Catapults provide UK’s missing link

Moreover, they are intended to generate economic growth. The seven initial Catapults, selected from an initial pool of 50, were deemed the most promising in terms of creating world class leadership with British companies and technology. Catapult origins Although a number of approaches existed before the Catapults – some still exist – this is the first time that markets have been targeted, rather than technologies. Edmonds noted: "Germany has the hugely powerful Fraunhofer network. China has technology innovation centres called Torch Centres. The Dutch, the Danes, the French all have networks. So when Dr Hermann Hauser did his review, the sole question was 'did the UK need technology and innovation centres?'." Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary in the Gordon Brown administration, commissioned entrepreneur and innovator Dr Hermann Hauser to report on how the UK could best harness its technological expertise in order to provide economic growth. His report, backed up by a similar document from Sir James Dyson, commissioned by the Conservatives whilst in opposition, was embraced enthusiastically by incoming Business Secretary Vince Cable and by David Willetts, minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Getting the initial budget of £200million over the first five years was a hard fought process – it was a time when the coalition Government was committed to cutting £6billion from public spending in its first 60 days. "It was clearly recognised as a good innovation at a difficult time," observed Edmonds. Each country's model is different, but direct comparisons will inevitably be made with Fraunhofer network, which was designed to help rebuild Germany's post war economy. It has a 60 year head start on the UK, but implementing the same structure in the UK would have had limited impact, Edmonds said. "Fraunhofer Centres started to highlight what research universities could do and how they could bring that into business in Germany. A Fraunhofer Centre must be based in a university and it must have a professor leading it. When we looked at that system, we saw some strengths, but we already had the world class university sector. Dr Hauser's policy was to make these business led; to pull stuff out of universities, with business pulling through, rather than universities pushing out." With the principles established and funding in place, the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult was first to launch – addressing a key component in the rebalancing the economy. Approximately 11% of the UK's GDP is generated by manufacturing. This compares to the European average of 16%, which is bolstered by the German figure of 20%. Manufacturing, according to Dr Hauser, therefore needed to be rejuvenated, led by innovative techniques, rather than low cost, subsidised practices. In terms of selection of the others, Edmonds commented: "When Dr Hauser set his report and people accepted his conditions, he said we should only have Catapult centres where we have world leading capability in business and research. The market must be truly global and we must be able to anchor mobile business in the UK around Catapult Centres." The remaining six Catapults are: Cell Therapy, Satellite Applications, Connected Digital Economy, Future Cities, Transport Systems and Offshore Renewable Energy. They have progressed over the past two years at different rates as the right strategy, staff and facilities are put in place. Making progress This summer, Dr Hauser is conducting a follow up report that has a number of goals, including a review of progress to date and his views on the future shape and scale of the Catapult network – should they, for example, have a role in provision of skills or finance. His report is due in the autumn and Edmonds believes the research will result in a very promising first year report. "For HVM, it would be a second year report," he said. "It is doing really well and are meeting its business plan and, in some cases, exceeding it." The Catapults have a 'one third, one third, one third' funding model. The Government, through the Technology Strategy Board, provides core funding of one third; the Catapult needs to find private sector input for another third; whilst the remaining third comes from funding sources such as collaborative R&D or European projects. "HVM is meeting that funding model and it is now approaching us for more core funding," said Edmonds. With the extra year behind it, the HVM Catapult – which includes the National Centre for Printed Electronics amongst its seven constituent facilities – can already boast a number of successes. Although not in the electronics field, one stand-out project that demonstrates the value and objective of a Catapult is the development of the Rolls Royce disc factory in Sunderland. Edmonds said: "Most of the process technology for Rolls- Royce was conducted at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham. So this was Rolls-Royce doing key product and process development in a Catapult Centre and then building a factory to take the technology developed in Rotherham into production." Cell Therapy was next and has made an equally impressive start, with major projects with Glaxo Smith Kline. Another example is ReNeuron, a small, innovative company which is in the process of opening a new manufacturing plant in South Wales based on a number of projects it worked on with the Cell Therapy Catapult. Edmonds added: "And in the budget it was announced that [the Catapult] would get a further allocation of £55m to set up a cell manufacturing centre because, at present, there is a gap for a good cell manufacturing base in the UK. The Catapult is going to establish a place where companies can come in and work on projects in the laboratory. Those that are really promising and passing the regulatory approvals can then go to the factory to scale up the manufacturing and then out into their own manufacturing operations." All Catapults, to varying extents, will rely on innovative electronics for control, sensing, measurement and the like. Possibly most dependent on good electronic design will be the Satellite Applications Catapult. Its main focus is looking at how to use data sourced from satellites. "Consequently, said Edmonds, "there is a lot of SME engagement because there are a lot of companies – small start ups – that want to use and access satellite data. What the Catapult does is provide access to satellite data and equipment." Alongside using the data, the Catapult is also looking at the infrastructure that lies behind the satellite sector. A core element of the Catapult is the CDF – Concurrent Design Facility. This allows partners to carry out rigorous feasibility studies of mission concepts and can be used for studies on spacecraft, instruments and payloads. Other Catapults are also doing well, said Edmonds: "Offshore Renewable Energy is starting to coalesce the industry around the huge opportunity – the UK is the biggest offshore wind deployer in Europe. Transport Systems is really steaming ahead, with a major project on driverless pods in Milton Keynes and it is working with the Civil Aviation Authority on air space strategy and technology linked to that. So we are happy with all of the Catapults." Filtering through are two new Catapults, with the process underway of who will host them and where. "Precision Medicine," said Edmonds, "is about how medicine is targeted. This is surely going to have a big data and an electronics angle to it. And Energy Systems will look at how do we generate a new energy system." Dr Hauser's review will put 'meat on the bones', but the perception is that the Catapults are already showing a lot of promise. The original budget of around £200m over five years, will now be closer to £160m for 2015 alone. Edmonds added: "You are not going to make quick wins in technology development; it takes years in some cases for technology to flow through to market. So it is something, I anticipate, Dr Hauser will stress again in his [new] report that these must be long term investments." Catapult key successes/progress HVM Catapult • Over the past 12 months: worked with 1087 private sector industrial clients; more than 1700 SME engagements; established an order book of £218m of innovation work. • Chancellor in the Budget 2014 announced £14m for Graphene Applications Innovation Centre as part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. • A joint team from Rolls-Royce and the Manufacturing Technology Centre has been working to develop a new pre-production process for Advanced Blade Casting. The team has achieved significant productivity improvements and, as a result, an Advanced Blade Casting Facility is currently under construction for Rolls Royce. Cell Therapy Catapult • Collaborating with ReNeuron Group on new cell therapy manufacturing technologies, as part of a collaborative R&D deal. • £55m for a new UK Cell Therapy Manufacturing Centre – expected to open in 2016/17 – providing large scale manufacturing facilities, helping the country to retain manufacturing activity, attract inward investment and boost exports. • Part of the BloodPharma Consortium, winner of a £5m award from the Wellcome Trust for red blood cell transfusion project Satellite Applications Catapult • In 2013, actively supported more than 30 small businesses and is already engaged with another 40. Overall, the Catapult has worked on more than 75 projects • Rezatec applies new science to satellite imagery. It has, so far, launched two products developed alongside the Catapult; one providing global forest carbon stock values; as well as a global deforestation monitoring service. • WeatherSafe Coffee software applications to provide coffee farmers and governments with vital information on their coffee crops on devices ranging from mobile phones to computers. Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult • Partnership with The Crown Estate – three year MoU to work together on programmes aimed at increasing the momentum of driving down costs of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy. • Joint project with Nova Innovation to better understand our tidal resource in order to maximise energy generation from tidal devices. The Tidal Array Model Real-World Evaluation project is aimed at improving existing tidal modelling techniques. Transport Systems Catapult • The autonomous vehicles projects – the LUTZ programme – along with members of the Automotive Council, Department of BIS, Milton Keynes Council and industrial partners. • The Catapult is working with the Civil Aviation Authority/Future Airspace Strategy, and National Air Traffic Services to establish a Future Airspace Strategy Departure Planning Information project, aimed at connecting a large number of UK airports into the European Network Manager to share real time departure planning information. Connected Digital Economy Catapult • The Integrated Transport and Weather Information Pilot is a collaboration between the Transport Systems Catapult, Connected Digital Economy Catapult and Sunderland Software City. This pilot project combines real-time weather and environmental hazard information with the development of new services and applications. • The Copyright Hub is a large strategic project bringing together the creative and digital sectors to build a platform for business trading in content and data rights. Future Cities Catapult • The Greater Manchester Data Synchronisation Project will coordinate the release open data across local authorities. The project will stimulate innovation in areas such as education, environment and planning • How can we make it easier for blind and partially sighted people to find their way around cities? A partnership with the charity Guide Dogs and Microsoft are looking into it using technology and human centred design.