38 technology
Reaction Engines graduates from Culham Innovation Centre
One of Culham Innovation Centre’s longest-established customers, Reaction Engines (REL), is preparing to move to new offices at Culham Science Centre due to rapid expansion, which will see the company recruit 100 new staff over the next 12-18 months.
REL was the first company to sign up to a flexible licence agreement at Culham Innovation Centre when it opened its doors in 2001. Since then, the three-man team has grown to 45, and the company now boasts additional sites located at Wantage and Newbury.
Founding director Alan Bond said: “The Innovation Centre has played a major role in our growth through its flexible office arrangements, the special technology package with the CCFE in the early days, and the professional ‘front desk’ which impressed the people we have had to deal with over the years. When we were first assembling labs, the Centre also played a key role in helping to make the safety case and the EDC documents with the (then) UKAEA.”
Based on the development of its SABRE (Synergetic Air- breathing Rocket Engine) engine and SKYLON, the first vehicle to be powered by the SABRE engines, REL has attracted significant private and public investment with £60 million government investment through the UK Space Agency alone.
market over the next 30 years; and will provide economic benefits from spill-over technology markets.
Bond explained: “We have reached the point of very rapid expansion and the Centre is now too small for us. During our time here we have received very important people from government and European industry, as well as other nations across the world, and the Centre staff have always gone out of their way to ensure they are welcomed and professionally received.
Alan Bond and Sandie Alcock, centre manager, Culham Innovation Centre
According to reports, SABRE has the potential to create 21,000 high-value engineering and manufacturing jobs; will maximise the UK’s access to an estimated £13.8 billion launcher
Isis Angels Network membership reaches 200
Membership of the Isis Angels Network has grown to 200 business angels from 10 different countries, Isis Innovation has announced. The network introduces angel investors to new spin-out opportunities from Oxford and has been instrumental in the creation of 103 companies.
Isis Innovation seed fund manager Andrea Alunni, who runs the network, said: “Investment angels are becoming an increasingly-important source of equity finance for Oxford University spin-outs. In fact, over the past four years, the number of investments from angel investors has outnumbered investments from seed and venture capital funds.”
The foresight and patience of business angels was also handsomely rewarded during
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the February purchase of 2001 Isis Innovation spin-out NaturalMotion by US-based gaming giant Zynga for $527 million. NaturalMotion received its first £25,000 cash injection pre-incorporation from the Oxford’s University’s Challenge Seed Fund and went on to raise over £2m from investment angels over three funding rounds, one of the largest purely angel fundings in Europe.
A 2014 spin-out, OxSonics, is the most recent Isis company to raise angel finance. In January it closed a £2.7m funding round, which included £1.85m from angel investors. Oxsonics, which is commercialising ultrasound-based medical devices for drug delivery and surgical applications, has now received £2.1m from the Technology Strategy Board and
“In addition, we have had some occasions when the impact of our work on the media has provoked a flood of telephone calls, once jamming the switchboard for two days. On these occasions the support from the Centre staff has been outstanding. Because of all of the support we’ve received, we are very sorry this move has become a necessity. We are victims of our own success.”
REL is moving to building F5 at
has sufficient funds to progress to clinical trials.
Another Isis medical device spinout, Oxtex, has raised a total of £1.4m from business angels through three rounds of investment since its incorporation in 2011. Oxtex is developing devices for plastic surgery, with applications in burns, scar revision, breast reconstruction and cleft palate surgery.
Isis Innovation executive director Linda Naylor said: “The Isis Angels Network has more than doubled over the past five years and has been key to our success in supporting new ventures based on University research, and also Isis Software Incubator companies.
“Often angel investors bring not just capital to an investment, but also personal expertise and an appreciation of the way small technology businesses operate and grow.”
Details:
www.isis-innovation.com
Culham Science Centre during November 2014 and will occupy 22,600 sq ft of office space to accommodate further growth.
Sandie Alcock, centre manager at Culham Innovation Centre, said: “The team here has been part of REL’s exciting journey since 2001 and we look forward to hearing about their continued success. Naturally, we are sad to see one of our longest-serving customers move on, but we are equally very proud to have been able to support such a groundbreaking business.”
Culham Science Centre is located in the Science Vale and organisations can benefit from a unique technical support package from Culham Centre for fusion energy. This provides companies with access to consultancy services along with mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering skills and technologies.
Culham Innovation Centre is managed by Oxford Innovation, the UK’s leading operator of business and innovation centres, and has over 10,000 sq ft of office space, with suites available from 100 sq ft.
Details:
www.culham-ic.co.uk
Solar farm given green light
An estimated 47,000 solar panels could soon be introduced to fields in Yarnton after plans for a solar farm capable of powering more than 3,000 homes were approved.
At a meeting of Cherwell District Council’s planning committee, members narrowly approved plans for a solar farm and associated works on 18.25 hectares of land south east of Yarnton and north of Woodstock Road in Yarnton.
The solar farm, which has a temporary permission for 25 years, will incorporate approximately 47,000 solar panels which will be capable of generating about 125.5m/w of energy – equivalent to meeting the energy needs of about 3,125 homes.
In granting permission for the solar farm, councillors specified work must begin on site within three years of planning approval being received.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2014
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