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24 Aug 2005
After 50 years as one of the world's leading centres of big science, the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is now spinning off its technology. Oliver Graydon finds out more.
A new-found hunger for commercializing research is paying dividends at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). The facility, which is set in the Oxfordshire countryside and is the proud home of the world's most intense laser - Vulcan - is now exploring how its scientific know-how can create exciting business opportunities. And judging from its recent successes, the centre is a gold mine of ideas.
Over the past two years, CLIK Knowledge Transfer - the commercialization arm of RAL and the Daresbury Laboratory - has spun-off half a dozen new ventures (see box). These start-ups are pioneering everything from terahertz imaging (Thruvision) and optical sensors for gas turbines (Oxsensis), to MEMS-based viscosity meters (Microvisk) and an optical "lab on a chip" for measuring blood cholesterol levels (L3 Technology).
The latest spin-off, Rutherford Optics, was launched in June at the LASER 2005 show in Germany. It offers unique technology that was developed at RAL's central laser facility (CLF), which maintains the petawatt and terawatt laser systems Vulcan and Astra. Examples of CLF's cutting-edge expertise include its work on large adaptive optics, beam diagnostics and disc amplifiers.
"At the moment, our potential customer base is mostly other large facilities like AWE Aldermaston, in the UK, Rochester and Livermore, in the US, and LULI, Ecole Polytechnique, in France," said Colin Danson, group leader at Vulcan. "We've already supplied two disc amplifiers to LULI and designed and managed the construction of a new laser facility in Lisbon, Portugal." According to Nick Trigg, a business development manager at CLIK, these spin-offs have raised more than £7 m (€10.1 m) in funding.
What's more, there are more new ventures in the pipeline. "Currently, we have around 27 potential commercial opportunities under consideration, but not all of these will be viable," said Trigg. Designs under scrutiny include an optical technique for measuring bone density, a refractometer sensor and a novel camera developed by RAL's space science division.
CLIK was founded in 2002 with the sole purpose of seeking out and commercially exploiting research taking place at the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) - a collective of UK government-funded labs consisting of RAL, Daresbury Laboratory, in Cheshire, and the Chilbolton observatory in Hampshire.
"CLIK has exclusive rights to commercialize technology from the whole of the CCLRC," said Trigg. "It's all part of a long-term government drive to turn the UK into a knowledge-based economy. The UK has a reputation for being good at inventing things, and we want to encourage that and prosper from it."
RAL has already inspired some successful UK companies, such as optical components-maker Bookham, and ultraviolet laser specialist Exitech. They started life in the lab in the 1980s and 1990s and have become major players in the world of photonics. The aim of CLIK is to ease and accelerate the commercialization process by helping with intellectual property issues, finding funding and management, and assessing market potential.
"An important aspect is the management of intellectual property. About 5-10 years ago CCLRC didn't take out any patents," explained Trigg. "As for spotting the commercial potential, it's very much a black art involving some luck and serendipity."
CLIK attempts to commercialize technology in three ways: spin-offs; the licensing of intellectual property; and the marketing of departmental expertise, such as Rutherford Optics. "The first step of the process is walking around the corridors of the lab and talking to scientists about what they are working on," explained Trigg. "We also use experienced visiting entrepreneurs from outside to come and assess ideas."
So, why have the labs generated so many firms in such a small space of time? The likely reason is their unique set of large-scale facilities. After all, when building and working with the world's most powerful laser, it's not surprising that interesting technology comes to light.
"There's tens of millions of pounds in research and development being performed at RAL, which is out of the reach of most companies," explained Chris Mann, chief technology officer of Thruvision. His firm, which develops passive terahertz imaging systems, was founded following a project with the European Space Agency in 2002. StarTiger brought expert scientists from around the world to RAL to develop a terahertz imaging camera for space applications. The success of this project and others like it would suggest that RAL research has plenty of commerical potential.
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