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ВЕСТНИК ПЕРМСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА
2014 БИОЛОГИЯ Вып. 2
ЭКОЛОГИЯ
УДК 504.06; 504.064.4
ИННОВАЦИИ, ОБМЕН ЗНАНИЯМИ И НИЗКОУГЛЕРОДНАЯ ЭКОНОМИКА: МОДЕЛЬ ШОТЛАНДСКОЙ СЕТИ ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ (SETN)
Колин Каннингхэм
Университет Стратклайда, Глазго, Великобритания; Royal College Building, 204 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1XW, Scotland, UK; [email protected]; +44(0)141 548 3144
Обмен знаниями, двусторонний поток людей и идей между университетами/научно-исследова-тельскими институтами и экономики в целом способствует экономическому процветанию, а также качеству жизни и культурного обогащения всего общества. Обмен знаниями является важнейшим компонентом в поддержке инноваций, которые делают возможным переход к низкоуглеродной экономике - одной из самых важных глобальных проблем сегодня. Эта статья представляет модель Шотландской сети экологических технологий (SETN) и ее роль в обмене знаниями и инновациях.
Ключевые слова: инновационные технологии; экологически чистая технология (ЕСТ); сеть; шотландская сеть экологических технологий (SETN).
INNOVATION, KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND THE LOW CARBON ECONOMY: THE SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY NETWORK (SETN) MODEL
C. J. Cunningham
Director, Scottish Environmental Technology Network (SETN), University of Strathclyde, Royal College Building, 204 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1XW, Scotland, UK; [email protected]; +44(0)141 548 3144
Knowledge exchange, the two-way flow of people and ideas between universities/research institutes and the wider economy, contributes to economic prosperity as well as to the quality of life and cultural enrichment of society. Knowledge exchange is a crucial component in supporting the innovations that will enable the transition to a low carbon economy, one of the most important global challenges today.
This paper examines the model of the Scottish Environmental Technology Network (SETN) and its role in knowledge exchange and innovation.
Key words: innovative technology; ECT; network; SETN.
Background
The Scottish Environmental Technology Network (SETN) aims to support the developing Environmental and Clean Technology (ECT) sector in Scotland. Based in the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, the
group provides a unique and powerful combination of support to industry and researchers across Scotland.
SETN provide deep sectoral technology and market knowledge/expertise, tailored introductions to potential collaborators and access to dedicated laboratory services/facilities for trials, testing and verification of
© Cunningham C. J., 2014
technologies. SETN has a clear focus on supporting small/micro-sized innovative companies where a lack of financial resources, detailed technical knowledge and expertise, laboratory space and equipment are significant barriers to their development.
The ECT sector is part of the overall Low Carbon Environmental Goods & Services sector (LCEGS) that was worth over £3.4 trillion globally in 2011/12 and is growing at around 5% annually [Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, 2013]. Renewable energy generation is also part of the LCEGS sector and this has been the focus of significant investments in research and innovation. However, renewable energy represents only around 40% of the total LCEGS opportunity in the Scottish market and around only one third of the global LCEGS market.
The generation of renewable energy is a far simpler sector to define and most people will be familiar with the common themes of wind and wave power, photovoltaic solar panels and of course hydroelectricity. The ECT sector comprises a diverse and often overlapping range of subsectors with the most significant being water supply and waste water treatment, waste management/recovery and recycling and environmental monitoring. Opportunities for innovation are often at the boundaries between sub sectors and disciplines. Energy and environment are also closely related and many crossovers exist.
For example, in Scotland there is a current focus on geothermal heat. One source of heat is from closed deep coalmines where the water comes to the surface at around 10-12°C. This heat can be concentrated using heat pumps and used in district heating networks. However, the water from these mines, known as Acidic Mine Drainage (AMD) contains high levels of iron that must be treated before the waters can be released to rivers or other surface waters. The combination of treating the water and operating the heat pumps becomes a multi-disciplinary challenge.
History
SETN was established in 2006 as an extension of the Contaminated Land Assessment & Remediation Research Centre (CLARRC). CLARRC had been founded in 1998 as a centre of excellence and knowledge exchange with industry and was hosted at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The Director of CLARRC, Dr Colin Cunningham, broadened the scope of the centre beyond contaminated land into other pollution areas and waste management. This was done to meet a growing demand for support from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that needed consulting, laboratory trials and testing and assistance with field scale research and technology verification.
The Scottish Government funded SETN with additional contributions from an industry support body ‘Scottish Enterprise’ and the environmental regulator the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). In
November 2010, SETN moved to the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. SETN has maintained a leading position in the ECT sector over the past 8 years, supporting entrepreneurs and established businesses in a vibrant community of around 250 SMEs. In the period Nov 2010-Jan 2014, the network supported the creation of 473 jobs and safeguarded a further 554. Member companies reported having created or significantly improved 240 products, processes or services with an associated increase in turnover of £38m.
A small core team of 6 staff and around 10 interns has achieved these benefits. A proposal was submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2014 for 5 years of funding to allow the group to grow to 11 staff in 2014 and then to 13 staff in 2017.
Perm collaborations
Since 1999 CLARRC and then SETN has collaborated scientists in Perm. The lead in this is Professor Ivshina of the Laboratory of Alkanotrophic Microorganisms, Institute of Ecology and Genetics of Microorganisms (IEGM), Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. Our collaboration was founded around the unique IEGM Regional Specialised Collection of Alkanotrophic Microorganisms that was created and is led by Professor Ivshina. For 15 years we have collaborated in numerous projects in the field of eco-biotechnologies supported by NATO, INTAS and the UK Royal Society resulting in numerous publications, e.g. Kuyukina et al. [2005] and Podorozhko et al. [2008]. Our current collaboration is an International Research Group funded by the Ministry of Education of Perm Krai grant C-26-206 along with Perm State University. This continues the theme of eco-biotechnologies for the remediation of contaminated sites.
Supporting innovation and knowledge exchange
SETN provides high quality, ECT sector-specific advice and direction to SMEs on technical, market and legislative issues. This includes identifying and interpreting information in technical and other relevant literature. Members are assisted in the development innovative product/service ideas,
optimisation/combination/verification of technologies, as well as novel applications and new markets for existing technologies.
New collaborations are created through tailored introductions to companies and researchers drawn from a wide network. SMEs can apply for up to £5000 funding from SETN for early stage innovation projects. This funding is typically used by the SMEs to support the costs of small pieces of equipment and other project expenses at a time where there is insufficient revenue or cash flow in their business to
otherwise support the innovation activity. These small innovation grants often provide the evidence the company needs to secure larger research and development (R&D) grants to develop new products and services.
A new service SETN has recently introduced is assisting with independent evaluation of technologies. SETN has considerable experience in this area through Director Dr Colin Cunningham providing independent expertise to the European Commission Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) pilot programme and serving on the UK ETV Steering Group. ETV endorsement can support innovative environmental technologies to reach the market quicker by giving confidence to investors and end users. SETN promotes ETV and signposts companies to verification bodies, in particular the European Marine Energy Centre who recently became the only Scottish verification body for water technologies.
Interns have been a very popular and cost-effective mechanism to support SME innovation and knowledge exchange. Typically, 10 students per annum in relevant disciplines have been on 3-6 month placements. The students are usually hosted at SETN and tend to be technically focussed utilising the laboratory innovation facilities but may also be hosted at the company premises and can undertake desk based research and market studies. Visiting students have the opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience working on commercially relevant projects. The range of support activities provided is listed below:
• Provision of specialist ECT technical/market knowledge.
• Encourage participation in the EU
Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) pilot programme.
• Experimental design including location of appropriate field sites.
• Preparation of funding proposals.
• Compiling technical validation reports.
• Sourcing and interpreting technical literature.
• Relating laboratory testing and output data to commercial/technical project goals.
• Addressing and supporting solutions to
legislative issues.
• Making introductions to potential commercial/technical partners.
• Presenting at external events and hosting technical workshops.
• Preparing case study materials for
dissemination.
• Publication/dissemination in peer-reviewed journals, conferences and at workshops.
Hub innovation facilities
Member companies can take advantage of SETN’s considerable in-house laboratory facilities, providing
analytical capabilities across a wide-range of environmental matrices including soils, waters, wastes and other materials. Support is also given to undertake field trials e.g. finding suitable sites, experimental design, setting data quality objectives, testing and interpretation of results. SETN also assists companies to access additional knowledge and facilities from across all Scottish universities and research institutes. The laboratory infrastructure for trials, testing and verification is used by SETN staff/interns as well as by staff from SME member companies.
The current SETN environmental laboratory capabilities include processing of soils, waters and other samples using a variety of automated techniques including accelerated solvent extraction (ASE), Kjeldahl digestion and microwave-assisted digestion (MAD). Testing of basic parameters such as pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO) are carried out as well as leaching tests. Preparation of samples for subsequent analysis is undertaken e.g. sample clean up using solid phase extraction (SPE). The current instrument laboratory capabilities includes:
Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES)
Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS)
Cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (CVAAS)
Gas chromatography with flame ionisation detection (GC-FID)
Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with headspace auto sampler High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array and fluorescence detection
Ion chromatography (IC) with electrochemical detection Selective chemistry analyser (automated UV-visible spectrophotometry)
With further funding, the core analytical capabilities will be extended and automated where practical to allow more rapid turnaround when undertaking analysis and thereby facilitating greater numbers of support projects to be carried out. The laboratory staff works closely with their knowledge exchange colleagues to ensure that the design of experiments and trials fully meet the technical/commercial goals of the SME. The laboratory teams key work includes:
• Experimental design.
• Trials and testing.
• Interpretation of results.
• Compiling reports/communication.
• Action planning.
• Accessing technical literature.
• Supporting SME access to laboratory space.
• Training/ supervising intems/SME staff.
• Signposting to other facilities and access to specialist equipment.
• Method development.
• Health and safety compliance.
• Maintenance/servicing of equipment.
• Calibration/quality assurance.
On-line collaborative platform
A state-of-the-art integrated collaborative platform and enquiry/workflow management system is being developed to support the work of the SETN team and to track the effectiveness of the support given to SMEs. The platform has been developed at pilot scale in collaboration with IBM using their enterprise class “Smart Cloud” technology. The pilot phase development of the platform is near completion and is being funded by Scottish Water, the University of Strathclyde and Scottish Canals.
The platform will allow accelerated collaboration, rapidly turning concepts into projects with partners brought together in a digital environment providing appropriate tools to collaborate. Along with the other enquiries coming to SETN, the demands identified will be presented to researchers; entrepreneurs and businesses to foster challenge led innovation and provide market intelligence. The platform also aims where possible to automate brokerage and search functions where directories containing rich descriptions of member company and university researcher capabilities will make it easy for business-to-business and academic to business links to be made. This will allow SETN staff to focus on higher value innovation activities, transferring knowledge and accelerating the development of innovation projects and route to market. Researchers will be encouraged to promote opportunities for licensing of IP, consulting, access to facilities and services.
Networking and events
The SETN annual conference and exhibition showcases companies and researchers, providing networking and knowledge exchange opportunities. The 2014 event is expected to attract around 250 delegates and numbers continue to grow year on year. More regular networking events are also held as these provide an informal forum for new collaborations to develop and for ideas to be exchanged between companies and with researchers.
Acting local thinking global
Since the formation of SETN on 2006, the policy environment in Scotland and in may other countries has developed significantly particularly with respect to targets to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. The economy of Scotland is very
clearly on a journey to becoming Tow carbon’. In addition to decarbonising energy and transport systems, there is a move away from the linear model of unsustainable consumption of resources and towards a ‘circular economy’. A recent estimate by the Scottish Government is that almost £3 billion of annual savings could be realised across the Scottish economy by more efficient use of water, energy and raw materials. This raises many challenges that can be translated into opportunities for SMEs and researchers to develop innovative solutions.
There are clearly opportunities to support Scottish solutions to Scottish challenges. However, the biggest opportunity undoubtedly comes from meeting environmental challenges in the global marketplace. SETN is actively supporting SMEs to take technology into foreign markets. For example, one member company has developed a water saving technology for horticultural and landscaping applications. As part of taking their product to market in China, they were asked to provide independent evidence that their product contains no harmful components. Tests were undertaken in SETN labs and a certificate produced for the company.
The formula for success?
It has been widely recognised that knowledge exchange, the two-way flow of people and ideas between universities/research institutes and the wider economy, contributes to economic prosperity as well as the quality of life and cultural enrichment of our society. How does the SETN model work?
An independent evaluation of SETN, carried out in 2013, provided feedback on how and what the member companies valued about the services provided. One of the key findings from the report was:
“There was a clearly expressed view by members that SETN is a network against which the performance of others should be measured. SETN’s pro-activity on members’ behalf was particularly valued as was the personalised approach and genuine interest in members businesses and ideas”. This proactivity and personalised approach is only possible if a team of knowledgeable, experienced and well-qualified people are given the opportunity to dedicate the vast majority of their time to knowledge exchange. Similarly, the finding that:
“It [SETN] is viewed by members and partners as being an established network but not a traditional one, in that it provides hands-on, tailored and bespoke introductions for its members” recognises that the people involved are ‘hands-on’ and this is only possible by having very few competing priorities in terms of teaching and academic research. SETN staff connects academia to industry and vice versa but the core staff are not academics.
Being based in the University of Strathclyde has been an important step in the development of SETN.
The University recently introduced a new career path for knowledge exchange professionals. The establishment of a new knowledge exchange staff category is innovative within the UK higher education sector.
The biggest change in how SETN functions is a transition from being fully government funded with all services provided to members for free, to being largely self funding. From September 2014, SETN will generate income through charging a membership fee and fees for services, leading or participating in competitive funding bids. Retaining an element of government funding is justified due to the large numbers of entrepreneurs, early stage companies and microbusinesses being supported as they are the least able to pay for services. Will this change deter companies from engaging with SETN? It would seem not, a recent consultation found that 82% of the members would be prepared to pay a fee for membership and supported the new model.
Future work
The deep understanding of the technical and commercial opportunities/challenges from 8 years of supporting SMEs has built into a distinctive collective insight. This understanding can be translated into new ideas and ultimately to competitive advantage for individual SMEs and for the membership as a whole. There are many opportunities for challenge led innovation as companies in all sectors of the economy need to reduce their water, carbon and energy
footprints. This usually results in a cost saving for companies, contributing to corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Such challenges will be best addressed through a combination of knowledge exchange and company innovation.
The key question SETN is asking after 15 years of collaboration with colleagues in Perm is could a similar model be applied to Perm Krai? Will we ever see a Perm Environmental Technology Network?
References
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. (2013). Low carbon and environmental goods and services (LCEGS) report for 2011 to 2012. Available from https://www.gov.uk/govemment/publications/low-carbon-and-environmental-goods-and-services-2011-to-2012
Kuyukina, M.S., Ivshina, I.B., Makarov, S.O., Litvinenko, L.V., Cunningham, C.J., Philp, J.C. (2005). Effect of biosurfactants on crude oil desorption and mobilisation in a soil system. Environment International. 31(2), 155-161. Podorozhko, E.A., Lozinsky, V.I., Ivshina, I.B., Kuyukina, M.S, Krivorutchko, A.B., Philp, J.C., Cunningham, C.J. (2008). Hydrophobised sawdust as a carrier for immobilisation of the hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacterium Rhodococcus ruber. Bioresource Technology. 99(6), 2001-2008.
Поступила в редакцию 21.05.2014
д-р Колин Каннингхэм (Dr. Colin Cunningham), директор
Шотландская сеть экологических технологий (SETN),университет Стратклайда, Глазго, Великобритания
