“Everybody has a book in them” it’s said, but very few of us actually get it out and onto paper.
Joseph Beuys, the great twentieth century sculptor, performance artist, thinker, and founding member of the Fluxus group, famously declared that now “everyone is an artist”, though he didn’t mean that everyone should take up a paintbrush!
It’s a common assumption that unlocking creativity and finding the way to express it is the work of the arts, design and the creative industries. That is certainly true, but it is also the key to the holy grail of contemporary buzzwords, innovation.
So does everybody have an invention in them?
Innovus has certainly demonstrated in its first three
years that there are more ideas around than usually see the light of day, and that the best of those ideas - if nurtured and encouraged - will create jobs and stimulate further investment.
Innovus is the creative approach to technology commercialisation being taken by The University of Manchester and National Nuclear Laboratory, two organisations that have important facilities and expertise across the Northern Powerhouse, including at its most remote corner, on and near the Sellafield nuclear licensed site in Cumbria.
A vital part of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership’s strategy for growing the county’s innovation sector, other LEPs are pursuing the Innovus approach for their areas, the most advanced of these being Cheshire and Warrington.
Three years has passed since the first grant was awarded and during that time with 79 jobs have been created with a further 442 expected to result from current investment.
We’ve picked three products that demonstrate the innovation of Cumbria, the impact that Innovus is having, and emphasise the exciting flow of ideas through the innovation pipeline.
World Changing Technology
It was whilst working in Nigeria on a waste-to-energy project that Matt Simpson the MD of Typhon Treatment Systems of Penrith first took up the challenge to produce the most energy efficient water treatment possible. He soon realised that his solution had to succeed.
It is expected that the replacement of existing ultra-violet (UV) water treatment technology with Typhon’s UV LED system will result in an 80 to 90 percent decrease in energy usage.
This decreases the cost of water purification, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and enables the use of alternative energy sources to power the water treatment system.
Water is vital to life and in an increasingly global world, the supply of clean drinking water is essential. This effective and efficient water treatment will transform the ability of the developing world to provide sufficient supply for its people and bring substantial health benefits.
Innovus has worked with Typhon throughout to accelerate the development of the technology towards practical implementation.
Wearables Reducing Risk in Hazardous Environments
With many years’ app development experience, Mobetrics was set up to deliver rapid and high quality solutions - using wearable and mobile technology - to clients big and small.
Being Cumbria based, the nuclear industry was always going to be a target, and wearables are already starting to show potential to address some of the sector’s challenges.
Utilising Google Glass technology, the Second Sight software allows visual data to be captured and relayed wirelessly to remotely stationed support staff, who can then communicate information to the operator via the screen on board the glasses.
A range of real time health data is collected through the use of wearable heart rate monitors and core body temperature sensors as well as radiation dose, again provided to operator and support team.
Working closely with Sellafield Ltd through its Game Changers programme, delivered by Innovus and the National Nuclear Laboratory, the technology is being developed to meet real plant requirements, where access and conditions are difficult.
High Speed Sports Neck Protection System
It was in 1941, six years after T E Lawrence died of head injuries sustained crashing his 988cc Brough Superior motorcycle, that the first helmets for motorcyclists were made mandatory in the British Army.
Within five years, the rate of fatal accidents had fallen from its peak of 200 per month to 50, despite the fact it was another quarter of a century until the wearing of helmets became mandatory for civilians in 1973.
Following Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994, Formula 1 made great advances in protection of drivers’ necks in the event of a crash, using the support of the car itself, but motorcyclists remain extremely vulnerable to neck injury.
The human head is a heavy part of the body and, when the distance of its connection with the torso and the weight of a racing helmet are added, the likelihood of injury from an impact at speed is high.
Amaya Munoz, the founder of INNDE Innovation and Design Engineering, has designed a helmet restraint system to change this.
The system partially absorbs the energy of the crash and disperses it away from the neck area to the scapula, reducing neck loads.
The novel solution mimics the shape and function of the neck bones and muscles, providing comfort and flexibility in normal use, but additional strength in the event of a collision.
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