RCaH Impact Acceleration Fellowships and Workshops

Four multidisciplinary research groups have been funded by an open EPSRC call to undertake "cutting-edge" research, and to facilitate this the groups have been housed in the purpose built Research Complex on the Harwell Science and Technology site, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), so that the groups have ready access to the world-leading synchrotron, neutron and laser facilities at RAL.

The four groups comprise:
I. The UK Catalysis Hub: The Hub has four main areas of research: catalysis and energy, catalysis in protection of the environment, chemical transformations and catalysis by design. The physical base at Harwell coordinates Hub activities as well as hosting the design theme projects and providing residence to over 20 full time researchers. The Hub network brings together a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling catalytic challenges incorporating world-leading academics in their respective areas.
II. The Structural evolution across multiple time and length scales MXIF@RCaH Group: The MXIF@RCaH team has a strong culture of knowledge exchange across disciplines, identifying and undertaking challenging 'step-jump' imaging experiments to study "Structural evolution across multiple time and length scales".
III. The Dynamic Structural Science Consortium (DySS): This consortium makes full use of the Diamond synchrotron, the ISIS neutron and the Central Laser facilities to develop techniques for following chemical and biological processes, in the solid-state and in solution, over timescales of picoseconds to minutes.
IV. The Phase Modulation Technology for X-ray Imaging Group: This team from UCL and Sheffield University is developing new optics for X-ray imaging and has pioneered a new "single-shot" X-ray method.

These four groups have been working successfully at the RCaH since 2011, and at the recent mid-term review have been encouraged to achieve "even greater impact by increasing the interaction between the four groups" and "developing greater industrial involvement in order to make the project more sustainable and guarantee the potential for high impact research and development".

Through the Impact Acceleration funding that the four groups are now jointly applying for we wish to achieve these targets by appointing 8 Impact Acceleration Fellows (4 Academic and 4 Industrial) for periods of up to six months, who will each span the research fields of two or more of the RCaH groups and/or will have strong industrial links. The Fellows, who will be international experts in their own areas, will be tasked with fostering the academic and industrial links between the four groups at the RCaH and the wider international academic and industrial communities.

Secondly, we wish to run 8 Workshops during the next two years to further facilitate the interactions between the four groups, between the groups and the wider academic and industrial communities, and to focus on the development of early career researchers working in the science areas of the groups at the RCaH. The workshops will alternate between scientific dissemination format, translation to Industry format, and Early Career Idea Factories. We will invite internationally leading academic and industrialists for the scientific dissemination format and translation to industry format workshops, and encourage the early career researchers already working at the RCaH to develop their own idea factory workshops.

Through these activities we will accelerate the impact of the high quality science being undertaken by the four EPSRC-sponsored groups at the RCaH.

The RCaH is uniquely placed to benefit from the world-leading facilities available on the RAL campus, with the EPSRC groups well-placed scientifically to exploit this position. The mid-term review of these programmes highlighted the excellence of each individual group, and the further benefits, especially on impact, if the groups are brought together. A core impact will be this cross fertilisation, and results it seeds. Further, by bringing in 8 leading experts (both academic and industrial) and provide them with the time to facilitate these interactions, they will also insure wide ranging benefits and impact on the academic community and on industrial and manufacturing sectors in the UK; it will also have broader economic, environmental and social impact.

Although the exact impacts will differ for each of the newly stimulated interactions, two exemplar areas are detailed below:

Multi-scale, coherent diffraction imaging of catalysts: An Impact acceleration fellow will bring together the Catalysis Hub and two x-ray imaging groups, and DLS to produce a technique which can be used for fast screening of commercial catalysts and novel materials. Catalysis is at the heart of the UK's Chemical sector, and such a technique will directly impact on companies such as GSK, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Johnson Matthey, BP and Unilever. It will also lead to more sustain

Next Generation Scaffolds: These project will combined the MXIF, DySS, laser, DLS and BBSRC groups, together with SME Industry to transition novel flexible bioactive glass scaffolds from the petri dish to the body. These materials both actively induce wound healing, whilst providing an anti-microbial delivery method. The potential societal impact is large, as currently, more than 200,000 patients in the UK alone suffer from chronic wounds (NHS spend is £2.3-3.1bn per year in this area).

Another strong impact will be on Early Career Researchers. Not only will we run specialised workshops, but it is envisaged that the Early Career Researchers at RCaH will be pioneers in the collaborative method of working fostered by RCaH. Via hosting 8 workshops, the scientific, industrial, educational impact will be translated to the broader academic and industrial communities.

Our proposed exchange of ideas and business focused interaction between the four groups at RCaH and incoming Fellows will lead to a step change in the way research is viewed and performed leading to high impact outputs, new business opportunities and potential spinouts.