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Further information

AMAZE: advanced MOF-loaded air-pollution control and zero-emission electrospun filters

NanoLayr UK Limited

Over 34 billion tonnes of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere annually worldwide, 73.2% from the energy sector by burning fossil fuels. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and contributes to global warming, which is why the UK government as part of the Net Zero UN Coalition have set a target for all sectors to decarbonise to reach net zero targets by 2050.

The AMAZE project will produce a high-volume commercial filtration media that will capture CO2 at the point of source. Offering a game-changing innovation to the Carbon Capture (CC) market with higher adsorption capacity, and lower regeneration energy requirements.

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are highly functional chemicals that can be tailored to capture CO2 more efficiently and requiring less energy to be regenerated. Being a powder, the challenge is that they need to be supported on a highly breathable substrate so they can be reused.

Nanofibres are 500 times smaller than a human hair and collectively produce porous non-woven sheets. With extremely high surface areas and the ability to carry particles like MOFs, nanofibres are perfectly suited to the task. MOF-loaded nanofibres will revolutionise the current approaches to CO2 capture with a universal filter which offers a low-cost, high-efficiency alternative to current systems.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has highlighted Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage as a priority action in their Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050. Carbon capture reduces the CO2 produced during industry by capturing it before is enters the atmosphere. This captured CO2 then gets bottled up and either transported for permanent storage, or processed into a useful product, like plastics, chemicals, or new fuel.

Traditionally, capturing the carbon can be an energy-intensive process with chemicals that are hard to dispose of when depleted, which often defeats the original environmental goals.

Innovation and increased adoption of new and existing technology is needed to reach net zero goals. novoMOF (Switzerland) a pioneer and manufacturer of MOFs, and NanoLayr (UK) a developer and manufacturer of nanofibres, are integrating these two technologies to bring transformation to the Carbon Capture market and produce a commercial MOF-loaded nanofibre sheet.

The resulting sheets will be directly applicable to current high-volume air filters, meaning they can be used to stop CO2 from entering the atmosphere without any major infrastructure being needed. This cheap, low-energy solution has the potential to have a huge impact on the planet’s carbon problem.

An integrated value chain for the coffee industry

Trade in Space Limited

This proposal will consolidate a partnership between UK-registered business and research organisations, and Swiss SME Farmer Connect. All of the partners in the proposal have been in contact for at least two years, and in the case of Trade in Space (TIS) and Farmer Connect, the first stages of technical product integration under the framework of a commercial product partnership agreement have been explored.

All of our partners have developed software and services which add value to forest-commodity producers and enhance opportunities for sustainable production of the most widely imported agriculture products in both the UK and Switzerland.

Trade in Space has produced satellite-based services to monitor deforestation risk with agri-commodity supply chains, including coffee and cacao production landscapes. Farmer Connect has created highly innovative data-capture and distribution frameworks based on blockchain based architecture; the company is a global leader in the delivery of farmer-centric digital identity and product traceability services.

Other project stakeholders CABI and Assimila have created earth-observation data driven models to monitor pest and disease risk at coffee agriculture sites. The University of Leicester’s National Earth Observation Centre has developed an enhanced deforestation monitoring capability which increases the accuracy of industry-standard, open-source deforestation monitoring algorithms.

Together our partnership offers a chance to lead the world in deliver of deforestation monitoring services, whilst also adding value with supporting information on pest and disease risk, digital product traceability combined with opportunities to directly communicate and financially transact with smallholder farmers.

There is unprecedented commercial, environmental, and socially-driven demand for these services as the full weight of climate change, and climate change mitigation efforts are brought to bear on some of the world’s most fragile small-holder agriculture communities. By combining our services, we will offer an easily accessible route beyond simple compliance to globally emerging sustainability regulations.

The core elements of the project will include:

• technical integration and test of partners’ highly innovative software service products and creation of an combined service product offering
• further coffee pest and disease model validation of critical coffee pest and disease in new geographies and landscapes
• further validation and ground accuracy assessment of various satellite EO powered deforestation models, with ground verification of accuracy
• real-life deployment and test of integrated service characteristics with a coffee farming co-operative, raising research TRL to nine
• commercial roadmap to further develop project outputs and deepen collaborative product development opportunities.

Remote stroke diagnosis and treatment platform (RESDAT)

Brainomix Limited

Rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke is critical in improving outcomes for stroke, which is the leading cause of serious long-term disability globally. Stroke is the fourth largest cause of death in the UK and costs £25.6 billion annually.

The most common type of stroke is a large vessel occlusion which is a clot lodged in a major artery in the brain. Multiple clinical studies to have shown that patients have the best outcomes when treated with mechanical thrombectomy. Thrombectomy is a medical procedure where a specialist physician removes a blood clot from a blocked artery by making a small incision in the groin or arm, and using a catheter (thin, flexible tube) to guide a device through blood vessels in the body to the clot in the brain for removal.

However, there are still many risks involved in mechanical thrombectomy for the patient and the clinicians. For the patient, there are risks of injury to the blood vessels. To address these problems, we want to create a robotic system that can improve the accuracy, availability, and safety of thrombectomy.

The system will provide the following benefits.

More accurate clot removal

Robots can be programmed to move with more precision than human hands, which can help to ensure that the clot is removed completely and can help to reduce the risk of damage that is caused during the procedure.

Widen access to underserved populations

Thrombectomies will not require the physical presence of a highly trained operator meaning that it will be easier and more cost-effective to enable access in remote areas at any time.

Less exposure to radiation

Clinicians are exposed to higher than normal levels of radiation to carry out these procedures that need to be carried out regularly to save lives.

Through this project, Brainomix, the leading stroke artificial intelligence (AI) company in the UK and Europe, and Nanoflex, a robotics spin-off from ETH Zurich, will partner to develop a novel platform to be able to delicately guide more effective devices through to clots.

iSurface

Munro Technology Limited

The aviation net zero emission targets for 2050 are the main driver to have a fresh look at aircraft manufacturing, operation, and maintenance to identify ways of reducing the carbon footprint of the industry.

The aim of this project is to develop a method of monitoring the health and performance of an aircraft structure using a novel unintrusive technique. This involves embedding series of nanoscale fibres capable of sensing the structural performance real-time.

It is proposed to create electrically conductive fibres based on MT’s product enTex. The project will bring together MT, ZP, the electronics, data acquisition and AI partner, and AT, the integrator end user, supported by FHNW, the verification and validation RTO partner.

The benefits of building sensitive structures using enTex results in structural robustness, savings in maintenance frequency, weight, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. It will create a significant leap toward longevity, health and cost-effectiveness of complex cyber-physical structures.

Today, high percentages of advanced composite materials are integrated into the primary flight structures of aircraft. Composite materials technology has become key enabler of future electric aviation concepts including Urban Air Mobility (UAM) that heavily rely on light weight structures to improving fuel efficiency, reducing emissions and lowering the manufacturing, operating and certification costs in current and future aircraft.

The materials have a higher ability than metals to withstand fatigue loading. However, they are prone to hidden damage from low velocity impact, resulting in internal defects, which cannot be detected through a regular visual inspection.

Structural Health Monitoring and Analysis of aircraft structures can perform real time inspection, reducing costs and improving the reliability and performance of aircraft. The project partners propose a radically new approach to Structural Health Monitoring of composite materials.

FaVoRe: fast volumetric reconstruction

Disguise Technologies Limited

The past few years have seen a dramatic change across the creative industries. Live communication and entertainment have potentially undergone the most drastic evolution, with audiences demanding tailored, engaging and highly innovative approaches, able to reach them across new delivery platforms, always available at their will.

With FaVoRe, we will develop innovative tools to create post-show immersive content.

Leveraging the University of Lucerne world renown expertise in AI, Nimagna and Disguise, will develop ground-breaking innovations enhancing their respective product lines to respond to new market opportunities.

For disguise, this innovation will allow for any performance to be captured on stage so that it can be delivered as a rich and immersive post-event content. For example, produced to be streamed directly on a hand-held device, or virtual reality headset, or as a shared virtual experience, enabling high quality, engaging virtual performances and repeat viewing.

Concurrently, Nimagna will provide unprecedented quality for the corporate communications and presentations market, with enhanced capabilities to their live video capture workflow.

Levelling up: cultured meat bioprocess intensification for scalable commercial production

Roslin Technologies Limited

Cultured meat offers enormous potential for addressing concerns around sustainability, animal welfare and environmental impact of the traditional meat industry. However, technoeconomic challenges remain in scaling production to meet market demand, estimated to reach $20 billion by 2030.

Cultured meat is produced by directly culturing animal cells. This production method eliminates the need to raise and farm animals for food, meaning that cultured meat production has a considerably lower environmental impact than its conventional counterpart. Cultured meat consists of the same cell types that can be arranged in the same structure as animal tissues to replicate the taste, texture and nutritional profiles of conventional meat.

Producing cultured meat can be challenging due to longevity of most cell lines and their abilities to differentiate into required cell types, including muscle and fat.

Roslin Technologies (RTL) are the first and leading provider of high quality cell lines for the cultivated meat sector. We develop induced pluripotent stem cell lines (iPSC) that can differentiate into muscle and fat, supported by customised cell culture media and processes.

Our cells are well suited to the cultured meat industry as they are non-GMO, grow quickly, are genetically stable and can grow in suspension culture without the need for additional scaffolds. At RTL we have demonstrated our cells can grow in small-scale benchtop bioreactors, but the next step is to transfer this to industry relevant pilot-scale bioreactors.

With Innovate UK and Innosuisse support RTL are excited to partner with The Cultured Hub (TCH) in Kemptthal, Switzerland. TCH is a dedicated cultured meat contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) that provides expertise in process intensification and scale-up. In this project RTL and TCH will work together to realise the full potential of RTL stem cells.

Researchers will work to optimise cell yields, quality and safety through media and bioprocess development. The data and know how generated by this project will help demonstrate the commercial potential of RTL cells and position TCH as a leading CDMO for cultured meat bioprocess development.

The projects focus on cultured meat safety will also provide valuable information to regulators and policy makers to help define UK CM quality and safety standards. We believe this will benefit cultured meat producers and the industry as a whole to reach mass consumer markets faster. Ultimately this will support a more resilient food system and contribute to Paris Agreement goals and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

SPIWACS: sustainable pIgments from waste cellulose streams

Sparxell UK Limited

Pigments add shine and colour to a multitude of daily products. They are ubiquitous in cosmetics, fashion, packaging, paints, and even food. However, as currently formulated, they contain a mix of problematic materials such as microplastics, mineral oxides, like titania and mica, and high GHG refined metals.

Extractive mining is a major environmental and social concern for which there are currently very limited technological alternatives that would offer plant-based, renewable and high performance metallic-effect colourants.

Without a fundamental design and innovation shift in pigment technology, direct pollution to the natural environment and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing processes and supply chains enabled by petroleum consumption and extractive mining will never be eliminated.

It is now clear that pigment materials have a negative impact on the environment across their entire life cycle and are not sustainable. They are associated with negative human health effects, are accumulating in the environment and have the potential to be toxic to animal and plant life. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop truly sustainable alternatives.

The solution is now available: the project partners Sparxell (SX) and Impossible Materials (IM) are start-ups aimed at the commercial delivery of breakthrough sustainable pigments based on plants. Sparxell has developed unique new pigments using cellulose-derived nanocrystals to deliver metal-like effects without metal. Impossible Materials’ first product is a cellulose-derived white pigment, addressing one of the most environmentally problematic and high-volume pigments, titanium dioxide.

In this collaboration, we will build a new manufacturing process platform by transforming the primary waste cellulose stream from the production of white pigments (IM) into functional cellulose nanomaterials that are the main and sole ingredient of metallic-effect pigments (SX).

The overall process will be monitored and accompanied by a cradle-to-cradle life cycle analysis (LCA) performed by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), University of Cambridge. This rigorous approach will guide the process design and choice of materials to ensure that the overall production process is significantly more sustainable than the separate manufacturing processes used today by IM and SX.

The overall aim of this project is to demonstrate the technical viability, commercial attractiveness and sustainability benefits of coupling Impossible Materials’ nanocellulose waste stream to Sparxell’s raw materials inputs to deliver a more profitable and sustainable supply chain for both organizations.

DISCO: display innovation, simulation, creation and optimization

Excyton Limited

Displays consume 50% of the battery in smartphones and other portable electronic devices. This is a problem for consumers, who must recharge their devices, and is damaging for the environment. Displays consume approximately 5% of all household electricity and produce up to 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year worldwide.

Excyton has developed and patented a game-changing pixel design called TurboLED, which can reduce display power by over 40%. Unlike standard OLED displays which have RGB sub-pixels, TurboLED displays have independent saturated RGB sub-pixels and unsaturated RGB sub-pixels.

The unsaturated colours are much more efficient than the saturated colours because of greater sensitivity of the human eye, and these can be used to render the majority of display images using proprietary algorithms developed by Excyton. The less efficient saturated colours are only used when necessary to render images with deep colours. Look around you. How many saturated colours do you see?

Excyton is working with Fluxim AG of Switzerland, a world leader in simulation software and hardware for the research and development of displays. Fluxim has developed a prototype Display Calculation Tool that can compute and compare power consumption for different display designs.

Using this tool, Excyton and Fluxim have demonstrated that a TurboLED display consumes 48% less power than the equivalent RGB OLED display in the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Excyton is also working with the renowned research group of Professor Andrew Monkman at Durham University to fabricate prototype TurboLED devices.

Proof-of-concept red, green and blue TurboLED prototypes were recently demonstrated alongside the prototype Display Calculation Tool from Fluxim at Display Week 2023, the flagship event of the global display industry. Excyton and the team won the innovation prize for its Novel Power Saving TurboLED Pixel Design and Algorithms and is in discussions with several leading OLED material and display companies to develop a prototype TurboLED display.

The proposed project aims to build on the initial success and established collaborations within the UK and Switzerland. Excyton will demonstrate a prototype TurboLED display at Display Week 2025 with over 40% power savings compared to a standard OLED display, Durham University will demonstrate red, green and blue TurboLED devices to use in the display and Fluxim will develop the world’s first Display Calculation Tool to ensure an optimized display design for maximum power savings.

Find more information about Excyton.
Watch an interview with I-Zone Honoree Excyton at Display Week 2023.
Find out more about Fluxim.

Development of digital diagnostics services for Parkinson’s disease

gaitQ Limited

Parkinson’s disease is the fastest growing progressive neurological disorder, affecting over 10 million people worldwide. Symptoms like rigidity, tremor, freeze of gait, and loss of balance significantly impact patients’