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edgeIssue #33Spring 2016

The Hub is Brunel’s latest addition to its portfolio of activities aiming to address the full innovation value chain in the area of metal casting. The Hub has its fundamental research centred on the understanding of heterogeneous nucleation at the atomic level and the development of generic techniques for nucleation control in solidification processing of recycled alloys (discovery/understanding). Such scientific understanding and generic techniques will then be applied to the development of advanced materials and processing technologies at the laboratory scale (adaption/integration). The developed recycling-friendly materials and sustainable processing technologies will feed into AMCC I and AMCC II (see Leading Edge Summer 2016) for scaling-up and validation (adaptation). Industrial demonstration (validation) and industrial implementation (deployment) will be carried out in close collaboration with industrial partners. The Hub’s research programme consists of 9 platform research activities (PFRAs) and 9 Grand Challenge research activities (GCRAs), each of which is effectively a subproject. These PFRAs and GCRAs form the starting point of the Hub’s research, with the possibility of introducing new ones as appropriate either as replacements or as completely new projects representing a new research direction to deliver more effectively the Hub’s objectives.

One of the current barriers to closed loop recycling is the number of different grades of metallic materials in commercial use today, often differing only slightly in their chemical composition. Unnecessary alloying elements create products that are difficult, or impossible, to recycle. Creating materials that have been specifically designed with recycling in mind will significantly improve recycling rates. Currently the UK is a net exporter of aluminium scrap to China and India, and this is a loss of an extremely valuable resource. The Hub’s research programme will demonstrate that aluminium scrap is an energy bank and viable source for the manufacture of high integrity automotive structures and chassis and powertrain components. This will transform the industry particularly if there is strong integration with the vehicle dismantlers. Whilst the primary focus of the first phase of the Hub is the automotive sector, the scientific principles developed for closed loop recycling and the advanced processing technologies are equally applicable to aerospace,

rail, marine, electronics and other engineering sectors, and new collaborators will be sought in these areas.

The overall approach to the research to be undertaken will be to use secondary aluminium, with its inclusions and impurities, as a starting material. A process will be developed which will deliver an aluminium melt with minimised inclusions, impurities and hydrogen content. Then, rather than further refining to remove residual impurities, research will focus on minimising the harmful effects of those impurities and instead use them in a positive way. The ultimate aim will be to develop recycling friendly aluminium alloys and sustainable solidification processing technologies to facilitate closed-loop recycling.

The ultimate vision of the Future LiME Hub is full metal circulation. The planned research programme spans fundamental nucleation research, materials development, technology innovation and industrial applications. Realisation of full metal circulation in the context of a circular economy is a global challenge and requires the joint efforts of academia, industry, government and society as a whole. The Hub will take a leadership role on behalf of UK plc and will develop an extensive outreach programme to engage all potential stakeholders to deliver the widest impact.

Further funding brings the vision of full metal circulation a step closer

BCAST Director Professor Zhongyun Fan has successfully applied for a further £10m of EPSRC funding to develop the Future Liquid Metal Engineering Hub (The Future LiME Hub). Funding for this £60m initiative will comprise £5m from participating universities and £45m from the public sector in addition to the EPSRC award.

Inside the mind of a piano pg 4

Profile of Professor Juliette Legler pg 9

Old school gaming pg 11

Pace system update pg 12

The ultimate vision of the Future LiME Hub is full metal circulation. The planned research programme spans fundamental nucleation research, materials development, technology innovation and industrial applications.

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Celebrating Brunel research

To mark the first year of the new University structure with three Research Institutes (Materials and Manufacturing, Energy Futures, and Environment, Health and Societies), an inaugural annual research conference was held at the University on Tuesday 6 October. Brunel’s world class research has now been organised into 15 themes working on addressing global challenges through the adoption of inter-disciplinary methodologies.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julia Buckingham, introduced the event alongside the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research, Professor Geoff Rodgers. Julia welcomed a delegation from two Kenyan universities who visited Brunel that day to learn more about the work of the institutes and form connections.

She also highlighted the key pieces of research from the past year, including HEFCE funding for Professor Fan, the Horizon 2020 programme, a grant awarded to Christina Victor for culture and sport research, and the research visa scheme, where researchers are encouraged to communicate the details of their research with a variety of associates that they encounter through conferences and networking events.

Following on from this, Julia emphasised the importance of quality of research rather than quantity. Geoff agreed and noted the need for the institutes to consider how their research could potentially work in the future in conjunction with their close proximity to each other, holding an advantage over other universities with institutes in various locations.

For the rest of the day, seminars with panels of experts were held for each of the three institutes covering subjects including liquid metal engineering and micro-nano manufacturing, renewable energy and solar thermal energy, and ageing studies and biomedical engineering.

A research poster display was held over lunchtime which presented the institute achievements and work over the past year, including:

• Materials and Manufacturing – design for sustainable building with flax and hemp, structural integrity, materials characterisation and processing.

• Energy Futures – sustainable food systems which reduce greenhouse gas emissions, addressing demand and environmental impact in buildings, cities and communities by improving quality of life and strengthening urban economies through sustainable planning.

• Environment, Health and Societies – impacts and rapid changes in the sea level, optimisation 3D co-cultures of primary breast cells and serial sequencing of evolving populations.

It is expected that this event will become an annual activity to further cement the working relationship between the institutes. Find out more about the research institutes and their themes through our website - http://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-themes

Welcome to Leading Edge

Welcome to the 32nd edition of Leading Edge. Since the last issue the HE Green Paper, the Nurse Review and the Comprehensive Spending Review have all been published. Broadly, these have left funding for science and research unaffected, and have reaffirmed a commitment to the dual support system. The principle changes affecting research are the amalgamation of the research councils into a single body, Research UK. At this stage it isn’t clear which body will take responsibility for implementing the next Research Excellence Framework, but nevertheless the government has committed to hold the next peer reviewed REF before 2021. In addition, Innovate UK are moving from a system of grants for its industrial partners to one of loans.

In this issue a number of successes are highlighted. In particular congratulations are again due to Professor Fan and his team in BCAST who have secured £10M of funding for an EPSRC Manufacturing Hub in Future Liquid Metal Engineering. The core Hub activities will be based here at Brunel supported by the complementary expertise of academic spokes at Oxford, Leeds, Manchester and Imperial College London. Industrial partners have committed to invest a further £45M in the research programme. This firmly establishes BCAST as a major force in UK engineering research – a terrific achievement.

There is also a feature on an agreement we have signed with FAPESP, the Brazilian funder of research in Sao Paolo state. We are one of a small group of research intensive institutions in the UK to agree to match fund grants awarded by FAPESP to catalyse research collaborations between the UK and Brazil. Further details can be found in the article.

As we continue to improve our research culture, we will receive further external recognition of our progress.

With best wishes to you all

Professor Geoff Rodgers Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Leading Edge focuses on research at Brunel University London.

For details on how to submit articles please contact Vic Gill in the Research Support and Development Office on ext 67398 or email vic.gill@brunel.ac.uk

Editor: Content and production: Vic Gill, RSDO

University Photographer: Sally Trussler, Media Services

Printed by: Brunel University Press

When you have finished with this newsletter please recycle it.

ContentsFuture Liquid Metal Engineering Hub............ 1

Leading Edge Editorial ....................................... 2

Celebrating Brunel research ............................ 2

Catalyst Fund Award Results ........................... 3

Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) ................... 4

EPSRC funding success: DASCIP ................... 4

Royal Academy of Engineering Grant .......... 4

Inside the mind of a piano ................................ 4

Performance Research Seminar Series ......... 5

Three Minute Thesis ............................................ 5

Staging the Henrician Court ............................. 5

Seeds of the Future: Somali Programme ..... 5

Brunel-Nazarbayev Collaboration................... 6

MRC highlight HERG’s research....................... 6

Third World Approaches to International Law ............................................ 6

Landmark research partnership ..................... 7

Brunel University signs MoU ............................ 8

New research staff profiles .............................. 9

Contracts Awarded Quarter 1 .......................... 10

Contracts Awarded Quarter 4 ........................ 11

Old School Gaming: Going back to basic .... 11

Change in HEFCE REF eligibility ........................12

PACE System Update ...............................................12

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The Research Institute Directors met recently to review and award the latest cohort of applications for the Research Catalyst Fund. There were 6 submissions for the Interdisciplinary (INTER) Awards, received from members across the three Institutes, with two projects being awarded funding in this round:

Farnaz Nickpour was chosen to receive funding for her pump-priming interdisciplinary research project on ‘Wellbeing care maps’. The design led project is the second Interdisciplinary Research Award to be granted funding by the Institutes since the launch of the scheme in April 2015. The collaborators include Elizabeth McKay, Pamela Abbott, Raffaella Valsecchi and Andreas Dimopoulos, thereby developing a research team with members from a wide range of backgrounds. The funds will be used to carry out an exploratory project which will firstly survey service users and then build on the survey findings with theme-based creative workshops. From this the investigators will formulate early stage Wellbeing Care Map concepts, with the intention of using this preliminary data to formulate proposals for funding externally.

The third INTER award was to Jennifer Ryan, in collaboration with Christina Victor, Neil O’Connell, Kimberley Smith, Nana Anokye and Silvia Liverani. The project aims to investigate the prevalence of age- and lifestyle-related chronic disease and causes of mortality amongst adults with cerebral palsy in the UK compared to the general population. A retrospective cohort study will be conducted using data from the CPRD, a governmental, not-for-profit research service that provides anonymised patient data to public health researchers. The funds will enable access to CPRD Gold data sets of up to 50,000 patients, which will not only benefit this project but will have wide usage and benefit across the Institute.

A further six awards were made in the IDEA category which supports the development of novel ideas that have the potential to kick start a new area of research activity.

The first award in this round is for a feasibility study conducted by Yan Huang to integrate casting and extrusion into a single process. The proposed new technology has the potential to reduce energy usage and reduce the scrap rate, thereby offering a more sustainable approach for the production of light alloy components for the automotive industry.

The second IDEA award in this round is a collaboration between Jennifer Ryan and Nana Anokye to determine the feasibility of conducting an economic evaluation of resistance training for adolescents with Cerebral Palsy. The investigators are currently undertaking a trial to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of the intervention, but it does not include an evaluation of cost-effectiveness, which is an increasingly important measure used by research funders and policy makers. If an economic evaluation of the resistance training intervention proves feasible, the investigators will incorporate data collection on the economic indicators into the current trial and seek further funding for analysis of the data collected.

The third award is to Meriel Norris and Jennifer Ryan who propose to examine the associations between activity capacity, capability, performance and participation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in order to improve specificity of future interventions. People with physical disabilities represent a growing ageing population and people with MS experience similar age-related declines in function and participation as the general ageing population albeit at a younger age. Interventions to maintain function and participation are urgently required for adults with MS to promote lifelong healthy ageing. The Healthy Ageing Theme focuses on interventions that improve the quality of life and health of older people and as such this programme of research is in line with the aim of the Theme.

The fourth award is a social science collaboration related to energy and buildings, led by Peter Wilkin, from the Institute of Energy Futures and Fabrizio Ceschin, from the Institute of Materials and Manufacturing. The funds will be used to examine the process behind the construction of a purpose-built energy efficient apartment bloc in France, with a similar building in the UK. Data gathered through interviews will aim to elicit the importance of conceptualizing social life when producing plans for the transformation of housing and urban spaces.

Additionally, Lesley Henderson has been awarded funding to conduct a pilot study on the feasibility of using digital methods to capture online public conversations about health. Through a bespoke social media data and analysis tool, public engagement with health stories will be captured. The project will develop a collaborative research network, to help formulate a larger project that explores the impact of new media practices on relations between health and science.

For the final award in the current round, Alvin Gatto will investigate base pressure drag reduction techniques for Large Goods Vehicles. The project will use a novel, small scale, test rig designed into a realistic tractor-trailer configuration which will allow direct assessment of the rolling resistance and aerodynamic performance of the trailer section of the vehicle through measurement of directly applied drag force. The project will make use of Brunel’s wind tunnel research facilities to investigate the viability of two new LGV drag reduction technologies and fits with the Institute of Energy Futures’ remit to develop means to improve energy efficiency.

For more information about the Research Catalyst Fund, visit:

https://intra.brunel.ac.uk/research/Pages/Research-Institutes.aspx

Research Institutes Catalyst Fund Award Results

The three Research Institutes are pleased to announce the results of the Research Catalyst Funds.

IDEA AWARDS

Institute of Energy Futures

Dr Alvin Gatto: ‘Investigation of base pressure drag reduction techniques for Large Goods Vehicles’

Dr Peter Wilkin and Dr Fabrizio Ceschin: ‘Housing Innovation, Renovation and Energy Efficiency: A Complex Social Problem’

Institute of Environment, Health and Societies

Dr Jennifer Ryan and Dr Nana Anokye: ‘An examination of the feasibility of an economic evaluation of resistance training for adolescents with cerebral palsy’

Dr Lesley Henderson: ‘Storytelling & Public Health: Digital Methods, Media Advocacy & Social Change’

Dr Meriel Norris and Dr Jennifer Ryan: ‘The association between activity capacity, capability, performance and participation in adults with Multiple Sclerosis’

Institute of Materials and Manufacturing

Dr Yan Huang: ‘Feasibility study of integrated cast-extrusion of light alloys’

INTER AWARDS

Institute of Materials and Manufacturing

Dr Farnaz Nickpour; Dr Elizabeth McKay; Dr Pamela Abbott; Dr Raffaella Valsecchi; Dr Andreas Dimopoulos: “Wellbeing Care Maps” - The Exploratory Study

Institute of Environment, Health and Societies

Dr Jennifer Ryan; Prof Christina Victor; Dr Neil O’Connell; Dr Kimberley Smith; Dr Nana Anokye; Dr Silvia Liverani: ‘Age- and lifestyle-related chronic disease and causes of mortality among adults with cerebral palsy in the United Kingdom’

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Inside the mind of a piano

Since developing her second ‘Inside-Out Piano’ with an Athena Swan Award in 2014, Sarah Nicolls (Senior Lecturer in Music, CBASS) has created a new one-woman show, written an album and performed some of the oldest ‘inside piano’ music written (Henry Cowell’s Banshee is from 1923) live on BBC Radio 3, all supported by Arts Council England. The show is called Moments of Weightlessness and uses the Inside-Out Piano as a giant theatrical metaphor for the journey into motherhood, exploring the creation of new things and the moments when life holds you, not knowing what will happen next, all through lyrical music, movement and narrative.

She now embarks on a tour of the show and has created an unusual impact project ‘In Our Hands’ to go alongside this. Run through Sound and Music’s Audience Labs scheme, Sarah is inviting parents from the areas she is touring to take part in a filmed conversation two weeks before each performance, to talk about shared experiences of birth and parenting. In the film, only hand gestures will be seen and the films will then be used to online to generate further discussion. Through these conversations and through ‘relaxed performances’ for parents and children, Sarah is hoping to attract new audiences for new music.

Overseas Industrial Research Funding Success for Developing Advanced Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs)

Dr Harjit Singh of the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences and the Institute of Energy Futures has been awarded a prestigious research grant of the value of circa £162,000 to develop advanced vacuum insulation for domestic, industrial and commercial appliances. The funding has come from a multi-billion industrial organisation based overseas and will last 14 months.

This project entitled “Cost Effective Maximum Performance Vacuum Insulation Panels for White Goods” aims to develop a range of cost effective VIPs which have the potential to achieve 6-8 times higher thermal resistance than foam insulation currently used in appliances. VIP is a critical enabling technology to allow ultra-thin walls (12.5 mm) which will mean a dramatic increase in internal volume or decrease in external volume for the same internal volume. This will allow a reduction in compressor power required by appliances by enhancing their efficiency of energy use, thus significantly reducing their carbon footprint. The research will focus on understanding and resolving the complex heat transfer phenomena in VIPs which is expected to lead to the identification of the most suitable materials, manufacturing processes and testing procedures. The research objectives will be delivered through a combined computer modelling and experimental technique optimised by Dr Singh and his team.

The acquired expertise will be further exploited to develop new variants of VIPs which will be proposed for application to buildings, transport and industrial processes.

For more information contact harjit.singh@brunel.ac.uk

Royal Academy of Engineering Grant for Engine Research

Dr Apostolos Pesiridis from the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering and one of the academics in the Centre for Advanced Powertrains and Fuels (CAPF) has been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Distinguished Visiting Fellowship grant. The work, in collaboration with Dr Hua Chen of the National Laboratory for Engine Turbocharging Technology (NLETT) is looking to conduct joint research across a range of fundamental and applied themes in the area of turbocharging. One of the projects being pursued is the characterisation of the pulsating flow effects of exhaust gases emanating from the engine to turbocharger turbine performance with a view to developing advanced design codes for such devices. In addition, the collaboration is developing advanced axial turbine turbocharger technology particularly for highly-downsized gasoline engines. Interest in axial turbines (more commonly found in larger jet engine applications for aircraft among others) has surged in recent years for both automotive and marine turbochargers and it is hoped that work in this area will result in even more efficient and responsive engines.

For more information contact apostolos.pesiridis@brunel.ac.uk

Design for Sustainable Manufacture team awarded an EPSRC grant for research project entitled Design Assistant for Semantic Comparison of Intellectual Property (DASCIP)

PI Dr Mark Atherton (Design Engineering), Co-I Dr Alessio Malizia (Computer Science) and Co-I Professor David Harrison (Theme Leader, DSM) from the Design for Sustainable Manufacture theme in the Institute of Materials and Manufacture have been awarded an EPSRC grant for a research project entitled “Design Assistant for Semantic Comparison of Intellectual Property (DASCIP)”. This £344k (FEC) project received £277k funding from the EPSRC – Manufacturing the Future programme, and is supported by two major international companies, Crown Technology and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs. The project duration is 18 months and started on 1 February 2016 with Dr Pingfei Jiang Research Fellow (Design Engineering for Innovation) joining from the School of Design Engineering at Imperial College. Another Research Fellow (Computer Science) is due to join in June 2016.

The research will develop a computer design tool that highlights potential patent infringement of an emerging design, focusing on novel geometrical features, which are common in mechanical engineering design. A CAD system will be adapted to store internal model annotations of the emerging design for comparison with a patent database that has also been annotated. Patent infringement will be statistically quantified and depicted in a visualisation superimposed on the emerging CAD model, thereby supporting the designer to create innovative solutions. New advances that identify potential patent conflict and prompt novel design solutions are of considerable interest to industry.

Photo Credit: Sarah Nicolls and her Inside-Out Piano in one of its many possible positions: taken by Hugh Fox

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Interdisciplinary Performance Research Seminar Series in the Arts & Humanities

A new Research Series launched in October 2015 aims to probe troubling interpretations of the increasing unrestrainment of capital, and its impact on all social-economic, cultural, creative, and educational sectors in the developed world; the sustainability of democracy is an urgent emerging research theme for those of us in the performing arts/creative field becoming intensely aware of the multiplication of realities (virtualization; networked infrastructures) and the growing depoliticization of culture and art. The main objective of the Series is to articulate various perspectives on politics & performance. In particular, the series will examine:

• Labour and virtuosity / refuge and asylum

• Decolonization and the politics of ‘not-quite’ identities

• The aestheticization of performativity

• Ritual politics, gender relations, social and sectarian conventions

• Algorithmic culture and participatory art

For dates and details of the next seminar, visit:

http://people.brunel.ac.uk/dap/ResearchSeminarSeries.html

For more information about the METABODY research project, visit the below link or contact johannes.birringer@brunel.ac.uk

http://people.brunel.ac.uk/dap/meta.html

Seeds of the Future: Somali Programme

Sarah Penny, from the English Department, has been working in the field of FGM, trying to find ways of encouraging communities to move away from the practice by sharing inspirational testimony from families who have already rejected genital cutting as a choice for their daughters.  Penny uses creative writing and dramatherapy in fusion to harness this testimony.  Last year Penny was funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to conduct a pilot study to test these methodologies with Masai and Samburu in Kenya, and this work was the basis of a new project, Seeds Of The Future, which aims to reduce FGM amongst British girls (currently about 5000 girls are cut per year).  The first phase of Seeds Of The Future happened in June and was co-hosted with the Midaye Somali Development Network.  Sarah worked over a three week period with five adult women who had been infibulated as children, four adolescent girls whose families had protected them from infibulation, and three men who strongly object to FGM.  This testimony will now be translated into Somali and podcast by Thomson Reuters, using actors.  The podcasts will be used at a grassroots level by community health advocates to encourage the Somali community to reject genital cutting altogether.

Staging the Henrician Court

Professor Thomas Betteridge was recently interviewed regarding his ‘Staging the Henrician Court’ project as part of a project undertaken by the AHRC in celebration of its 10th anniversary as a Research Council. The AHRC planned to produce a series of short films, each examining one year (2005-15) and highlighting a project that was either funded or completed in that year. The aim was for the films to be punchy and succinct, examining the successes / achievements of the project and where the research has led.

Three Minute Thesis

Following the Graduate School's successful Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition in March 2015, the competition winner - Chioma Paul – beat 50 semi-finalists to present at the Vitae National 3MT® Final. Chioma, a second-year PhD candidate in the Department of English (College of Business Arts and Social Sciences) presented her research entitled "Using fiction to explore the traumatic impact of Grenada's taboo history".

The 3MT® challenges doctoral candidates to present a compelling spoken presentation on their research and its significance in just three minutes. This academic competition was developed by the University of Queensland, Australia, and its success has led to the establishment of local and national competitions around the world.

Chioma was one of only six UK finalists to be chosen. She delivered a perfectly timed presentation which was followed by resounding applause from the audience. However, she was narrowly beaten by Zaid Janjua, an Engineering researcher from the University of Nottingham with a presentation about aviation materials.

Take a look at the Finalists' presentations and decide for yourself. They can be viewed online. We would like to congratulate Chioma on her achievement and for an outstanding performance, and we look forward to promoting more of Brunel's talented researchers at this year's 3MT® Competition.

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New Book: Computation Intelligence Applications in Smart Grids

Dr Ahmed Zobaa, Senior Lecturer, CEDPS, co-edited a new book entitled Computational Intelligence Applications in Smart Grids: Enabling Methodologies for Proactive and Self-Organizing Power Systems with Dr Alfredo Vaccaro, University of Sannio, Italy. The book, published in February 2015, considers the emerging technologies and methodologies of the application of computational intelligence to smart grids.

From a conceptual point of view, the smart grid is the convergence of information and operational technologies applied to the electric grid, offering sustainable options to customers and improved levels of security. Smart grid technologies include advanced sensing systems, two-way high-speed communications, monitoring and enterprise analysis software, and related services used to obtain location-specific and real-time actionable data for the provision of enhanced services for both system operators and end-users.

In this context, a crucial issue is how to support the evolution of existing electrical grids from static hierarchal systems to self-organizing, highly scalable and pervasive networks. Modern trends are oriented toward the employment of computational intelligence techniques for deploying advanced control, protection and monitoring architectures that move away from the older centralized paradigm to systems distributed across the field with an increasing pervasion of intelligence devices. The large-scale deployment of computational intelligence technologies in smart grids could lead to a more efficient tasks distribution amongst energy resources and, consequently, to a sensible improvement of the electrical grid flexibility.

MRC highlight HERG’s research

The MRC highlighted research conducted at the Health Economics Research Group (HERG), Brunel University London, in its 2014/5 Annual Report. In describing its programme of work on the economic impact of research it featured the first completed project of the new programme. This was led by Steve Hanney from HERG and investigated the elapsed time between research and its eventual impact (Hanney et al, 2015). The whole MRC programme on economic impact was developed following the success of the HERG-led project funded by the MRC, Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Sciences to estimate the monetary value of UK medical research (Buxton et al, 2008).

Link for the MRC report: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/publications/browse/annual-report-and-accounts-2014-15/

Third World Approaches to International Law: Between Theory and Praxis

Dr Ayesha Shahid (Department of Politics, History & Law) organised a panel on the “History of International Law and Islam” at the Fourth Annual International conference Third World Approaches to International Law: Between Theory and Praxis, in Cairo, Egypt organised by the American University in Cairo and Windsor University Canada in Feb 2015. She also presented a paper titled “Tracing the History of International Law within the Islamic Legal Tradition” at the conference.

Brunel-Nazarbayev University Collaboration

Two Civil Engineering lecturers at Brunel University have been awarded British Council funding to organise collaborative research workshops with Nazarbayev University Kazakhstan in March 2016, through the prestigious Newton-Al Farabi Partnership Programme. Dr Evina Katsou will host a workshop on “Water Management and Environmental Impact Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry” and Dr Katherine Cashell will organise a workshop on “Resilient Structures and Infrastructure”. Both workshops share a common purpose of bringing together researchers, practitioners, local government and funding agencies from the UK and Kazakhstan in order to establish long lasting collaboration between the two universities. They will be held concurrently with several joint sessions as well as break-out subject specific sessions, as appropriate. Both Dr Katsou and Dr Cashell are keen to facilitate the pathway between researchers and the various stakeholders in order to ensure that the findings and recommendations are implemented to benefit local communities.

The workshops will discuss current and future topics in need of greater research, industrial case studies and possible funding avenues. Specific topics covered in the “Water Management and Environmental Impact Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry” workshop include:

• Water management in oil and gas plants – technological solutions;

• Environmental and economic impact assessment within the oil and gas industry;

• Conventional and advanced treatment processes for the treatment of wastewater – water reuse

• Legislative aspects related to the discharge/reuse of reclaimed water; and

• Oil spill/disaster emergency response and mitigation.

Specific topics covered in the “Resilient Structures and Infrastructure” workshops include:

• Design of robust buildings and infrastructure;

• Structural resilience during extreme loading scenarios such as fire, earthquake, blast, etc.;

• Structural resilience in the oil and gas sector;

• Mathematical modelling;

• Advanced materials for construction;

• Energy absorption capacity of structures and materials; and

• Soil-structural interaction during earthquakes.

For more information contact evina.katsou@brunel.ac.uk or katherine.cashell@brunel.ac.uk

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Child and Family Law Group appointment

Dr Ayesha Shahid has been appointed as the National Co-ordinator for Pakistan (2014-2016) by the Child and Family Law Group, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg. Dr Shahid has completed a Country Report on “Incorporating the Best Interest of the Child Principle in Custody and Guardianship Cases in Pakistan”. The report was presented at a two day workshop in Rabat, organised by the Max Planck Institute and Centre Jacques Berque , Rabat, Morocco 2nd -3rd April 2015.

Brunel University London to tackle how universities respond to rape on campus

Youth Studies researcher Dr Pam Alldred from Brunel University London has been awarded a €1.1 million grant from the European Union’s Justice Programme to develop new training for university staff on how to respond to sexual violence experienced by students. This is the largest grant awarded in this round of funding.

The project team of ‘Universities Supporting Victims of Sexual Violence (USVSV): Training for Sustainable Student Services’, will design, develop and pilot training for university staff to be effective ‘first responders’ to reports of sexual violence by their students. Security, bar and refectory staff, accommodation and counselling services will all be included and it will become part of a University’s staff development, so that they are trained to respond sensitively and effectively to a student reporting a sexual offence.

Brunel and Sussex University will lead a review of research on best practice in first responder support and referral and report to partners. Then each of the seven European partner universities in Greece, Italy, Spain and the UK will design a training programme appropriate for their country and context informed by the report.

While in the UK, the Duty of Care expected of universities and statements by the Director of Public Prosecutions place this project on a secure footing, in the partner countries, this support cannot be assumed: the Italian, Spanish and Greek project partners are expecting to face more difficulty in improving university policy and embedding this training in universities. Twelve universities are collaborating in the project, six of them in the UK. The project’s final aim is to share good practice and policy across UK and EU universities.

Power Systems Senior Lecturer Elected as Fellow

Dr Ahmed Zobaa, Senior Lecturer in Power Systems, is now an elected Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA) for his contributions to the educational assessment strategy. Dr Zobaa is also an MSc Course Director for Sustainable Electrical Power and a member of the Smart Power Networks theme in the Institute of Energy Futures. Dr Zobaa said: “I was delighted to learn about my success, and look forward to supporting the CIEA with their work.” The CIEA was set up to improve standards in educational assessment. They are a professional membership organisation. Their members include teachers, examiners, school and college leaders, academics, awarding organisations and people responsible for professional development in diverse sectors including finance, health and land management.

Brunel enters landmark research partnership with Brazil

Brunel University London and FAPESP, the State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation, have agreed a partnership agreement to promote cooperation in scientific and technological research between Brunel University London and the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

FAPESP, formed in 1962, is an independent public foundation with a mission to foster research and the scientific and technological development of the State of Sao Paulo. It supports research in all fields and helps provide opportunities to develop scientific careers through fellowships and grants. It has an annual budget of about a half billion dollars and is seeking to recruit talented researchers from all over the world to Brazil. Some 70% of Brazil’s

research funding is concentrated in the state of Sao Paulo’s higher education institutions and FAPESP is the main conduit for the funding. Since its establishment, 1% of the state taxes collected in São Paulo have gone towards FAPESP. It is considered a role model for funding innovative research and academic exchange, and is well known to form contracts for academic exchange, scholarships and research projects with globally reputable universities.

Brunel’s deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Geoff Rodgers said: “We are very proud to form this five-year research agreement with FAPESP. This landmark partnership represents a significant commitment from Brunel to developing substantial research collaborations with Brazil. It will also allow us to build on existing research links such as University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the State University of Campinas (Unicamp)”

The partnership will include joint funding for collaboration research activities and academic mobility between researchers from Brunel and researchers from the State of Sao Paulo. Brunel and FAPESP will offer up to £40,000 per year between the two institutions for a period of five years to finance projects for terms of up to two years. The funding could include grants, mobility costs, specific costs for meetings and research costs for each of the research projects that are approved. The proposals for this programme require a joint submission by both a Brunel Researcher and their collaborators based at a Higher education institution in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Brunel plans to host a series of workshops for a delegation of fellow researchers from the State University of Campinas later this year, to promote research collaborations.

Find out more: FAPESP website: http://www.fapesp.br/

Further contact or enquiries about this opportunity to Dr. Yulia Matskevich, Research Development Manager: Yulia.Matskevich@brunel.ac.uk

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Ageing Studies theme members invited to the Antipodes

The international standing of the research undertaken by the Ageing Studies theme of the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies was recognised by the invitation of two of our members, Dr Gail Eva and Professor Christina Victor, as keynote speakers at major international conferences in Australia.

Dr Gail Eva, Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy in the Department of Clinical Sciences was one of three international guest speakers at the 13th Australian Palliative Care Conference, held in Melbourne during September. Her plenary lecture titled ‘Fit for their futures? How palliative care disables people with life-limiting illness’ drew on her research into the social, psychological and

occupational consequences of cancer-related disability to show how failing to support the personal identity of someone with life-limiting illness can significantly affect their quality of life.

Professor Christina Victor was a keynote speaker at the 3rd international conference on Ageing in a Foreign Land organised by Flinders University in Adelaide. Christina presented a lecture on the experience of older migrants in the UK which forms part of the new Ageing Populations research cluster within the Ageing Studies theme.

Both Christina and Gail are involved in collaborative projects with academic colleagues at Flinders University on topics associated with healthy ageing.

New Drug Development at Sichuan University in China using Brunel Technology

Professor Ian Sutherland has been awarded a Guest Professorship at Sichuan University in the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center in West China Hospital & Medical School in Chengdu. There has been a long standing research collaboration between the Biotherapy and Cancer Center and the Advanced Bioprocessing Centre (ABC) at Brunel (now headed up by Dr Svetlana Ignatova) since Professor Sutherland first received a visiting professorship there in 2005 (Figure 1).

The Research Center at West China Hospital is one of the biggest centres in China focusing on developing new drugs from natural products. The liquid/liquid chromatography/extraction technology developed in Brunel’s Advanced Bioprocessing Centre (commonly referred to as Counter-current Chromatography - CCC) is proving ideal for isolating and manufacturing pure bioactive compounds from traditional Chinese sources.

The collaboration between the two groups initially started with Brunel setting up prototype analytical instruments in a small CCC lab there, training two of their postgraduates in the use of the technology while on exchange programmes and then advising them on how to set up larger scale facilities for the manufacture of new drugs for clinical trials. The Sichuan Group have now purchased two laboratory preparatory scale instruments from Dynamic Extractions Ltd, a spin out company from Brunel, and have used these instruments to manufacture 1 kilogram of Honokiol, a potential new anti-

cancer drug isolated from the bark of a Magnolia tree. They are currently in the process of getting CFDA approval for Stage 1 Clinical Trials. In the course of this collaboration there have been 10 joint scientific research papers published and a further 18 papers from their own group using the Brunel technology for the identification and scale-up of potential new drugs.

The next step is for them to scale-up the technology for higher production rates in readiness for stage 2 clinical trials. Dr Aihua Peng came on a one year working visit to Brunel to train on our large scale CCC instruments. While working with us he and the Chinese team, with our advice on the technology, applied for an instrument development programme grant from the Chinese Government which was successful (Figure 2) with a planned start in January 2016 (7m RMB over 5 years).

Professor Sutherland will be visiting their group for the second time this year for planning meetings. The Brunel group hopes to establish parallel research activities at Brunel with exchange students from Sichuan University with the ultimate aim of preserving their world leading role in both the efficiency of the process and its scale up.

Brunel University signs MoU with the UK Intellectual Property Office

Brunel University signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Economic Research and Evidence (ERE) team at the UK Intellectual Property Office in November 2015 for the development and analysis of data which will improve the government’s knowledge and understanding of the role that Intellectual Property plays in boosting innovation and growth in the UK economy. Over the next two years Prof Suma Athreye, from Brunel Business School, will advise and develop the UK’s evidence base so that it is capable of shedding light on the role that intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets) actually plays in nurturing innovation in UK firms. As the Hargreaves Review noted in 2011 this is currently a large gap in the evidence

base for policy towards intellectual property. Prof Athreye will also work with the ERE team to disseminate the findings from this new evidence base more widely to policy colleagues at the parent organisation in the Department of Business Industry and Skills but also to quasi-governmental bodies such as NESTA and Innovate UK. The MoU formalises a long period of engagement between Prof Athreye and the UK IPO which started in 2010 and has encompassed some path-breaking work linking patent use and innovation in the UK economy. Some of this work is now being replicated at patent offices in other countries.

Figure 1: Professor Sutherland being presented with his visiting professorship by the president of Sichuan University on March 28th, 2005.

Figure 2: The Sichuan Team from Mechanical Engineering and the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer who travelled to Beijing for the Government Interview on July 24th, 2015: from left to right: Dr Hui Fang; Professor Guofu Yin, Professor Ian A. Sutherland, Professor Lijuan Chen, Dr Haoyu Ye, Dr Aihua Peng

9

RESEARCHprofiles

99

Identifying links between healthcare outcomes, wellbeing and social care needs

Principal Investigator: Jeshika Singh

Co-Investigators: Dr Louise Longworth and Dr Subhash Pokhrel

It is becoming increasingly important for decision makers to be able to measure and compare diverse outcomes arising from health and social care interventions with people living longer and often with several comorbidities or chronic conditions that require care. As different outcome measures are currently used for assessment in the two sectors this creates difficulties for comparisons. There is currently little clarity about how outcomes used in healthcare are associated with outcomes used in social care. Brunel University proposed a study to understand how health and social care measures are related to each other, by

empirically comparing responses to EQ-5D with responses to measures of social care needs and subjective wellbeing using a large dataset obtained from the UK general population (Health Survey for England). European Quality of Life (EuroQol) group funded this research in July 2015.

Jeshika Singh, who is a research fellow at the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) and currently pursuing a part-time PhD, is leading this project. This is Jeshika’s first ever research funding award. Her supervisors Dr Louise Longworth and Dr Subhash Pokhrel will be helping her with the project.

Professor Hari Upadhyaya

Professor Hari Upadhyaya is leading the Solar Energy Conversion research at Brunel University from January 2015. Prof. Upadhyaya was instrumental in setting up the PV laboratory and led the Thin Film and Excitonic PV group at Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), at Loughborough University, UK from 2005 before joining at Heriot Watt University in 2011, where he led the Energy Engineering group. With his past experience in thin film PV for about 25 years, he is an expert in the low cost (non-vacuum) and conventional (vacuum based) thin-film materials and photovoltaic device processing research and characterisation and he is currently setting up the laboratory facilities at Brunel. His research involves

activities on Transparent Conducting Oxides (TCOs), Dye Solar Cell (DSC), Provskite solar cells, CdTe and CIGS thin film solar cell technologies. His research interests also include the electrochemical storage technologies, where he was involved in pursuing research projects on Na- rechargeable batteries and ion/electron conducting polymer based supercapacitors from 1996-2002, in India.

Prof. Upadhyaya came to UK from India through Royal Society Fellowship to work at Imperial College, where he established himself quickly as an expert in Dye-sensitised Solar Cells on flexible substrates. In collaboration with Prof. Michael Gratzel, the inventor of the DSC technology (EPFL, Switzerland) and Prof. Ayodhya Tiwari (EMPA, Switzerland) he had

established over ~15% efficient record Dye/CIGS Tandem Solar Cells in 2006, which was highest for thin film based tandem solar cells at that time. He is involved in managing several Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) such as Excitonic Supergen consortium involving top Universities in UK, and recent EPSRC-DST funded APEX project between India and UK worth £5 Million (now APEX-II with additional £3M) as coordinator from UK. Prof. Upadhyaya has established strong links with industries in the UK and abroad viz. Solaronix SA, Scientific Vacuum Systems, NSG-Pilkington, G-24 Power, DuPont Teijin Films, Johnson Matthey, BHEL, Tata steel, Moserbaser, etc.

Professor Juliette Legler

Dutch-Canadian toxicologist Professor Juliette Legler has joined the College of Health & Life Sciences at Brunel University London, as a Professor of Toxicology and Environmental Health. She will also lead the Environment and Health research theme in the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies.

A successful fundraiser, Legler has brought €4million in the last five years: she was coordinator of the EU OBELIX and Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research projects, which study possible links between early life stage exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, and the development of obesity later in life.

Legler explains, “Links between chemicals in the environment and obesity have been identified by scientists for a decade. Obesity

is a hormonal disease, and those endocrine disrupting chemicals which affect our metabolism would play a significant role. In light of this, the calories-in and the calories-out paradigm which has dictated how we perceive and fight obesity, shows that we really know very little about this multifactorial and complex disease. There is more to this disorder than meets the eye.”

Previously at VU University in Amsterdam, Legler brings a wealth of knowledge to the Institute at Brunel headed by Professor Susan Jobling and prominent in the study of the impact of chemicals on human and aquatic health. In addition, she participates in various advisory committees such as the Dutch Health Council and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Dean of the College, Paul Hellewell and Professor Jobling welcomed Juliette, “We are delighted to welcome Juliette to Brunel. She is an extraordinary scientist and leader and the perfect choice to lead the Environment and Health Theme. Juliette will bring enormous vision and ambition to the College - and will cement the Institute’s place at the heart of Environment and Health research in the UK.”

Professor Legler will be discussing her research in her role as a panel member in the Big Question: What is really to blame for the obesity epidemic? at Brunel University London on 27 April along with Brunel’s Professor Andreas Kortenkamp. For more information vist http://tinyurl.com/janou29

10

RESEARCHcontracts

10

Contracts Awarded Quarter 1 (1 August 2015 to 31 October 2015) £15,607,383

College of Business, Arts & Social Sciences

Prof Thomas BETTERIDGE: AHRC - Exploring the potential of combining performance and digital research in a heritage context, £79,102

Dr Paul MOODY: Film London - London: A Bigger Picture, £3,260

Prof Christos PITELIS: WPP 2005 Ltd - Impact of Branding on Profitability - Transfer in, £114,785

Prof Michael WAYNE: AHRC - Radical Film Network: Sustaining Alternative Film Cultures, £4,859

Dr Hannah WHITTAKER: British Academy - Development on the Margins: Histories of Inclusion and Exclusion in Kenya, c 1895 – present, £7,322

Energy Futures

Prof Zahir IRANI (PI) Prof Habin LEE (Co-I) Dr Afshin MANSOURI: European Commission - CLOUD-VAS (60% overhead version), £236,220

Environment, Health and Societies

Prof Clare WILLIAMS (PI) Prof Steven Paul WAINWRIGHT (Co-I): Wellcome Trust - (Additional Funds) - The ethics of translational research: from ‘unnatural entities’ to experimental treatments. (Transfer-in), £480

College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences

Dr Steve COUNSELL (PI) Dr Tracy HALL (Co-I): EPSRC - FAULT ANALYSES IN INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH, £103,515

Dr Brijesh DONGOL: EPSRC - Verifiably correct high-performance concurrent libraries for multi-core computing systems, £98,219

Dr Paul KYBERD: Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) - MICE - Bridging Grant, £64,765

Energy Futures

Dr Jun XIA: EPSRC - Optimisation of LESsCOAL for large-scale high-fidelity simulation of coal pyrolysis and combustion, £71,016

Dr Hussam JOUHARA: Air Products plc - Thermo storage of biomedical materials and products under low temperature cryogenic conditions, £53,800

Dr Hussam JOUHARA: Air Products plc - Cryogenic freezing and storage of materials using cryogenically cooled eutectic heat exchange, £96,200

Prof Tassos KARAYIANNIS: EPSRC - Flow Boiling and Condensation of Mixtures in Microscale, £431,722

Dr Barry RAWN (PI) Dr Mohamed DARWISH (Co-I): The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) - Non-Active Power Compensators: Implementations and Implications, £12,000

Dr Harjit SINGH: Whirpool Corporation - Cost Effective Maximum Performance Core Composite for VIPs for WHL Domestic Refrigerators, £148,937

Prof Savvas TASSOU (PI) Dr Hussam JOUHARA (Co-I) Dr Yunting GE (Co-I): European Commission - I-ThERM, £607,407

Environment, Health and Societies

Prof Wamadeva BALACHANDRAN (PI) Dr Kate HONE (Co-I) Prof Jasna KULJIS (Co-I): Medical Research Council (MRC) - (Additional Funds) - eSTI2 - Enabling and translating advances in diagnostic and communication technologies to reduce the burden of STIs, £26,783

Dr Svetlana IGNATOVA: BBSRC - QWV – Waste Stream Valorisation, £6,918

Dr Evina KATSOU: The Royal Society - Advanced biological wastewater treatment processes, £106,500

Dr Keming YU (PI) Dr Bin WANG (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Data analysis and its interpretation for use in remaining life assessments, £2,833

Dr Keming YU (PI) Dr Bin WANG (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Online remote condition monitoring using statistical analysis based on a small number of experimental results using AE and vibration analysis, £4,000

Materials & Manufacturing

Dr Mark ATHERTON (PI) Dr Alessio MALIZIA (Co-I) Prof David HARRISON (Co-I): EPSRC - Design Assistant for Semantic Comparison of Intellectual Property (DASCIP), £266,875

Mr Christopher BROWN (PI) Dr Bin WANG (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Crack Tip Opening Displacement (CTOD) formulae for standard fracture toughness test specimens, £2,000

Dr Marco CAVALLARO (PI) Prof Karnik TARVERDI (Co-I) Dr Richard Harold BONSER (Co-I): European Commission - MovAiD, £637,405

Prof Zhongyun FAN (PI) Dr Ian STONE (Co-I) Dr Hari-Babu NADENDLA (Co-I) Dr Yan HUANG (Co-I) Dr Brian MCKAY (Co-I) Prof Geoff SCAMANS (Co-I) Prof Dmitry ESKIN (Co-I) Prof Luiz WROBEL (Co-I) Dr Shouxun JI (Co-I): EPSRC - Future LiME Hub, £10,138,665

Prof Tat-Hean GAN: European Commission - SafeAST, £523,333

Prof Tat-Hean GAN: NERC - HitClean, £645,464

Prof Peter HOBSON: Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) - STFC Quota Studentship 2016, £84,242

Prof Peter HOBSON (PI) Prof Wamadeva BALACHANDRAN (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Tailored Energy Distribution for Laser Beam Processing, £4,000

Dr Shouxun JI: National Aerospace Technology Programme NATEP - Lead-free Explosive Cords, £71,706

Dr Cristinel MARES (PI) Dr Narcis URSACHE (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - A pattern recognition approach for damage detection in composite plates, £2,000

Dr Brian MCKAY (PI) Prof Zhongyun FAN (Co-I): Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) - (Additional Funds) - Characterization & processing of High Thermal Conducting AL-MMCs, £35,170

Prof Jim SONG (PI) Dr Bin WANG (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Determination of the most appropiate parameters for butt fusion welding PE pipes for maximum long-term structural integrity of the joint, £2,000

Prof Rade VIGNJEVIC: AWE PLC - “Modelling of elastic-plastic response of anisotropic metals including evolution of symmetries and shock wave effects”, £81,986

Prof Rade VIGNJEVIC (PI) Dr Nenad DJORDJEVIC (Co-I): European Commission - EXTREME, £464,503

Dr Bin WANG (PI) Prof Luiz WROBEL (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Validation of ‘Leak Before Break’ (LBB) methods for piping, £2,000

Dr Bin WANG (PI) Prof Luiz WROBEL (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - The investigation of the effects of local post-weld heat treatment on residual stresses relaxation through synergistic use of experiments and FEA, £2,000

Dr Bin WANG (PI) Dr Cristinel MARES (Co-I): TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Development of vibration based condition monitoring for the assessment of rotating parts and static structures, £2,000

Dr Bin WANG (PI) Prof Luiz WROBEL (Co-I): TWI Limited

- (Additional Funds) - Effect of biaxility on the fracture and plastic collapse behaviour of pipeline girth welds, £4,000

Dr Bin WANG: TWI Limited - (Additional Funds) - Incorporation of Damage Specific Feedback Loop into PoF calculations for Process Equipment, £2,597

Prof Luiz WROBEL: TWI Limited - Modelling the mechanical behaviour of steels under high loading rates, £42,000

College of Health & Life Sciences

Dr Costas KARAGEORGHIS: Pace Tune LLC - Development of an algorithm to facilitate selection of music programmes for exercise: Phase III, £25,000

Dr Elizabeth Anne MCKAY: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust - Evaluative Study-experiences of using Personal Wikis in recovery journeys, £6,975

Environment, Health and Societies

Dr Anne MCINTYRE: UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation (UKOTRF) - Engagement of general practitioners in falls prevention assessment and referral to allied health practitioners, £10,000

Dr Nana Kwame ANOKYE: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - e-coachER, £91,696

Dr Claire DONOVAN: Australian Research Council - Gendered Excellence in the Social Sciences - Australian Research Council Discover 2016, £30,552

Prof Mary GILHOOLY (PI) Dr Priscilla HARRIES (Co-I) Prof Kenneth James GILHOOLY (Co-I) Dr Mary SULLIVAN (Co-I) Dr Gillian DALLEY (Co-I): Dawes Trust - (Additional Funds) - STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE AND NATURE OF FINANCIAL ABUSE OF THOSE LACKING MENTAL CAPACITY, £2,750

Dr Matthew GLOVER: Wellcome Trust - ERS III - Estimating the returns to UK publicly funded musculoskeletal-related research in terms of the net value of improved health outcomes, £67,000

Dr Laura HILLS (PI) Prof Bill BALTZOPOULOS (Co-I) Ms Amanda CROSTON (Co-I) Miss Sara HORNE (Co-I) Mr Alistair JOHN (Co-I): The Football Association (FA) - FA Mixed Gender Injury Risk Assessment U18, £25,000

Prof Suzanne LEROY: British Academy - Impacts of palaeoenvironmental changes on Meso-Neolithic innovation and adaptation in the Caspian coast, £10,000

Dr Louise LONGWORTH: University of Liverpool - NICE evidence review edoxaban tosylate for atrial fibrillation (Liverpool subcontract), £27,958

Dr Mark POOK: RaNA Therapeutics, Inc. - Effect of Human Frataxin oligonucleotides on Human Frataxin in the YG8sR FRDA Mice, £2,008

Dr Elisabete SILVA (PI) Dr Sibylle ERMLER (Co-I): Breast Cancer UK - Investigating the effects of low-dose mixtures of EDCs on breast cancer initiation, £13,855

11

RESEARCHcontracts

11

Contracts Awarded Quarter 4 (1 May 2015 – 31 July 2015) £17,728,018

College of Business, Arts & Social Sciences

Energy Futures

Prof Zahir IRANI (PI) Prof Amir SHARIF (Co-I): Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) - Safeguarding Food and Environment in Qatar (SAFE-Q), £59,017

Environment, Health and Societies

Prof Clare WILLIAMS (PI) Prof Steven Paul WAINWRIGHT (Co-I): Wellcome Trust (Additional Funds) - The ethics of translational research: from ‘unnatural entities’ to experimental treatments. (Transfer-in), £6,266

College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences

Environment, Health and Societies

Dr Evina KATSOU (PI) Dr Charalampos (Harris) MAKATSORIS (Co-I): British Council - Water management and environmental impact assessment in the oil and gas industry (Newton Fund), £31,720

Dr Alexandra LEWIN: Medical Research Council (MRC) - Transfer in - Methods and tools for structural models integrating multiple high-throughput omics data sets in genetic epidemiology, £381,453

Dr Silvia LIVERANI: Wellcome Trust - Biomedical Vacation Scholarship, £2,000

Prof Nigel SAUNDERS: SynbiCITE - CBG strain & analysis resources for bioremediation & self-healing concrete (50%), £12,500

Dr Simon TAYLOR: System Engineering and Assessment Ltd - AIMS Task 4b, £10,000

Dr Simon TAYLOR (PI) Dr David BELL (Co-I): Innovate UK - CraftBrew Brewery Management System, £179,733

Materials & Manufacturing

Dr Katherine CASHELL (PI) Dr Zhaohui HUANG (CoI): British Council - Resilient Structures and Infrastructure (Newton Fund), £31,720

Prof Kai CHENG: National Aerospace Technology Programme NATEP - Integrally Bladed Rotor (IBR) - Vibratory Finishing, £30,000

Prof Zhongyun FAN: HEFCE - Advanced Metals Casting Centre Phase II, £15,000,000

Prof Tat-Hean GAN: European Commission – LeakFree, £318,124

Prof Peter HOBSON (PI) Dr Dawn LESLIE (Co-I): European Commission - AIDA-2020, £7,092

Dr Tatiana KALGANOVA: Intel Corporation USA - Supply Chain Network Models AEUR - Collaborative Research, £64,899

Dr Tatiana KALGANOVA: Caterpillar Inc - Multi-Eschelon Supply Chain Network Modeling Supercomputing Implementation, £40,000

Prof Poopathy (PK) KATHIRGAMANATHAN: Power OLEDs Ltd - (Additional Funds) - POLED II-M, £8,898

Dr Busayawan LAM: AHRC - Co-designing asset mapping: comparative approaches, £2,075

Dr Harris MAKATSORIS: EPSRC - ADVANCED FLOW TECHNOLOGY FOR HEALTHCARE MATERIALS MANUFACTURING, £282,029

Prof Paul Anthony SERMON : (confidential) - (Additional Funds) - Small World - Sponsored studentship, £26,133

Prof Jack SILVER (PI) Dr George FERN (Co-I) Prof Karnik TARVERDI (CoI): EPSRC - Plastic Packaging Recycling using Intelligent Separation Technologies for Materials (PRISM), £166,566

Dr Ian STONE: The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers Alias Wire Workers - High-Tin Aluminium Alloys for Application in Plain Bearings, £36,000

College of Health & Life Sciences

Prof Jose GONZALEZ-ALONSO: European Hydration Institute (EHI) - Understanding the distinct stroke volume responses to dehydration and euhydration during prolonged exercise in the heat in humans: the role of extrinsic versus intrinsic cardiac factors (Studentship), £3,623

Dr Costas KARAGEORGHIS: Rugby Footbal Union - (Additional Funds) - Examining the Efficacy of Functional Asynchronous Music in Mixed-Gender Touch Rugby, £6,995

Dr Pascale KIPPELEN: European Hydration Institute (EHI) - Impact of exercise-induced dehydration on small airway function in the healthy, active human (Studentship), £3,623

Environment, Health and Societies

Dr Matthew GLOVER : NIHR - Screening women for abdominal aortic aneurysm, £13,800

Dr Priscilla HARRIES (PI) Prof Joseph GIACOMIN (Co-I) Ms Farnaz NICKPOUR (Co-I) Dr Will YOUNG (Co-I): Motability - Scoping our future research priorities: A Research Proposal for Motability 10th Anniversary Trust £125,000

Prof Judith HARWIN (PI) Dr Subhash POKHREL (Co-I) Dr Stephen SWIFT (Co-I): The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation - FDAC Innovation Hub, £262,436

Prof Judith HARWIN (PI) Dr Stephen SWIFT (Co-I): Nuffield Foundation - (Additional Funds) - A study of supervision order and their contribution to family justice and child outcomes, £73,264

Dr Emmanouil KARTERIS: BJS Biotechnologies - (Additional Funds) - Industrial sponsored studentship for student Ms Karly-Rai Rogers-Broadway - High throughput gene mapping using novel Q-PCR technology, £6,000

Dr Mark POOK: Takeda Cambridge Ltd (TCB) - Proteasome inhibitor and DAO inhibitor studies of FRDA, £66,000

Prof Arturo SALA: ACCRF Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation - (Additional Funds) - Genereting murine cell lines expressing the MYB-NFIB chimeric protein using CRISPR/Cas9 DNA editing technology, £15,625

Prof Nigel SAUNDERS: SynbiCITE - CBG strain & analysis resources for bioremediation & self-healing concrete (50%), £12,500

Miss Jeshika SINGH (PI) Dr Subhash POKHREL (Co-I) Dr Louise LONGWORTH (Co-I): EuroQol Group Foundation - Can social care needs and well-being be explained by EQ-5D? Analysis of the Health Survey for England dataset, £8,368

Prof John SUMPTER: AstraZeneca - (Additional Funds) - Mode of Action Ecotoxicology of Pharmaceuticals, £20,000

Prof Christina Rita VICTOR: Dunhill Medical Trust - Why aren’t all old people lonely? A comparative analysis of European Union, £83,084

Prof Christina Rita VICTOR: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association - The wellbeing needs of older people living with sight loss, £35,058

Prof Christina Rita VICTOR (PI) Dr Louise MANSFIELD (Co-I) Dr Annette PAYNE (Co-I) Prof Tess KAY (Co-I) Dr Catherine MEADS (Co-I) Dr Louise LONGWORTH (Co-I): ESRC - What Works Wellbeing: Culture, Sport and Wellbeing Evidence Review: Social Diversity and Context Matters, £161,803

Institutional

Prof Geoff RODGERS : Research Councils UK (RCUK) - (Additional Funds) - Implementation of Research Councils UK policy on Open Access, £134,614

Old School Gaming: Going back to basic principles of game design to develop novel ways of training balance in older adults

Scientists need to establish ways to promote physical and psychological well-being in older adults. Over the past decade computer games have evolved to incorporate physical tasks (such as Nintendo Wii products). However, these games are often too difficult for older adults to play and do not target aspects of balance associated with reduced mobility and falls. Dr. Will Young (Institute of Environment, Health and Societies – Ageing Studies) has been awarded £10,000 from the Richard Benjamin Trust to develop a new game that accommodates various needs of older adults.

Great videogames do not rely on sophisticated graphics and complex scoring systems. Instead, the most enjoyable and addictive games (e.g., Tetris) demand that players perform at the limit of their ability and experience a sense of productivity. For this project Will Young (in collaboration with Dr. Ioannis Paraskevoloulos and Mr. Toby Ellmers) has re-purposed the first computer game ever made (PONG). In this game, older adults adjust their balance on a Wii Balance board to move their ‘paddle’ and intercept the ball. However, the game has been adapted in two ways. First, the size of the paddle is adjusted according to each player’s balance ability (handicapping). Second, the game is designed so that players can compete against a virtual opponent (the computer), or against a real-life opponent standing on a second Wii Balance Board.

The purpose of this project is to evaluate how manipulating different aspects of game mechanics (handicapping/single vs multi-player) can influence older adults’ motivation to participate and perceptions of their own balance abilities.

12

RESEARCHround-up

Want your work to be eligible for the next REF?

Supporting Research Costing and Pricing at Brunel: PACE System UpdateAll research grants at Brunel are now costed, priced and approved via a new web based system called PACE (the Brunel Research Pricing And Costing Environment).

Why have we implemented a new research costing tool?

Since 2005, we have used the system pFACT for our research costing, pricing and approvals. However, the system could no longer meet our business needs and was being discontinued by its current supplier. It was therefore necessary to introduce a new system.

What has been the progress with the PACE implementation so far?

The system went live for all costings from September 2014. Since then, RSDO have been using PACE for all research grant costings. We have rolled the system out to College/Institute based approvers and key administrative users, including Management Accounts. User documentation and guides are now available and are being developed on an ongoing basis. An automated feed has been

established between PACE and BRAD (the research publications database managed by Library Services). This feed allows academic research staff to link publications to the relevant research grant in the BRAD system.

What are the next steps for PACE?

Going forward, RSDO will continue developing the reporting functionality of PACE to provide enhanced reporting capabilities for colleagues across the University. It is also planned to migrate historical data to PACE so that all proposals and awards from August 2014 are recorded on PACE. Where possible, we will be looking to integrate with other research related systems.

When will academic staff have access to PACE?

RSDO are currently piloting the PACE system with a

group of academic staff from across the University. Feedback generated from interactive pilot sessions is being used by RSDO to prepare guidance and training materials for academic users. The system will be rolled out to academic users in the summer term.

Who should I contact if I have any questions?

For further information about the project, do keep an eye on our intranet site or do not hesitate to contact me.

Alicen Nickson, Deputy Director, Research Support and Development

alicen.nickson@brunel.ac.uk

Further information

https://intra.brunel.ac.uk/s/RSDO/PACE/Pages/default.aspx

Check compliance with your funder’s policy

Deposit accepted version in BRAD (for archiving on BURA)

If publishing “Gold” apply for funding from openaccess@brunel.ac.uk

Update publication record in BRAD

Check journal permissions1) When your draft is complete and ready for submission

2) When your article is accepted for publication

3) When your paper is published

KEEP YOUR WORK REF ELIGIBLEApplies to all journal articles and published

conference papers from 1st April 2016

libguides.brunel.ac.uk/openaccess

The change in HEFCE REF eligibility policy requiring all journal articles and conference proceedings to be made Open Access on acceptance comes into force on 1st April 2016. To be eligible for the next REF all journal articles and conference Proceedings must be made Open Access on acceptance.

Each time you publish an article in a journal or conference proceedings, you are asked to comply by:

1) loading the details of your publication onto BRAD as soon as you get the acceptance/letter email from the journal/conference proceedings

2) using the deposit function to push a full text version through to BURA. This includes publications that are subject to publisher embargo.

If you are not doing this already, you need to start now to keep your work REF eligible.

For additional information on meeting funder requirements please see the Brunel University Library Guide to Open Access Publishing available at:

http://libguides.brunel.ac.uk/openaccess

Contact brad@brunel.ac.uk for further details and support with the BRAD system.