UKRI-funded projects among Collaborate to Innovate winners

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A number of pioneering projects funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have been recognised in the 2020 Collaborate to Innovate awards.

The awards are organised by The Engineer and supported by UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Celebrating outstanding collaboration

They celebrate outstanding technology-led engineering collaboration across a range of different disciplines and sectors.

Samantha Francis, Deputy Director, Research Base at EPSRC and Collaborate to Innovate judge said:

For researchers and innovators, collaboration is a key part of everyday life in helping to tackle some of the world’s biggest societal and technical challenges from improving healthcare to energy saving technologies. It’s fantastic to see so many UKRI supported collaborations recognised in these awards.

2020 winners

The 2020 winners include:

Automotive

Title: Immersion Cooled Electric Vehicle Battery Packs (i-CoBat)

Partners:

  • M&I Materials Ltd with Ricardo Ltd
  • Warwick Manufacturing Group at University of Warwick.

Funded by UKRI through the Faraday Battery Challenge, part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).

Aerospace and defence

Title: DRAMA

Partners: National Centre for Additive Manufacturing / MTC with:

  • ATS Global
  • Autodesk
  • Ansys Granta
  • Midlands Aerospace Alliance
  • National Physical Laboratory
  • Renishaw
  • University of Birmingham.

National Centre for Additive Manufacturing supported by Innovate UK.

Healthcare and medical

Title: Machine learning for enhanced diabetes care

Partners:

  • Quin Technology Ltd
  • University of Bristol.

Supported by UKRI through the ISCF

Future thinking

Title: SUNRISE

Partners:

  • Swansea University with Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
  • Imperial College London
  • Brunel University London
  • Indian Institute of Science
  • Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
  • Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London South Bank & KwaZulu-Natal
  • Indian Institute of Technology, CINVESTAV Unidad, Mérida
  • Institute of Physics and Technology, Kazakhstan.

The SUNRISE project has received support from EPSRC and Innovate UK.

Highly commended

Highly commended projects include:

Healthcare and medical

Title: TraCer

Partners:

  • University of Oxford
  • King’s College London
  • Aga Khan University
  • Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
  • Oxford Computer Consultants.

Manufacturing technology

Title: Topology optimisation of a heat exchanger with turbulent flow

Partners:

  • Baker Hughes with Imperial College London
  • TOffeeAM LTD.

TOfeeAM Chief Operating Officer Dr Marco Pietropaoli is a former EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow and Chief Technology Officer Dr Audrey Gaymann is an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow at Imperial College London.

Energy and environment

Title: A novel thermoelectric heat pump/heat recovery system (EcoPump)

Partners:

  • University of Nottingham with Environmental Process Systems
  • EPS Ltd
  • A.K Engineering Ltd
  • Thermo Electric Devices Ltd
  • Gaoke Applied Science Research Institute Co. Ltd
  • China and Southeast University, China.

Project supported by Innovate UK.

Top image:  Credit: imaginima/GettyImages

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