Official: RDEC is the Most Effective Innovation Investment Incentive

Leave a Comment / Finance / By / , , , / 30 November 2020
Official: RDEC is the Most Effective Innovation Investment Incentive
Reports commissioned by HMRC suggest that the research and development expenditure credit (RDEC) scheme is the most effective incentive for encouraging additional investment in R&D.

Three research reports published on 17 November evaluate the economic impact of the RDEC, SME R&D tax relief, and patent box regimes. The reports suggest that all the regimes encourage investment, although the overall impact on the economy of this additional investment is unclear.

According to the reports, the RDEC generates between £2.42 and £2.70 for each £1 cost to the exchequer, while the support for SMEs generates between 75p and £1.28. The patent box … Read More »

Chemist vs Chemical Engineer: What’s The Difference?

Leave a Comment / Tips and Tricks / By / , / 30 November 2020
blog post images 2 - Innovolo Product Development and Design
When you hear the word “chemistry” you probably think back to the many hours spent in school trying to memorise the periodic table of elements.

For many of us, that’s the last connection we have to the concept of chemistry, even though there are chemical processes involved in your everyday life.

Just imagine that all the plastics you use in your food and beverage containers were, at one time, designed and tested by chemical specialists. More than that, the petrol you put in your car is the last step in a long line of chemical processes to turn crude oil … Read More »

Wales Funds Medical Waste to Hydrogen Fuel Conversion Plant

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / , / 30 November 2020
wales funds medical waste to hydrogen fuel conversion plant - Innovolo Product Development and Design
A process being developed by researchers in the UK and India to convert medical waste – such as PPE used during the Covid-19 pandemic – into hydrogen fuel has received £47,000 from the Welsh Government.

The technique will use a photoreactor to simultaneously destroy pathogens as well as break down waste. The research is being led by Swansea University, which had previously developed a photoreactor that can convert waste plastic to hydrogen fuel. The same photoreactor will be used in the new project, although new photocatalysts will be developed. The collaboration also includes epidemiologists at India’s King Institute of Preventive … Read More »

Are Humanoid Robots for Elderly Care Here to Stay?

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / , / 24 November 2020
Are Humanoid Robots for Elderly Care Here to Stay?
Staying independent and in familiar surroundings as long as possible in old age – this is the wish of the most of us. It will be made possible by humanoid robots that help people cope with everyday life and wearable robots that support the movements of the wearer. Research by scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is aimed at making such futuristic robotic solutions suited for everyday life. Research is funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation with EUR 4.5 million. Within the framework of the project “JuBot – Young at heart with robots: Versatile assistance robotics for managing everyday… Read More »

Innovolo Win MedTech Awards 2020 GHP Award for Innovation in Chemical Engineering

Leave a Comment / Press Release, From the Press, Industry News / By / , / 23 November 2020
Innovolo Win MedTech Awards 2020 GHP Award for Innovation in Chemical Engineering
Innovolo Ltd won MedTech Awards 2020 GHP Award for Innovation in Chemical Engineering, sponsored by Global Health and Pharma Magazine, coming out on top over other competitors right across the country.

Innovolo Ltd was named winner of MedTech Awards in the Best Product Design & Development Consultancy – UK category, beating out competitors from across the country to take home top honours.

Potential award recipients were required to nominated by clients in order to be in contention for the Best Product Design & Development Consultancy – UK, and were judged based on The 2020 MedTech Awards are based solely on … Read More »

[Webinar Recording] How Generosity Breeds Innovation, with April Shprintz

Leave a Comment / Webinars / By / , , / 30 November 2020
How Generosity Breeds Innovation Webinar Recording - How to Embed the Generosity Culture into Your Innovation Strategy

 

Euan Pallister
Well hello, and welcome everybody. I’m Euan Pallister, the commercial director here at Innovolo. Today we have with us, firstly, April Shprintz. April has spent over two decades driving growth for companies of every kind started off as a staff sergeant in the Air Force going right through and then into the corporate world, where she specialised in sales, operations and marketing. Her work has generated over $1 billion in combined additional revenue. Today, she teaches entrepreneurs and leaders like yourselves how to accelerate their businesses.

With us today, we also have Bradley Pallister, who is the … Read More »

How Publishers are using Innovation for New Revenue Streams

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / / 5 November 2020
How Publishers are using Innovation for New Revenue Streams
Publishers are increasingly innovating and coming up with new ideas for digital products and services which, in turn, bring in new revenues. In this dialogue, which took place during WAN-IFRA’s recent Digital Media Asia 2020, representatives from three leading media organisations talked about how they have managed to do this during the recent challenging times. The session was moderated by product consultant and former Le Parisien Chief Digital Officer, Ariane Bernard.

Weaving product thinking into The Washington Post’s newsroom

A successful newsroom product team needs diverse competencies which include knowledge of journalism, software engineering, advertising, and marketing. This is the … Read More »

Eggs turning food waste into a biogas and natural fertiliser

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / , , / 3 November 2020
Eggs turning food waste into a biogas and natural fertiliser
A Cork engineer has come up with a solution on how businesses and households could use their food waste to generate free, clean cooking biogas and natural fertiliser, writes KATE RYAN

A FASCINATION with a type of bacteria that can live without the need for air is a niche area of interest, to say the least.

But for Kieran Coffey, a Clonakilty-based engineer, it has been the foundation of a lifetime’s body of work culminating in his invention, MyGug.

Every year in Ireland, a million tonnes of food is wasted. Some food waste is composted, usually, at the domestic level, … Read More »

[Webinar Recording] Escaping the HiPPO webinar with Dave Roby

Leave a Comment / Webinars / By / , , / 24 November 2020
[Webinar Recording] Escaping the HiPPO webinar with Dave Roby

 

Introduction Video
Here in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa, we find one of the most dangerous mammals on the earth today, the hippopotamus amphibious, a very rotund fellow Indeed, the hippo spends most of his time submerged to keep his skin moist and cool. Although hippos can’t actually swim, they simply glide through the water pushing themselves off other objects. And while, hippos are social beasts, loitering in schools of 10 to 30 of both males and females. They are very aggressive, incredibly dangerous. Sporting large teeth, and tusks that are used for fighting off anything considered a threat. … Read More »

20,000 Petabytes Under the Sea: Exploring Underwater Data Centres

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / 5 November 2020
20,000 Petabytes Under the Sea - Exploring the Potential of Underwater Data Centres

Did Jules Verne ever imagine such things as data centres, 20,000 leagues (or petabytes), beneath the sea? Quite possibly not, yet here we are …

Humans have become very good at polluting vast areas of the planet by dumping waste in the sea, so perhaps it’s about time that something we put in the sea has the potential improve pollution rather than just adding to it?

Mid-September saw the completion of Microsoft’s first-ever experiment with underwater data centres off the Orkney Isles, and the reports have made for intriguing reading. The formal results have yet to be released, but initial … Read More »

Plasma Technology used to Produce Environmentally-Friendly Fertiliser

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / / 24 November 2020
Plasma Technology used to Produce Environmentally-Friendly Fertiliser

Belgian scientists have found a CO2-free way to produce ammonia with plasma technology. This will enable farmers to produce environmentally friendly fertilizer themselves.

At one point back in the eighties of the last century, ammonia was the main villain in the environment. It was partly to blame for acid rain. Nowadays, scientists see it as a green energy source because you can make it easily and cheaply. Belgian scientists have developed a new method for the CO2-free production of ammonia.

Ammonia is a very important chemical building block. But it is also one of the main contributors to CO2 emissions. … Read More »

New Gas Shield Welding Solution Developed for the Aerospace Sector

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / / 15 October 2020
New Gas Shield Welding Solution Developed for the Aerospace Sector

The aerospace sector can now call upon a new welding solution that reduces reworks considerably thanks to a Sheffield-based tooling specialist.

Engineers at MetLase took just two months from the major aerospace engine manufacturer’s initial enquiry to design and manufacture a customised Gas Shield for controlling argon delivery within shielded welding, preventing the age-old problem of oxygen or water vapour affecting the quality of the weld.

Using precision laser cutting technology and patented joining methodology, the Rotherham-based company identified an engineering grade metallic foam that dissipates the argon gas in a precision manner, providing an almost perfect inert atmosphere for … Read More »

Cornwall Joins the UK Green Hydrogen Race

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / , / 15 October 2020
Cornwall Joins the UK Green Hydrogen Race

The UK government is starting to draw up a plan to create a ‘world-leading’ hydrogen market that can help meet its goal to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

As a consequence, the renewables sector is urging the government to support the rapid development of commercial green hydrogen. AeroSpace Cornwall is playing its part by awarding grant funding to companies building the future of energy. One such company, PV3 Technologies, a Cornish company on a mission to advance low carbon technologies across the world, has received vital funding from AeroSpace Cornwall to help support new research and development projects … Read More »

Scientists at University of Birmingham Develop New Brain injury Detection Method

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / , / 14 October 2020
Scientists at University of Birmingham Develop New Brain injury Detection Method

Using chemical biomarkers released by the brain immediately after a head injury occurs, researchers are able to pinpoint when patients need urgent medical attention. This saves time in delivering vital treatment and avoids patients undergoing unnecessary tests where no injury has occurred.

The technique was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers in the group of Advanced Nanomaterials, Structures, and Applications (ANMSA) led by Dr Goldberg Oppenheimer at the University of Birmingham.

Following a proof-of-concept study, the group has now completed Innovate UK’s commercialisation programme, iCURE, to identify commercialisation routes for the technique, identifying potential partners across eight countries.

The … Read More »

Maiden Voyage for ‘UK’s first’ Sea-Going Electric Ferry, the e-Voyager

Leave a Comment / Industry News / By / / 14 October 2020
Maiden Voyage for new electric ferry e-Voyager

The UK’s first sea-going electric ferry has set sail for the first time in Plymouth.

The e-Voyager vessel uses repurposed Nissan Leaf batteries, and an advanced electric motor, which replaces the traditional diesel engine.

The green ferry will undergo rigorous running trials, before carrying passengers on ferry routes from April 2021.

The project was designed and developed by the cruising, ferry, and fishing company Plymouth Boat Trips (PBT), the boatbuilder Voyager Marine in partnership with the University of Plymouth, the University of Exeter, the manufacturer Teignbridge Propellers and the engineering technology company EV Parts.

Scientists from the University of Plymouth … Read More »