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Background

Flaér (a brand by Scottoiler Sport Solutions) are a new performance cycling brand established to launch their most recent innovation, the Revo Via, the world’s first chain performance system for road bicycles.

The Flaér Revo Via chain performance system applies micro-doses of a specially developed fluid to the chain at set time intervals during the ride, so no matter what the conditions, the chain remains perfectly optimised – all the time.

This unique system ensures maximum power transfer to the wheel, smoother gear shifts and a visibly cleaner transmission. The result – you get the most out of the effort you put in. Our extensive testing has shown up to 12 watts in power gains at the wheel – a figure which increases the longer the duration of the ride.

Challenge

A key aim with this product is to engage with professional road cycling teams.  Prior to starting production, Flaér were keen to conduct aerodynamic testing that would help them better understand the performance benefits of the Revo Via and establish what drag their system would create on a road bike.

Solution

Chris Simpson, the Technical Director at Flaér, contacted Interface when they were in this last stage of testing as they were looking to engage with an academic department with full wind tunnel facilities and associated expertise to carry this out. Interface was able to help him;

After putting out a search to various universities, Interface introduced Chris to Dr Richard Green from the Department of Aerospace Sciences at the University of Glasgow to access their wind tunnel facility and the related support the University offers.

Benefits

The project has since led to the creation of improved processes and improved, as well as new, products, with a resulting increase in overall productivity, products and turnover. The business has now also secured a UCI professional road cycling team (Orica-Scott) who they will work with for the next 3 years as technical development partners.

“Thanks to the work of Interface and their wide reach of academic contacts, we have been able to reach out to specialists who have been able to help us fulfil our project requirements. The response time, communication and understanding provided by Interface was outstanding. Their attention to detail and support was extremely valuable in our business achieving its goals”. Chris Simpson, Technical Director, Flaér.

The project has led to follow on work with the University of Glasgow where a Postgraduate student is carrying out computational work to add more detail to the experimental work that Dr Richard Green performed for them.

Background

Stuart Speake founded Soltropy Ltd in 2012 to bring to market an innovative solar thermal panel system.

Solar thermal heating systems reduce CO2 emissions by displacing the use of fossil fuels. According to the Energy Saving Trust (EST), a solar thermal panel saves between 230kg and 510 kg per year depending on which fuel it is displacing.

Most solar thermal systems have a separate antifreeze filled loop for protection against freezing and require a new tank fitted with a heat exchanger. When retrofitting, a perfectly good tank (usually copper) needs to be replaced. The Glasgow‐based company, Soltropy Ltd, has developed an innovative solution that allows the fluid in the panels to freeze without causing system damage, allowing the system to be set up to heat water directly, negating the need for a new hot water tank and potentially reducing the system cost by 50%. 

Challenge

The company was looking for academic expertise to provide solid data on the overall system performance.

Solution

After hearing about Interface at an event, Louise Arnold was able to put the company in touch with Dr Tadhg O’Donovan from the Energy Academy at Heriot Watt University.  Thanks to the University’s support, Soltropy was awarded a £5,000 Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface, which helped to offset the cost of the project.

The project is now finished with the software model developed. This has proved to be very useful to the company, indicating clear areas where the design can be modified, resulting in different characteristics.

Follow On

This collaboration lead to a grant of £6.5 K from the ETP consultancy fund being secured to build a prototype and carry out comparison testing with an incumbent solar thermal system.  Testing was carried out at the Heriot-Watt University Renewable Energy Test site with the installation of two evacuated tube solar panels.  One panel was modified to incorporate the Soltropy technology; with instrumentation installed to measure fluid flow rates and fluid temperatures so as to determine an accurate thermal performance for the duration of the project. The work was carried out by two Mechanical Engineering students, funded by student bursaries, as part of an MSc programme in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. 

In December 2014, Soltropy, along with project partners Heriot-Watt, succeeded in securing Innovate UK (formally Technology Strategy Board) funding with a grant of almost £175k as part of the Early Stage Energy Catalyst.

Tests at Heriot‐Watt University have shown that the Soltropy system behaves differently from the “old style” systems and requires a different control strategy.  The main aims of the year long project is to investigate what type of strategy would be appropriate along with some new innovations to further reduce the cost of the system. The project partners have received a grant of £90k which will fund a Research Associate full time, and ultimately extend their collaborative project.

Benefits

Soltropy Ltd has benefited from the collaboration with a more optimised system through theoretical modelling.  It now has data to back up claims it will make when convincing potential investors and, ultimately, installers and consumers, of the superiority of the system.

The initial project brought the University increased understanding of solar thermal systems and gave them the opportunity to work with Soltropy under a larger funded programme to further develop the project.

As this system will be manufactured in Scotland and sold worldwide, the Scottish economy will benefit from an increase in employment and revenue.

“Interface has helped immensely with my journey from my initial idea to a validated tested product. They were the initial help in partnering us up with academia to help in taking it from this idea, through software modelling and then actual lab and onsite testing.”  Stuart Speake, Soltropy

“I can honestly say that without Interface I doubt that my innovation would have gotten off the ground” said Stuart after winning the Sustained Partnership award at the 2016 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards.

Updates

In June 2016, Soltropy were awarded the £100k Scottish Edge Higgs award.

Higgs EDGE is a special award aimed at entrepreneurs who have a company that has applied leading edge technology to an innovative product, or product under development in the Science, Technology or Engineering sector, which is potentially world leading and also has the potential for large scale global commercialisation.

Soltropy also received an Energy Technology Partnership fund of £6.5k to build a prototype and carry out comparison testing with an incumbent solar thermal system.

Two further projects involving Soltropy have recently been funded by the Innovate UK Energy Catalyst scheme:

1.       Reducing the Cost of Solar Thermal: Integrating a Novel Freeze Tolerance Approach with Flat Plate Solar Thermal Panels

2.       Reducing the Cost of Solar Thermal: Integration of Thermal Storage with Solar Collector Design

The combined funding for each of these projects totalled £200k.

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

HAS Technology (parent company of CM2000), created ARMED, an Advanced Risk Modelling for Early Detection service which – through the development of a mobile platform – enables health professionals to be identified in a Service User’s home to ensure the right care is delivered at the right time. 

Their technology has been designed so that both Service Users and Care Workers are completely protected, for example, sending alerts when a visit is running late so that advanced action can be taken. The service evidences a range of Service User improvements, tracks the impact of interventions and helps assess customer satisfaction levels. Linking to ARMED’s Family Portal module allows Service Users and their families to monitor the care and gives them opportunities to answer questionnaires that can be communicated back to the Care Provider, Local Authority and NHS.

Challenge
ARMED records around 10 million community care visit logs each month, and also collects a great deal of data on the needs of Service Users. They approached Interface looking at how this data could be used to evaluate the long-term health of an individual, further supporting those administering the care, as well as those receiving it.

According to Brian Brown, Director of ARMED:

“We approached Interface because they have an excellent reputation for linking business and academia.”

Solution
Interface worked with ARMED to develop their brief, sending it to the most relevant universities and research institutions in Scotland. They received a number of notes of interest but decided to work with Prof. Bill Buchanan, Professor of Computing, and Adrian Smales, PhD Researcher at the Institute for Informatics & Digital Innovation at Edinburgh Napier University.

Thanks to support from Professor Buchanan & Adrian Smales, the business secured a £5,000 SFC Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface. This extra funding helped to offset the cost of the project allowing them to process large amounts of data which gave them the ability to assess the likelihood of the onset of illness. This enabled at-risk clients to be easily identified and closely monitored, thus reducing the need for medical interventions.

Follow-on activity

ARMED were so pleased with their initial project with Edinburgh Napier University that they wished to continue the relationship and, in collaboration with Professor Buchanan and Adrian Smales, developed a second project focussed on building a more robust evaluation platform. Their overall aim was to gather additional information on patients’ conditions, in line with NHS and Local Council requirements, developing predictive techniques which help identify those at risk. In doing so, ARMED’s technology is able to pre-empt expensive hospital-based care, helping healthcare providers across the world to save millions of pounds and improve the quality of service to vulnerable Service Users.

The detailed research and development work in both stages was undertaken by Adrian Smales, a Research Fellow at Edinburgh Napier University, and whose research work has been focusing on the detection of frailty using data from a range of sources. Adrian commented:

“We have a long-term vision of using data to detect the early signs of illness, and apply new methods that should lead to improved care and better outcomes for all.”

Due to the nature of the project, and to cover the cost of the research team who were needed to develop the state-of-the-art predictive tools, ARMED once more approached Interface to apply for SFC Follow-on Innovation Voucher funding. The Follow-On Innovation Voucher allows companies to apply for up to £20,000 of funding which requires to be matched with cash from the company. Thanks to support from Professor Buchanan they were again successful and received almost £20,000 of funding which allowed them to progress with the project.

According to Professor Buchanan:

“Currently, patient information can only be effectively captured in controlled environments such as hospitals, care homes or a GP surgery. This project has significantly extended the effectiveness of ARMED’s mobile platform and by applying our research into advanced predictive analytic techniques we have successfully incorporated patient focused data capture with real-time personalised feedback.”

Brian Brown, Director of ARMED, added:

“By working with the University the time to market has been reduced. The development of this new technology has huge commercial benefits and we expect to significantly increase revenue. It also strengthens our export potential. We expect both quality and cost savings benefits for our customers.”

Since working with Edinburgh Napier University, HAS Technology have gone on to work with the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI). The objective of this project was to apply advanced predictive analytical techniques to the data captured during homecare visits in East Dunbartonshire in order to identify markers which are indicative of the early onset of illness. Leveraging expertise from ongoing work in Primary Care in England will accelerate the integration of the ARMED mobile application into the Frailty Framework in Scotland, providing a unique opportunity to mine data across the boundary between health and social care. 

This collaboration has already been hailed a success in the East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership Care Inspectorate Report, where it scored 6 or excellent in the ‘quality of care and support’ category.  The report from the July 2016 Care Inspectorate told us:

“The people involved in the project were extremely positive about its benefits.  These included being more knowledgeable and aware about their activity, fitness and heart rate, and more informed about their general wellbeing.”

This is an example of how big data, machine learning and predictive analytics can be used in healthcare, and the collaboration between Edinburgh Napier University, the DHI and ARMED is an example of great Scottish knowledge exchange between commercial and academic partners.

With a proven success rate, ARMED has quickly expanded, deployed internationally, gained Microsoft recognition and created 5 new jobs, demonstrating how AI and deep learning can revolutionise preventative care. ARMED is an example of how SMEs can contribute to Scotland having a globally competitive, entrepreneurial, inclusive and sustainable economy. 

2020 Updates

In accordance with the Medical Device Directive (MDD), ARMED has been certified as a medical device and can now be used in clinical settings.

Brian Brown, director of ARMED at HAS Technology, said: “We are delighted that ARMED has received certification as a medical device. Technology has a huge role to play moving forward and with so much evidence to support the benefits of early detection, this places ARMED in a much more credible position, especially within NHS spheres, to help make a real difference.”

The ARMED clinical evaluation stated that a “proactive approach to falls is considered crucial” and “significant reductions in falls” have been observed in trials when a risk of falling is identified, and the risk is managed.

It also highlighted that evaluations to date have identified clinical trends in patient groups including dehydration, weight loss, restlessness nocturnally, muscle wasting and reduced grip strength, all of which can be monitored by ARMED.

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Solar Bear is an award winning multi discipline theatre company based in Glasgow.

Established in 2002 their aim is to produce inclusive theatre that is exciting, pioneering and accessible to performers and audiences alike.

As well as producing and delivering unique stage productions Solar Bear also offer several tailored training and creative learning programmes aimed at young people, adults, schools, local authorities and arts organisations across Scotland. So far they have delivered over 500 workshops nationwide and in January 2008 launched Scotland’s first Deaf Youth Theatre integrating audio description and British Sign Language into on-stage performances and workshops.

Challenge
To build on the success of their existing training programme, and to increase engagement in their newly formed Deaf Youth Theatre, Solar Bear approached the Royal Conservatoire Scotland to create a partnership project that would promote access and engagement opportunities for individuals who are deaf and wish to pursue a career in the performing arts.

Solution
Through RCS, Solar Bear applied for Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher funding which was administered by Interface. The funding allowed Solar Bear to create a 10 week pilot to test the concept of a deaf theatre short course. The success of this pilot led to the creation of a full short course and summer school programme. Now in its second year the short courses run 40 weeks of the year and now have 9 regular student participants.

Due to the success of this pilot, and the subsequent short courses and summer school programmes, RCS and Solar Bear continued their partnership increasing their scope to investigate the possibility of creating a full time BA Degree Course.

According to Gerry Ramage, Artistic Director, Solar Bear Theatre Company, “Solar Bear is delighted and proud to be working with our partners at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to establish formal pathways into the profession for young deaf actors. Our pilot training programme, has already resulted in new and ground-breaking opportunities for a new generation of deaf actors and audiences alike. Our shared vision will reflect and celebrate Scotland’s cultural diversity by ensuring that talented young deaf people have access to quality training opportunities at the highest level.”

As part of the extended partnership Solar Bear received further funding from RCS to create an apprentice programme designed to help RCS shape the course by providing a greater understanding of the needs of deaf students; the needs of deaf audiences and ultimately to understand the employability opportunities for newly graduated deaf actors.

The three apprentices conducting the research found that interest in visual theatre is becoming increasingly prevalent and audience numbers are continuing to rise. There is also more and more demand from other main stream theatre companies who are looking to bridge international language gaps by incorporating visual theatre into their programmes.

The apprenticeship programme is due to finish in August 2014 but it is ready evident that there is a desire for and from visual performers and therefore the new course has been agreed and is due to launch in September 2015.

Gerry says, “British sign language is beautiful, visual and accessible and with increased interest from more traditional theatres for deaf actors we are confident that demand for visual theatre will continue to increase. Thanks to the initial Innovation Voucher funding we know that the new BA Degree course will give deaf actors the skills and confidence to succeed in what is a very competitive market.”

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Scottish Ballet is Scotland’s national dance company and one of five national performing companies in Scotland. It is a registered charity, employing 36 professional dancers, a dedicated support staff, and a freelance orchestra of up to 70 musicians.

The mission of Scottish Ballet is to produce world-class dance and learning opportunities designed to engage and excite diverse audiences in Scotland, the UK and internationally. This is achieved by presenting modern work and unique interpretations of the classics, making them relevant to audiences today. In support of this, Scottish Ballet designs and creates costumes, sets and unique dance environments, together with a focus upon education initiatives centered around dance.

Challenge
Widening access to the arts is both a national priority and a challenge and capable of being addressed by employing novel applications of technology and “new to the field” innovations.  The company approached Interface to establish a collaboration to evaluate the potential of using augmented reality in a dance context.   This innovative project combines dance with novel technological approaches to choreograph, produce and capture in 3D a “movie” of bespoke dance sequences to widen public dissemination and participation in the arts.

Solution
A pilot project with the renowned Digital Design Studio (DDS) at Glasgow School of Art was brokered which sought to demonstrate that the use of visualisation and presentation technologies can enthuse existing and new audiences to engage with the arts. The core aim of the collaborative project is to create a high definition film which will show dancers in a short choreography, mixed in with the motion capture data “vapour trail”. This initial project tested the idea in the promotion of Scottish Ballet’s input to the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival.

Outcome
The collaboration and product development journey jointly taken by the partners has resulted in a better mutual understanding of each other’s area of expertise and has opened wider dialogue around future collaborations of this nature. The production of the unique HD film has allowed dance to be viewed in a novel way, creating a new method through which wider audiences can engage with the arts.  The impact for DDS is that it now has a potential new market within which to develop new techniques and products, for example, to use its expertise to promote the visual and acoustic arts. This is likely to lead to new project with Scottish Ballet and others including ventures into data capture and live streaming of events. For Scottish Ballet, the main impact relates to the development of a novel way to showcase their performances, reach new audiences and explore further new ways to use interactive digital technologies to supplement traditional promotional methods.

Highland Galvanizers was formed in 1978 to provide a galvanizing service across Scotland and has developed a reputation for quality and reliability of service.

In order to provide a better service, in 2002 a second plant was opened in Cumbernauld operating under the name of Highland Colour Coaters, thus introducing a quality means of having colour on galvanized steel. Developing this process extensively, the Company now offers its unique Colourgalv process to those who want both decorative and corrosion protective coatings on all manner of metalworks.

Challenge

This Colourgalv process runs into an occasional problem called pinholing where the galvanized steel appears to evolve some gas during the curing of the powder through the hardening powder-coating causing small craters or pinholes.

Solution

Interface identified expertise within six universities across Scotland and the company opted to work with Glasgow Caledonian University.

“We were delighted with the responses we received from the universities. Glasgow Caledonian was clearly able to demonstrate expertise in this area,” commented Geoff Crowley, Managing Director, Highland Colour Coaters

“We have reduced the rate of re-works from 4% to less than 1%, saving between £70,000 and £100,000 per annum to our business…For researching a problem that we don’t have the people, time or resources to do ourselves, this KTP was great for us”

Following discussions between the partners, a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) was identified as the most beneficial mechanism for managing the research for the company.

Benefits

Jackie has just joined the team as Business Engagement Executive for West of Scotland. Jackie comes from an entrepreneurial background having previously created her own businesses within the food and drink industry. She has a wealth of experience with start-ups and has a unique insight into accelerators and incubators through her own experience and has helped and supported a range of many other entrepreneurial ventures throughout her career. Passionate about Scottish businesses, and in her own time, Jackie is a founding board member of the Glasgow Basket Brigade, a volunteer organisation providing food and essentials to those across Glasgow experiencing difficulties and hardships. A former client of Interface, she is excited to join the team and has experienced the rewards of successful collaborations between business and academia.