, has a long term vision: to make the city of Leeds a real-world test-bed for the University’s energy research. Tom is currently seconded part-time to the University, enabling him to make the direct connections which will help to turn this vision into reality.

“Although there is a long-standing relationship between the two institutions, it makes a real difference to have a regular, physical presence at the University,” says Tom. “I’ve been made really welcome, been invited to meetings and found out about research that I had no idea was taking place. The potential is huge, but I have to be realistic about what I can practically achieve in a year, while keeping the bigger picture and the long-term view in mind.” Although the secondment only began in September, it’s already yielding results. With the support of Leeds researchers, Tom has been able to get some short-term research projects off the ground, involving undergraduate, Masters and PhD students.

One project has used a model, developed at the University by Professor Alison Tomlin, to identify the top 20 Council buildings where solar photovoltaics (PV) would be viable. Following economic and technical feasibility studies carried out by the Council, four of the buildings identified will have solar PVs fitted later this year.

“This project is a great example of how this kind of research is of mutual benefit,” explains Tom. “The University was able to refine its model by applying it to a real-world situation and we were able to see which of our many schools, leisure centres and other buildings were worth further consideration for this initiative.”

Another project examines the air quality impact of replacing electric storage heating in high rise flats with a small-scale district heating scheme based on biomass. Although biomass is a cheaper, more efficient and more reliable source of heating, the Council needed to know whether pollution monitoring or control measures might need to be put in place.

Tom is also developing longer-term research projects with Energy Leeds researchers, including Professor of Energy Technology and Environment, Andy Heyes. Professor Heyes has long wanted to create the equivalent of a ‘Big Brother’ house, focusing on energy efficiency, but it’s thanks to the connection with the City Council that the project is now starting to take shape.

The ‘Living Energy Lab House’ concept is to create a completely instrumented house, where energy use and loss can be precisely tracked and recorded. This would be monitored for a year, before putting in place energy efficiency technologies and then monitoring for a further year to measure their impact on the ground.

“We need a better understanding of how people live in and use their homes and especially how their behaviour adapts when new technologies are put in place,” explains Professor Heyes. “Technologies only work if people engage with them and it’s that crucial relationship – rather than the efficiency of the technologies alone – that we want to assess.”

The City Council have agreed to provide one of their student properties to be the

Living Energy Lab House and Professor Heyes is putting in a joint bid with Tom for funding to support the project, initially from the European Union.

“Although students don’t constitute an average household, they’re an interesting demographic to work with,” says Professor Heyes. “Today’s graduates will spend all their lives in a transition to a low carbon economy, and will be the people who have to ensure that the energy efficiency targets we set today are met in 30 years’ time. So they are exactly the people we need to engage with these technologies and these issues.”

For Leeds to become an urban laboratory for University research, Tom would like to see more of these kinds of projects, which put research into practice on the ground.

“The Council has a lot of assets which could be used in research – whether that’s environmental or transport data or physical assets such as buildings, parks and roads,” he says. “What we want to do is make these more available to Leeds researchers, starting with energy, although the approach could be used for other areas as well.”

And he also wants to see more direct connections made between the Council and the University – secondments such as his and more opportunities for student research in the city.

With tangible financial and intellectual benefits for both parties, the arrangement has all the elements in place for a successful long-term relationship.

We need a better understanding of how people live in and use their homes and especially how their behaviour adapts when new technologies are put in place. Technologies only work if people engage with them and it’s that crucial relationship – rather than the efficiency of the technologies alone – that we want to assess.

Professor Andy Heyes Professor of Energy Technology and Environment

‘‘

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If the 2050 emission reduction targets established in the 2008 Climate Change Act are to be met, then where the UK gets its energy from, and how it is distributed and used will have to change significantly. The transition will be challenging and disruptive but will also generate a world of opportunity. From training the next generation of energy professionals, to developing world class facilities and building partnerships with industry and government, Energy Leeds facilitates energy outreach to society at large.

RIGHT PLACE THE RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY The Renewable Energy Laboratory at Leeds houses a suite of rigs capable of assessing the performance and potential of a range of renewable energy technologies, including:

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THE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS MSC PROGRAMME With the Sustainable Energy Systems masters programme, Energy Leeds will train the energy professionals of the future, equipping them with all the skills required to prosper in the evolving energy landscape, and to play a leading role in shaping the energy systems of the future. This multi-disciplinary programme is taught by leading academics and researchers from four faculties, makes use of the latest blended learning techniques. Students each complete a research project as part of the programme, and thanks to Energy Leeds’ track record of collaborative working, many of these can be conducted in close collaboration with an industrial partner. Current sponsors include Northern Gas Networks and Turbine Surface Technologies Ltd. The programme also offers the opportunity to work in our state-of-the-art Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Solar Photovoltaics This apparatus allows researchers to evaluate the performance of solar cells as a function of illumination intensity and load characteristics. Practical issues of cell shading and the means to deal with it can also be considered.

Wind Tunnel/Turbine The wind turbine rig offers analysis of energy extraction from a moving air stream and opportunity to study the effect of load characteristics comprising direct use of the electricity generated, or stored via battery charging.

Fuel Cell Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells represent the preferred option for transport applications, with both Honda and Toyota offering PEM powered passenger vehicles. The lab rig offers students and researchers the ability to study the performance characteristics of PEM fuel cells and the means of controlling them.

Wave Energy As an island nation the UK has the best wave energy resource in Europe, and many innovative methods of extracting energy from waves have been proposed. In our 5m wave tank students can study one such method in the form of a Wells turbine. The device extracts energy from a rising and falling water column created by the action of the waves.

Bioethanol This rig allows students to gain hands-on experience of every stage in the process of converting plant starch into the transport fuel that is bioethanol. This includes preparation of the feedstock at the start of the process (aka peeling potatoes!) through to fractional distillation of the products at the end of it.

RIGHT TIME...


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POWER THROUGH PhDSProfessor Jenny Jones’ relationship with the power station operator, Drax, has been built over the last six years through an array of projects, including PhDs and involvement in major consortia. The change at Drax over that period has been dramatic: from burning just a tiny proportion of biomass in a predominantly coal-fired power generation, to two of Drax’s six units now fully converted to biomass, with a third due to be converted by mid-2016.

The University of Leeds has helped to make Drax the biggest renewable power generator in the country; with three units fully converted, the company will have reduced its carbon emissions by 12m tonnes per year.

One of the first links between Drax and the University was via a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded through Innovate UK (then the Technology Strategy Board), which enabled engineering graduate, Dr Michal Kubak, to be based at the company to study their global supply chain for biomass, whilst supervised by Professor Jones. With sustainable supply one of the major concerns for biomass, the research helped Drax to identify new fuel sources, ensure its supply was fully sustainable and enable better management of resources. When the project came to an end, Dr Kubak became – and remains – a permanent employee at Drax, the first of many individual connections between Drax and the University.

In the early days there were also many technical issues to be overcome to enable the introduction of biomass as a fuel, as Professor Jones recalls:

“Although the chemical make-up of coal isn’t standard, it’s use was well-understood, so there were rules of thumb which engineers used to estimate potential problems with burning a particular type of coal,” she says. “This didn’t exist for biomass, but thanks to extensive characterisation of biomass by Leeds researchers, we were able identify potential problems, so that some impacts and emissions can now be estimated for many different types of biomass combustion.”

But the relationship with Drax wasn’t just dependent on the company coming to the University when an issue arose. When Professor Jones was building a new collaboration to look at different ways of treating biomass prior to combustion, she lobbied her contacts at Drax to get the company involved so that she would be able to report her results to them.

“There’s a benefit to all parties if a company can come with me as my research progresses,” she says.

The project looked at whether torrefaction – essentially a mild roasting – of biomass prior to turning it into pellets could make the fuel more efficient. This led into research on biomass storage. Drax Fuel Chemical Engineer James Ashman is now taking this forward through a part-time PhD with Professor Jones, looking at the hazards associated with the storage of biomass, by reducing the risk of the material getting damp, heating up and spontaneously combusting.

This kind of connection isn’t a one off either – Paul Straker, Principle Scientist at Drax, is also studying with Professor Jones for a PhD on a different issue for biomass combustion – the deposits that can be formed on boilers which eventually reduce the efficiency of heat transfer.

PhD projects – and not only when their own employees are involved – are often a cost-effective way for industry to fund research. In particular, PhDs conducted as part of Leeds’ Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) for Low Carbon Futures, as these are developed jointly with external partners. Drax is one of the industry partners in the CDT, along with other companies where strong links are already in place, including Alstom, Gaz de France, BIFFA Waste Services Ltd, Eon Engineering Ltd, Johnson Matthey, BFC Energy and Buro Happold, to name a few.

Even though the PhD projects within the new CDT in Bioenergy won’t be finalised until 2015, the students have already been working on real- world team projects. One of these is looking at biomass from a very different perspective – its use by the general public. Although a lot of Leeds research in biomass focuses on large-scale combustion, there is increasing research into small-scale combustion from the bioenergy research group at Leeds too.

Dr Amanda Lea-Langton has been supervising the student team, to analyse waste material created by the RSPB through the management of their wildlife reserves, to see how reeds and scrub wood could be turned into biomass briquettes for domestic boilers.

“The project has involved characterising the fuels, looking at their emissions and identifying the environmental implications in relation to wood,” says Dr Lea-Langton. “We’ve been able to provide advice on how best to optimise the fuel, to make it a viable option for domestic biomass.”

u Professor Jenny Jones, Drax Power Station


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Energy Leeds brings together engineering, environmental and social sciences to address energy challenges of global demand, security, sustainability and environmental mitigation. Energy Leeds works to promote strong relationships with the energy sector and government to enable Leeds’ research to be applied in the field.

Energy research at Leeds covers oil and gas, nuclear, transport, bioenergy, smart energy systems, whole energy systems and renewables, and working relationships with external partners takes many different forms: collaborative and contract R&D, consultancy and capacity building, including extensive Continued Professional Development (CPD) programmes in energy. The CPD programme on biomass, run annually since 2009, has attracted 163 delegates from 57 different companies, NGOs and government departments.

www.energy.leeds.ac.uk

Domestic biomass research is carried out in a specialist lab at Leeds, which incorporates a 5KW household stove fitted with technology to calculate fuel efficiency and analyse emissions, enabling different fuels to be tested and compared with the standard alternatives, such as logs. The lab was established initially as part of a project with Dr Robert Johnson, who gained his PhD at Leeds and is now Head of Research at the Irish smokeless fuel company, Arigna. The lab was created to test a new biomass-based smokeless fuel developed at Arigna, with the results fed back to the company to enable further development. The product is now close to market – a long-term outcome Dr Johnson probably didn’t envisage when he completed his PhD at Leeds.

Find out more about the energy Doctoral Training Centre:www.leeds.ac.uk/energy/dtc

and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships:www.leeds.ac.uk/ktp

ENERGYLEEDSTHE POWER OF CONNECTIONS

“Food security and the sustainable production of food for the human population is a critical issue politically and economically,” explains Professor Les Firbank, Chair of Sustainable Agriculture and one of several leading academics whose research is having a major impact not only politically, but within the farming community and retail arena too.

“Times are difficult for the farming community. Food security is an issue high on the political agenda, and climate change has begun to make an impact on food production across the world. There is now a huge pressure for farmers to intensify land production whilst reducing levels of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing our landscapes and wildlife.

“Supermarkets too face their own set of issues and need to address their supply chains, ensuring that they are sustainable and can continue to meet the demand from consumers, while keeping prices stable,” continued Professor Firbank. “There is no single solution to these issues but we are collaborating widely to address the problems, and to ensure that those within industry can work their way through these challenges.”

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND ITS ORIGINSAround a century ago, Britain was in the midst of widespread and crippling agricultural depression. Grain prices had collapsed under the flood of cheap imports from the New World in the late 19th century, followed by increased competition from abroad as refrigeration and canning techniques were refined.

World War II saw a shift towards self-sufficiency. Land was cultivated to produce more of the food needed during the war, and in the face of rationing Britain’s diet became healthier. Post WWII, increased food production continued. Farmers were subsidised by the Government to produce more food from their land and agricultural output increased rapidly, supplemented by emerging technology and the use of fertilisers.

The 1980’s saw too much food produced in the UK and the rest of the EU. Food was dumped on other markets, driving many local farmers out of business. The ecological impact of farming land intensively also became evident with the loss of wildlife. The challenge for the UK therefore became to produce the right amount of food in a more eco-friendly way. This situation changed again around a decade ago: rising oil prices, increased demand for food, use of biofuels and more variable weather conditions combined to demand increasing food production, but this time in a more sustainable way.

Can our planet provide 10 billion people with a high quality diet? It’s a complex and difficult question to answer. University of Leeds researchers are working hard to understand global food security and sustainable production.

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Impact 9 Sustainable agriculture

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Good enough to eat

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Impact 9 Sustainable agriculture

‘THOUGHT LEADING’ RESEARCHA key piece of research into making agriculture more sustainable and productive, an area known as ‘sustainable intensification’, has recently been undertaken by Professor of Population Ecology Tim Benton and his colleagues, who have developed a conceptual land management framework to underpin sustainable agriculture.

Professor Benton explains: “Agricultural landscapes provide a wide range of goods and services to society beyond food production. They provide a natural habitat for biodiversity that aids production (such as pollinators and natural pest control). These landscapes are also of cultural importance, encouraging biodiversity of flowers and birds, for example.

“Agricultural landscapes also affect water flow and flood risk downstream, and provide important recreation and amenity use, improving health and well-being. They support rural livelihoods and have deep-rooted cultural value. The challenge is to create agricultural landscapes that deliver food and maintain all these other necessary elements too.”

Recognising that land can be specialised to producing food or ‘ecology’ and does not need to do both equally, everywhere, the Leeds research challenges current approaches to land management. It is also influencing the development of new policies for sustainable agriculture (UK, EU and G20), and the food industry’s approach to and public perceptions of, sustainable agriculture.

In essence Professor Benton and his colleagues explored how what is seen as ‘sustainable’ at the scale of a farm may not be so when scaled up to a larger area, when attempting to create ‘sustainable landscapes’.

Examining different farming systems in the UK, the team of researchers undertook the most rigorous study to date, spending over a year randomly selecting comparable farms. Three years of fieldwork assessed biodiversity more comprehensively than other studies, while cutting-edge statistical analysis and modelling was used to enable a detailed dissection of the factors influencing biodiversity.

Professor Benton adds, “Our work is viewed as ‘thought leading’, influencing thinking in policy, industry and in the public domain.”

The influence of this research is already being felt far beyond Leeds:

• The UK government: Parliamentary impact delivered by providing evidence to select committees and government departments like the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and through Professor Benton’s appointment as the Global Food Security Champion for the UK

• The UK food industry: Discussions with high-level industry groups have taken place, and the publication of trade articles and detailed consultancy work has provided a framework for the food industry to think about how to manage land at a scale beyond the field or farm

• Internationally: Professor Benton has influenced the global sustainability agenda in public and private arenas, providing guidance for the Common Agricultural Policy and presenting at a G20 meeting on assessing sustainability

• Public choices: Delivering public lectures, writing blogs and advising the author of A Greedy Man in a Hungry World, Jay Rayner, who said that Benton’s work on sustainability considerably helped to shape his views and his book.

‘‘Our work is viewed as ‘thought leading’, influencing thinking in policy, industry and in the public domain.

Professor Tim Benton Professor of Population Ecology

...it is about far more than just how close you are to where your food was produced. It’s about carbon inputs all the way down the production system. It’s about water usage, land maintenance and the careful application of science.

Jay RaynerAuthor, A Greedy Man in a Hungry World

‘‘

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Good enough to eat

p Professor Tim Benton was appointed the UK’s ‘Champion for Global Food Security’ in 2011, coordinating national research spend, providing evidence to government and translating that evidence and key messages to wider society.

pLed at Leeds by Professor Bill Kunin, research investigating what can be done to address the national decline in natural pollinators has resulted in European funding being made available to UK farmers who introduce wild flowers to their land to facilitate natural pollination.

£189bnThe global food industry is the world’s largest industry. The UK sector alone is worth £189 bn. It’s also the biggest land and water user

£5.5bnTotal farming income for the farming industry in the UK amounted to £5.5bn

71%50%55%

71% of the UK’s total land area is utilised for agriculture, covering over 17 million hectares

Cereal crops including wheat and barley account for almost 50% of agricultural land area in the UK

Only 55% of the world’s crop calories feed people directly; the rest are fed to livestock (about 36%) or turned into biofuels and industrial products (roughly 9%)

RESEARCH WITH A DIRECT IMPACT As one of the few UK universities to have its own farm, researchers at the University of Leeds have access to a fantastic resource for fieldwork. Professor Firbank and colleagues are currently undertaking a wide range of experiments, which will have a direct impact on the farming industry. For example a major new grant will investigate how to manage soil so that it can cope better with extreme weather conditions as the farming community continues to feel the detrimental effects of global warming. This research involves collaboration with experts from across the North of England, including the universities of Sheffield and York as part of the White Rose Sustainable Agriculture Consortium.

“The research at Leeds is far reaching. Not only has it made an impact in traditional food production industries and on the political agenda, but now the University is beginning to interact and secure funding projects from industry. Research is also becoming increasingly business-focused with big data becoming a key factor in the food production chain.

“It’s vitally important that we educate consumers to make better, more informed choices, and just as vital that we excite and stimulate the next generation to take up the continuing challenges which impact upon us all,” concludes Professor Firbank.

BIGDATA

Data-driven research looks set to become world-class across a range of areas at the University of Leeds, with projects currently underway to create a new MRC-funded Research Data Service and a national ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre. The two Research Council Centres will be co-located from summer 2015 in the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) so that all disciplines can engage and benefit from this rapidly developing expertise. Raising the bar in standards of data quality, access, protection, and exploitation, interested parties in academia and commerce can look forward to a strong future for data analytics.

Impact 9 Big Data

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Leeds raises the bar in data analytics

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Impact 9 Big Data

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THE MEDICAL BIOINFORMATICS CENTREWith funding of £7m awarded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), a team from the Faculty of Medicine and Health are currently finalising plans for the University of Leeds’ first Medical Bioinformatics Centre.

The aim of this central data hub is to professionalise research data services for the University – taking data analysis to a new level, with an emphasis on trust. Much of the MRC funding is for capital investment in building work and IT software and hardware, to ensure the centre can offer data processing and security facilities that are second to none.

Putting in place a purpose-built infrastructure – a hybrid of technology, people and standard operating procedures – the team’s ultimate aim is to provide a ‘virtual research environment’, where anonymised but person-level data is accessible only to authorised researchers and their collaborators.

SECURITY IS KEY Protecting this data is a challenge in itself. After a careful analysis of the risks, the team have designed tight controls and procedures to ensure that the data is always accessed and used correctly. Professor Jeremy Wyatt, chairman of the Centre’s academic affairs group, explains, “Researchers will only be issued with an authorised login to access the data once they’ve applied for, and received, the relevant ethics permission. They will also have to complete a short e-learning course to obtain their login details.

“They will then only be given access to the extracts of data that are relevant to their research and data analytics tools on their own encrypted virtual desktop. This prevents any copying of the data to other computers or USB devices and ensures that Centre staff can keep a close eye on how the data is being used, to prevent any risks to confidentiality. While most researchers will access this virtual desktop remotely, we will also have secure rooms in our Centre for the use of researchers who want to analyse highly sensitive data.

“The law is changing on data protection and new EU legislation is on its way next year. For this reason we’ve taken a great deal of care designing a flexible technology platform that we can adapt as the laws change. Essentially we need to build the trust of patient and data providers including the NHS, social care and other sources in our data management processes. This will also include an annual external audit of how tightly we adhered to our standard operating procedures.”

The benefits of the new Centre will be far reaching. As a result of building greater trust in data providers, researchers will have access to more relevant and better quality data than ever before. The virtual research environment will run on a state-of-the-art ‘super computer’, so they will no longer have to wait for results, and since the analysis software is provided and managed, researchers can focus on providing new knowledge and understanding from the data.

“We’re also designing a new Masters course in tandem with our new MRC Centre,” continues Professor Wyatt. “We’ve noticed an increasing trend for the NHS to advertise data analytics posts – as many as 10 of these jobs come up a week with an average salary of £30k, so the NHS is spending around £13.5m per year on salaries for data analysts. Our new Health Data Analytics track in the Health Informatics Masters will help the NHS and industry to recruit people who are experts in this field.”

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP The team from Leeds are cooperating closely with a range of external partners to ensure the Data Centre has access to the highest quality data sets.

“Working in tandem with Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT), England’s largest NHS Trust, we are helping to ensure that the NHS have the right infrastructure in place to transfer fully anonymised versions of electronic data from consenting patients into our Centre. IT professionals in the NHS and the University are working together to link us up across Leeds with a ‘dark fibre network’.

“We are working with The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), one of the top three GP software suppliers, so we can link with their anonymised data resource ResearchOne – which recently won a national prize for outstanding contributions to research. We are also collaborating with the HSCIC (Health and Social Care Information Centre) to gain access to other data sets such as the Hospital Episode Statistics. Finally, we’re partnering with the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) in London.”

BENEFITS Research that will take place at the new Medical Bioinformatics Centre will enable links between medical records and high volume molecular data. Several of the initial projects will focus on biomarkers. Professor Rosamonde Banks, specialist on proteins, Professor Tim Bishop and bioinformatics expert, Professor David Westhead, are all heavily involved.

“Commercialising biomarkers potentially has a huge impact on the life sciences industries. Our work dovetails with the government’s push to support academic and commercial life sciences in finding new treatments.

The pharmaceutical industry is also very interested in this field as they are increasingly under pressure from regulators to ensure that drugs prescribed for one condition aren’t causing serious side effects. And in the new NHS, with qualified commercial providers now offering health services, there is also fresh interest in health data, with data-driven quality improvement high on their agenda.

“Analysis of this data in a secure, monitored and trusted environment will benefit patients by uncovering the underlying molecular mechanisms of disease, suggesting new tests and monitoring how effective medicines are.”

The law is changing on data protection and new EU legislation is on its way. We’ve taken a great deal of care designing a flexible technology platform that we can adapt as the laws change. We need to build the trust of patient and data providers including the NHS, social care and other sources in our data management processes.

Professor Jeremy WyattLeadership Chair in eHealth Research (Health Informatics)

‘‘

To further reinforce the North of England’s international standing within the field of health informatics research, eight leading universities - Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York – have partnered to form the N8 Research Partnership. As part of the extra £7m funding awarded to the University of Leeds, the university has been able to fund a High Performance Computing centre (N8 HPC). The new £3.25m facility offers high performance computing on a scale which previously has not been readily available to researchers in the North. The N8 HPC is one of the 250 most powerful computers in the world and is capable of a peak performance of 110 trillion operations per second.

110The N8 HPC is one of the 250 most powerful computers in the world and is capable of a peak performance of 110 trillion operations per second

Leeds raises the bar in data analytics

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THE CONSUMER DATA RESEARCH CENTRE (CDRC)With funding of £5m from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of their Big Data Network, the Consumer Data Research Centre will harvest data routinely collected by retailers and business organisations and make it available to academics undertaking research in social sciences. The team will partner with other teams at University College London, the University of Liverpool and the University of Oxford to harness the full potential of consumer-related data.

The Centre Professor of Spatial Analysis and Policy & Director of the CDRC, Mark Birkin, has spent a number of years working with retailers and leads the project. He explains, “One of the main problems faced by academics is getting access to a wide enough range of quality data. We know about demographics, but the real riches lie in the data which retailers collect themselves from transactional data such as loyalty cards and smart tickets. The main aim of this project is to open up those resources to academic research and find ways in which value can be extracted to benefit business, government and society at large.

“Data from retailers is interesting to us, as geographers, as we can learn about mobility on a short, medium and long term basis. It’s also of importance to our partners in the University’s Business School as they can look into consumer behaviours. Environmentalists are interested, too – in green consumption patterns and sustainability, for example. We think this Data Centre will answer a whole host of social science questions.

HOW WILL DATA BE USED? “Analysing good quality data will help to inform policy, development, implementation and evaluation. In terms of location planning, for example, this is helpful not just for retailers but also for schools, police stations and hospitals. We have a complex and ageing population, and understanding how they move about helps us plan how we can support them.”

The Centre will have a state-of-the-art data infrastructure with three secure access sites throughout the UK, one of which will be located here at the University. “Data will be available to anyone who is interested. Not just geographers, environmentalists and business students, but other academics, too – criminologists, for instance. Rather than looking at data on an individual level, we’ll deal with broader social, demographic and behaviour patterns.

“We see our work taking place on a number of levels. We will acquire data from retailers and work with them to identify how they can analyse consumer patterns to improve their products and services, whilst at the same time providing a service to researchers and undertaking research ourselves.

The Centre will also offer training and education, ranging from introductory courses for postgraduate students through to advanced training for data scientists. “Undergraduates will benefit too, we’re already closely involved in teaching undergraduates using new data sources, this will ensure that our graduates have the necessary skills to prosper in the global big data economy.

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP Just a few months into the project, and with a wide range of retailers expressing an interest, a number of meetings have already taken place.

“We need to establish broader agreements for data sharing. Retailers are understandably concerned about handing over data due to competition worries, however like the medical bioinformatics centre, the CDRC has rigorous controls and procedures in place to protect the data. We’ve already got one retailer on board, and hope to have at least half a dozen signed up by the end of our first year.”

Whilst the two data centres operate independently, the strong synergies between them could prove invaluable in the future. Professor Birkin explains, “If we were able to combine data from the Medical Bioinformatics Centre with insights from consumer research, we could help with a range of challenges that are of national interest. For example, we could trace relationships between shopping habits and health outcomes, such as obesity or diabetes.” Yet, such research requires a number of ethical considerations, so there is no commitment either way to share data at this stage. So far, each centre has more than enough research projects already lining up to use its own independent datasets.

Find out more:www.lida.leeds.ac.uk

The real riches lie in the data which retailers collect themselves from transactional data or loyalty cards. The main aim of this project is to open up those resources to academic research and find ways in which value can be extracted to benefit business, government & society at large.

Professor Mark Birkin Director of the CDRC

‘‘

£13.5m

40£5m

£7m

The NHS is spending around £13.5m per annum on salaries for data analysts. Leeds’ new Health Data Analytics track in the Health Informatics Masters will help the NHS and industry to recruit people who are experts in this field

The Leeds Institute for Data Analytics will have dedicated space for 40 researchers

With funding of £5m from the ESRC as part of their Big Data Network, the Consumer Data Research Centre will harvest data routinely collected by retailers and business organisations and make it available to academics undertaking research in social sciences

With funding of £7m awarded by the Medical Research Council, a team are currently putting plans into place for the University of Leeds’ first Medical Bioinformatics Centre

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2014 saw Leeds University Business School (LUBS) become one of only three UK universities to be awarded a new Gold Standard ‘Small Business Charter Award’. This prestigious accolade recognises the Business School’s role in helping kick-start British enterprise, and is a culmination of a range of projects and initiatives that have taken place across the University over the past decade.

GOING FOR GOLD

Impact 9 Business and Enterprise

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Good enough to eat

Professor in Management Development, Richard Thorpe, explains how the University of Leeds first became involved. “I’d been working on SME related projects for a number of years, with Yorkshire Forward, One North and Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) as a clear gap had been identified between the north and the south in terms of business growth – particularly in leadership. This work led to a £5m investment in a new research programme to establish how this could be improved – and we worked with Lancaster and Liverpool Universities on this.

“Looking at leadership across a number of areas, we turned our focus to SMEs and designed a programme to start businesses thinking and taking action. I led a think tank to formulate a research agenda and from this we were able to develop principles of good practice.”

The team identified that SMEs traditionally miss out on sources of valuable advice. Not just because these smaller businesses don’t always have the time or money to invest, but because it was simply unclear what universities, and their business schools in particular, could offer them. “Our challenge” Professor Thorpe says, “was to engage with SMEs.”

EXCEPTIONAL BUSINESS SUPPORT Director of Small Business Programmes, Rob Whieldon explains, “It all started with a project called the Leadership Journey in 2008, where we began working directly with SMEs. From that point, we’ve since come together with a further 10 universities in the Yorkshire and Humber region, sharing best practices on how we can support SMEs.”

Since 2008, Leeds University Business School has provided courses, as well as educational and training initiatives, to almost 500 companies across the north of England, who have in turn, supported economic growth.

Alongside this, Professor Thorpe has been active in pushing SME engagement up the national agenda. He co-chaired the Innovation Task Force, the stimulus for which came from the then Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts.

The task force produced an influential report, raising questions on innovation and engagement in the context of current economic policy, as well as the education of British managers, and the effectiveness with which academic and scientific innovation in the UK has translated into practice and commercial success. Lord Young, the Prime Minister’s Enterprise Advisor, in his report on barriers to growth faced by small firms, recommended business schools work closely with small businesses, acting as anchor institutions in the local economy. The Association of Business Schools (ABS) assisted by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, were tasked by the Government with delivering the Small Business Charter back in Spring 2013.

The first Small Business Charter attracted applications from around 30 business schools. The accreditation process encompassed assessment over a range of areas, including whether small businesses are able to obtain good advice from the institution, if incubation units for graduates to start up new firms were offered, and whether suitable placements with SMEs were on offer to students.

Rob Whieldon was responsible for leading the Small Business Charter application on behalf of Leeds. He explains, “We were assessed in March 2014 – an exercise which covered 30 different dimensions relating to enterprise with students, enterprise in the curriculum and enterprise with regional SMEs. We were delighted to be one of only three awarded the gold standard – it really reflects our strength in fostering enterprise in the region.”

UNIVERSITY-WIDE EXCELLENCEMore than just an accolade for LUBS, the award was applied for by the University as a whole. Jo Cutter, Assistant Director of the University’s Professional Services Sector Hub says, “The charter allowed us to showcase work not only undertaken by the Business School but also work from across the University that supports SMEs.

BUSINESS SCHOOL ENTERPRISE INCUBATION PROGRAMME

FUNDING SOURCED FROM ALUMNI OF THE UNIVERSITY

20 TO 30 GRADUATES EVERY YEAR PROVIDED WITH A PLACE TO START THEIR BUSINESS

WE OFFER WORKSPACE AND BUSINESS ADVICE

£

Going for Gold

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For example, engineering are involved with the Yorkshire Innovation Fund that provides resources and advice for SME-University collaborations, while CCI Exchange, our Cultural and Creative Industries hub, supports innovation in SMEs through the Leeds Creative Labs programme.”

“The Gold Standard recognises excellence at the University” explains Rob Whieldon, who played a pivotal role in persuading Goldman Sachs to work with the University of Leeds on their pilot of ‘10,000 Small Businesses’ programme. “The pilot was extremely successful – we’re now on cohort nine which will complete in July. ‘10,000 Small Businesses’ was a key part of our success in being awarded the Gold Standard. It enabled us to demonstrate that we have a proven track record in working with, and benefitting, small businesses – nearly 275 SMEs have been through the programme since we started in 2010.”

Alumni from the Goldman Sachs initiative are also giving back to the University in a wide range of ways. Small businesses graduating from this successful scheme have gone on to teach modules, offer placements and internships, become members of advisory boards, take up mentoring roles and work with our business start up service Spark.”

EXTERNAL FOCUSAnother factor behind Leeds gold standard award is the University’s commitment to an externally focused model of partnership working. Jo Cutter explains,“supported by an initial £6m of investment, we are building stronger partnerships between Leeds research centres and individual industry sectors.

“The research funding that comes to Leeds is underpinned by an understanding that our research will not only be excellent, but also that we can demonstrate that our research will benefit business, influence policy design and engage public debate.”

“Working with external partners means we can identify practical solutions to real needs, based on our world class research. My role involves identifying opportunities for collaboration, driven by an understanding of the expertise we have across the University and within research centres. We were delighted to support Rob and the team in preparing for the Charter assessment, showcasing the range of work undertaken across the University and the partnerships with regional agencies and networks that underpin this.”

ENCOURAGING ENTERPRISE Away from LUBS, there are other initiatives happening across the University which played a part in securing the Gold Standard award. Professor Nigel Lockett is Director of the Leeds Enterprise Centre at the University:

“This is a focal point for enterprise education and research on the campus. We deliver undergraduate and postgraduate modules, and are particularly proud of our postgraduate MSc Enterprise and our innovative undergraduate programmes. These include a Year in Enterprise for students interested in taking a year out to work on their own business idea between second and final year.”

He explains, “We were able to demonstrate that enterprise isn’t just confined to the Business School, but that it works across the University – in a sophisticated and coherent way.

“Our Enterprise Action Group meets every six weeks to make sure we are making a positive impact on students and stakeholders involved, looking at how we can improve enterprise opportunities. The InTechnology Enterprise Incubation Programme is pivotal to our success. Every year 30-40 students and graduates are provided with a place to start their business – we offer workspace and business advice. Funding for this programme was sourced from a local entrepreneur and we continue to look at ways to ensure it remains unique. Our collaboration with other departments is part of our differentiation. This was all an important part of our assessment for the Gold Charter.”

Spark, the University’s business start-up centre, also offers an impressive support

service to students at the outset of their entrepreneurial journey,

under the watchful eye of Head of Business Start-Up, Kairen Skelley. “Students wishing to start their own business will get support and encouragement from the Spark team, from initial idea to start up and beyond. This includes a hot desking facility and

the provision of up to date information.”

Professor Peter Moizer, Dean of Leeds University Business

School, concludes, “We already play a significant role in fostering enterprise

and supporting and engaging with businesses in the region. The award of this Charter, which reflects the commitment and hard work of staff at the Business School, will support our efforts to build on these foundations and will help us to move this work up a gear.”

Find out more about:

Sparkwww.leeds.ac.uk/spark

Enterprisewww.leeds.ac.uk/enterprise

10,000 Small Businesses Programmewww.business.leeds.ac.uk/10ksb

Professional Services Sector Hubprofessionalserviceshub.leeds.ac.uk

u The benefits of the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses Programme.

Impact 9

‘10,000 Small Businesses’ was a key part of our success in being awarded the Gold Standard. It enabled us to demonstrate that we have a proven track record in working with, and benefitting, small businesses – nearly 275 SMEs have been through the programme since we started in 2010.

Rob WhieldonDirector of Small Business Programmes

‘‘

LEEDS UNIVERSITYBUSINESSSCHOOL

GOLDMANSACHS

THE10,000 SMALL

BUSINESSESPROGRAMME

GRADUATESTEACH, MENTOR, OFFER PLACEMENTS

AND GIVE ADVICE TO OTHER SMEs

30months after completing the programme the results are plain to see

88% increased turnover between 26% to 42%

Net growth in employment in 12 months from 12% to 26%

The UK programme increased participating business growth between 10% and 25%

90% increased the number they employ

93% of participants say they are more confident in their ability to grow their business

University of LeedsLeeds, United Kingdom

LS2 9JTTel. 0113 243 1751

www.leeds.ac.uk/impact

IMPACT Issue 9

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