INDUSTRY FOCUS FEATURE Fostering industry innovation
their manufacturing capabilities and manufacture graphene commercially in- house. Their product, the nanoCVD, was developed using an Innovate UK Proof of Concept Award. Moorfield’s nanoCVD system means that graphene films, which used to take eight hours to produce, can now be created in about 30 minutes.
Networks are necessary for good ideas and exciting innovations to reach their full potential – and the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) is the UK’s innovation network. It brings together businesses, entrepreneurs, academics and funders to develop new products, processes and services. Comprising core communities and various special interest groups (SIGs), KTN contains a dedicated Nanotechnology Community, which has over 4000 members, as well as an Energy Harvesting SIG. Here’s a look at the benefits
F
ree to join, KTN helps grow the UK economy by initiating, facilitating and
building collaborations. These collaborations can be strategic, creative, cross-sector, business-focussed or involve fostering relations between private and public funders and innovators requiring investment. It also undertakes published roadmapping and scoping exercises that inform policy decisions. For example, in 2014 KTN published a report entitled Nano-enabled Polymer Composites - A Study of Technologies and Markets. This and all other KTN white papers, reports and roadmaps are available, free of charge, to KTN members. Funded by Innovate UK, KTN is not a
funding body and has no regulatory powers. It connects businesses, value chains, entrepreneurs, innovators and investors. It helps businesses identify and develop the ideas, expertise and technologies that have the potential to be world-beating products, processes and services. It helps to unlock the expertise and ideas within universities and institutes, helping academic researchers connect to markets. KTN is able to achieve this due to its broad and deep knowledge of different sectors, ranging from biotechnology to designer
fashion. Independent, KTN is not an industry group, government body nor lobbying organisation. It is a trusted intermediary, committed to innovation. As well as having strong, well-established relationships with commercial and academic innovators, KTN is also deeply connected with major support and investment agencies – both nationally and at the European level. Through these partnerships it is able to make things happen, facilitating the projects and investment programmes where they are most needed. Amongst its many endeavours, KTN supports the exploitation and commercialisation of nanotechnologies through informing, linking and facilitating innovation and collaborations between suppliers and users. It aims to see an appreciable growth in the size of the UK's industry active in nanotechnology, particularly in nano-enabled products in development and on the market.
SUCCESS STORY FOR THE KTN UK company, Moorfield, has used joint events from KTN and JEMI, together with funding from Innovate UK, to educate companies on how they can revolutionise
/ MICROMATTERS Figure 1:
The Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) is the UK’s innovation network
ENERGY HARVESTING KTN’s Energy Harvesting SIG has been operational for more than two years and has over 450 members. During this time the energy harvesting market has continued to grow. New types of consumer devices such as smart watches and wearable physical activity monitors are becoming increasingly popular, for example. With the power requirements of devices and the capabilities of energy harvesters converging, new opportunities will emerge. These new application areas will be addressed by the Energy Harvesting SIG as they arise. Currently the SIG is active in delivering two
workshops that consider energy harvesting technologies in completely different applications. On 4th March there will be an event on powering wearables at CPI (Sedgefield) – a workshop that aims to link and build the wearables and energy harvesting (and energy storage) communities in the UK. This event will bring together academics, designers and industrialists from the wearables sector, and academics, designers and industrialists from the emerging energy harvesting sector. There will be discussions about how to bridge the gap between the power requirements for wearables and electrical energy generation and storage. In May, KTN’s Energy Harvesting SIG will be
holding an event that will link energy harvesting technology with designers. It will investigate whether introducing this technology to designers can help to commercialise technologies that will assist the UK in meeting some of its sustainable energy challenges. The Energy Harvesting SIG is a vibrant
community of academics and industrialists, offering a great opportunity for networking, innovation support and a source of information about energy harvesting technologies and their applications. Members also benefit from free access to a number of comprehensive reports examining market needs and energy harvesting capabilities.
Knowledge Transfer Network
www.ktn-uk.co.uk www.ktn-uk.net/nanotechnology Enter 212
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