A new collaboration in Knowledge Exchange is underway, with colleagues in the departments of Marketing (SBS) and in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (Faculty of Engineering) working together on a project funded by Strathclyde's EPSRC-funded Knowledge Transfer Account. The project is supervised by professors Jason Reese, Colin McInnes and John Finch (Marketing, SBS) and is part of the Technology and Innovation Centre, combining its themes of Business Engagement and Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing.
Following Louise Mather's successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project with Strathclyde, she is now Research Exploitation Partnership Associate in SBS, working with Dr Derek Bennet who holds a similar position in Engineering.
This project seeks to exploit a strong portfolio of EPSRC-funded research, which is currently at a low Technology Readiness Level. It investigates how researchers' understanding of fluid dynamics at the nano- and micro-scale can help the design and development of a wide range of future technologies and applications: from extracting drinking water from the sea to re-imagining aeroplane and ship hull surfaces for the best fuel efficiency. These are areas of emerging technological importance at the frontiers of engineering science.
From the perspective of SBS's involvement in the University's Technology and Innovation Centre, the project is part of its sub-theme in Open Innovation. Professor John Finch explained, "Due to the level at which the research is currently placed, we must rely on other approaches to exploit it successfully. Henry Chesbrough launched a term "Open Innovation" to describe a new way to manage innovation and the R&D process. Through employing Open Innovation principles, this project seeks to enhance our interaction to enable engagement with industry and to ensure that the relationship between external organisations and the University is escalated. The project will result in effective models to move human capital into intellectual assets that can be combined, coordinated and managed."