This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
SMART ideas win cash for companies
09/05/2005
Up to £550,000 to help small companies research and
develop innovative products was announced today under the
Executive's SMART: SCOTLAND scheme.
The companies cover a wide range of sectors including
life sciences, nanotechnology and new solutions for
environmental monitoring and pipeline security.
Developments include:
A rapid and cost-effective environmental monitoring tool
to help businesses monitor their operations and comply with
European legislation on water quality etc
A lightweight pneumatic demolition tool which reduces
the amount of re-coil and vibration experienced by the
operator. This will help address current and impending
legislative requirements surrounding the use of
pneumatically operated demolition tools
A new pipeline coating evaluation system to enable
operators to monitor the condition of pipes on-line from
their own desk. This will reduce the need for third party
survey personnel travelling over the pipelines. The system
will also act as a sleeping policeman, alerting operators
when any interference - accidental or criminal - is
detected on the pipelines
Deputy Enterprise Minister Allan Wilson said:
"Support mechanisms like SMART can help us meet our key
aim of continuing to grow our economy, by helping small
firms develop new competitive products and processes that
have the potential for commercialisation.
"The diversity and range of technologies being developed
by today's SMART award winners - from a new business
environmental monitoring tool to a pipeline evaluation and
security system - is evidence of the leading-edge expertise
to be found in Scotland today.
"I wish all of today's winning applicants every success
in taking their projects through to fruition and developing
cutting-edge technology that can help make a difference to
all of our lives."
SMART:SCOTLAND
2005 ROUND 1 WINNERS:
1.
Antitope Ltd, Aberdeen
SELECTION OF
NON-IMMUNOGENIC ANTIBODIES FOR HUMAN
THERAPY
Antitope will use their SMART Award to assess
the feasibility of developing a novel platform
technology for generating non-immunogenic
pharmaceutical antibodies and proteins.
The project will provide Antitope with a
key competitive advantage in creating non-immunogenic
pharmaceuticals and, as such, a platform to establish
the basis for a high growth biotechnology
company.
Contact:
Dr Matthew Baker
Telephone:
07973 778451
Email:
matthew.baker@antitope.co.uk
2.
C/O Campbell Murray, Glasgow
INVESTIGATION
OF THE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL FEASIBILITY
OF NOVEL SOLID-STATE LASER SOURCES
The SMART award will enable a new company to
assess the feasibility of developing novel solid-state
laser sources. This development offers the potential to
replace earlier gas and liquid lasers and represents a
significant technological advance to industry both in
the UK and world-wide.
Contact:
Campbell Murray
Telephone:
0141 228 2009
Email:
campbell.murray@scotent.co.uk
3.
Damon Thompson,
Edinburgh
development
of A NOVEL EDA TOOL
Damon Thompson has gained a SMART Award to conduct a
feasibility study into the development of a novel
Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool for the generation
of asynchronous logic circuits for silicon microchip
applications. The commercialisation route
for the technology, derived from a Scottish Enterprise
Proof of Concept Fund project at theUniversity of Edinburgh , is currently being considered. The project,
if successful, will result in a software product that
designers can use without prior expert knowledge of
asynchronous circuit design and at a much reduced cost
compared to existing technologies.
Contact:
Damon Thompson
Telephone:
0131 650 5665
Email:
damon.thompson@ee.ed.ac.uk
4.
Darg Engineering Ltd,
Fraserburgh
LIGHTWEIGHT
PNEUMATIC DEMOLITION TOOL
Darg Engineering will use their SMART Award to
assess the feasibility of developing a lightweight
demolition tool using a novel approach to counter the
re-coil and vibration transmission to operators.
The development of this technology will
address current and impending legislative requirements
restricting operators' use of pneumatically operated
demolition tooling.
Contact:
Mr Dennis Duthie
Telephone:
01346 513068
Email:
dsd@darg.co.uk
Website:
www.darg.co.uk
5. Fuel Cells ( Scotland ) Ltd, Lasswade
SOLID OXIDE
FUEL CELL (SOFC) - FUEL CONDITIONING AND
REFORMING
The unique design
configuration of Fuel Cells (Scotland) Ltd SOFC
stack can be greatly enhanced by the
development of integral fuel conditioning and
reforming.
The SMART Award will allow the
Company to investigate the feasibility of a
developing a technology to allow its existing
device which currently runs on pure hydrogen to
utilise a wide range of readily available fuels
such as natural gas, propane, methane and all
types of biomass gasses.
Contact:
Mr Edward Angus
Telephone:
0131 663 0497
Email:
edangus@aol.com
6.
Mitecon Limited, East Kilbride
development
of COMPLEX CERAMIC PARTS
Mitecon Ltd
will use their SMART Award to conduct a feasibility
study into the development of state of the art
bonding techniques for manufacturing complex
ceramic parts made from one material only and
containing internal channels.
Ceramic materials are widely used in
various applications ranging from spark plugs to
valve bearings.
The technology to be developed will
allow the manufacturing of complex shaped parts by
bonding simple geometries with a high degree of
dimensional accuracy without influencing the
properties of the ceramics.
This will be advantageous in the
growing structural ceramics sector.
Contact:
Marcel Michorius
Telephone:
01355 234147
Email:
marcel@mitecon.co.uk
Website:
www.mitecon.co.uk
7.
NiTech Solutions Ltd,
Edinburgh
DEVELOPMENT OF
AN OSCILLATORY BAFFLED REACTOR FOR
CRYSTALLISATION
NiTech Solutions Ltd will use their SMART
award to assess the feasibility of developing an
oscillatory-baffled reactor system specifically for
crystallisation.
The system will be significantly
different from existing crystallisation processes and
will be used for the separation of products from
solutions for fine, speciality and pharmaceutical
industries.
Contact:
Professor Xiong-Wei
Ni
Telephone:
0131 451 3781
Email:
x.ni@nitechsolutions.co.uk
8.
Dr Rayne
Longhurst, Aberdeen
SENSORS FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
Rayne Longhurst's
SMART entry builds upon a Scottish Enterprise
Proof of Concept project successfully
undertaken by the Robert Gordon University and
the Scottish Association of Marine Science.
Currently, the most appropriate commercial
exploitation route for this technology is being
formulated and a SMART Award will enable her to
conduct a feasibility study into the
development of a novel molecularly imprinted
polymer technology for use as an environmental
monitoring tool for on site environmental
monitoring and detection. Use of unique
molecularly imprinted polymers may offer a
rapid and cost effective solution for
environmental monitoring, which will help
companies and regulators meet current European
legislative requirements.
Contact:
Dr Rayne
Longhurst
Telephone:
01224 262337
Email:
r.longhurst@rgu.ac.uk
9.
SiGEN Ltd, Aberdeen
DEVELOPMENT OF
AN INTEGRATED FUEL CELL THERMAL MANAGEMENT
SOLUTION FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
SiGEN will use their SMART Award to assess the
feasibility of developing a mobile and integrated
combined heat and power fuel cell system.
This together with the development of
associated thermal management systems will offer
extensive commercial applications potential, including
those in vehicular uses.
The project will addresses specific
operator needs in the UK, EC and worldwide that may be
best met by this highly innovative fuel cell based
solution.
Contact:
Mr David McGrath
Telephone:
01224 715568
Email:
djm@siGEN.co.uk
Website:
http://www.sigen.co.uk/
10.
Scotia Seeds, Brechin
ESTABLISHING
THE FEASIBILITY OF USING NOVEL GERMINATION
AND VIABILITY TESTING METHODS ON
COMMERCIALLY-TRADED WILDFLOWER SEEDS
Scotia Seeds will use their SMART Award to
assess the feasibility of using novel germination and
viability testing methods on commercially-traded
wildflower seeds.
This will be with the aim of delivering
treatments to wildflower seeds to break dormancy before
sowing.
Contact:
Mr Giles
Laverack
Telephone:
01356 626425
Email:
scotiaseeds@btconnect.com
11.
Tuscan Corrosion
Control Ltd, Ellon
COATING AUTO
SCAN INTEGRITY EVALUATION (CASIE)
Tuscan Corrosion
Control will use their SMART Award to assess
the feasibility of developing a low cost system
for permanently installed monitoring of the
coating condition of pipelines.
This system will enable
real-time and on-line monitoring of pipeline
assets, offering improvements over existing
systems, particularly in terms of eliminating
loss of containment, providing security from
third part interference and reduction in
down-time.
Contact:
Mr John
Middleton
Telephone:
01358 727807
Email:
john.middleton@tuscancc.com
Website:
www.tuscancc.com