Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal of Glasgow University, welcomed some 200 people mostly from Scottish companies to their Industry day. This showcases some of the best technology ideas that the university has on offer and allows networking between Industry and direct contact with the top researchers.

Glasgow had £120M research income last year of which 10% comes direct from Industry. These 514 projects demonstrates Glasgow’s commitment to increase its links with the commercial world.

Professor Steve Beaumont, VP Research and Enterprise explained the many ways that companies of all sizes can work with the University. These range from low cost initiatives such as the “Innovation Network” and “ First Step Awards”. Through EPSRC KT accounts and KTP projects. And up to CASE studentships or TSB direct funding and European FP7 programmes.

So whether you are a start up company with limited funds looking for a small scale student project which has almost no cost to the business or want to form a European consortium to research new technology Glasgow University has a funding model that can support you.

The big news from the day was the pre-announcement of EASY ACCESS IP.

More information will be available in the spring when the system is fully launched, however with so many top companies in the room Steve took the opportunity for some early publicity. The university R&D teams create much IP. A very small part of this is commercially exploited via spin out or licensed to industry. The bulk of the IP remains untapped and gathering dust.

As part of the Universities commitment to the community and GDP growth in Scotland, this dormant IP will be available free of charge to Scottish companies. There are no strings attached and no clawback license fees. The only caveat is, use it or lose it. This clause will allow the university to recover the IP should the company fail to exploit it commercially.

This is bang in line with the demands from industry during our market research last year and well done to Glasgow for announcing this new system. Let us hope that it does what it says on the tin and that companies now step up to the plate and take advantage of the plan.

Below are brief notes on just some of the technologies showcased at the event.

Computer vision for Active 3D sensing

                Applications:      Surgery, Creative Media, Robotic Vision Systems

                Partner companies:        Dimensional Imaging Ltd, Precision 3D Ltd

Polymer photonic sensor for point of care diagnostics

                Application:        Medicine, diagnostics, organ sensing, polymer photonics

                Partner companies:        Stratophase, Bayer, Multitel

Photonic Crystal LEDs

                Applications:      Flat panel LCD’s, handheld equipments, LED lighting

                Partner companies:        Sharp, MacDermid Autotype

Nano-Imprint Lithography

                Applications:      Opto-electronics, Biotech

                Partner companies:        Sharp laboratories, Suss Microtech

Quantum Imaging and Gas Monitoring

                Applications:      Aerospace, Bioscience, Environment

                Partner companies:        Shell, Hamamatsu, Thor labs

THz Component and Systems

                Applications:      Explosives detection, security imaging, in vivo imaging