News
Tuesday 14 August 2007
Prestigious grant recognises world-leading research
A prestigious grant earmarked for world-leaders in engineering and scientific research has been awarded to Nottingham Trent University. The university has received a Platform Grant worth almost £645,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – money intended to maintain and develop the strength of the UK’s engineering and scientific research base.
The university – the only post-92 university currently holding a Platform Grant – has been awarded the money to continue its research into ‘Exploiting the solid-liquid interface’. The work, being carried out from the university’s School of Science and Technology, focuses on designing intelligent surfaces with the ability to retain or shed water at will.
“The interaction of liquids with solids is fundamental to many areas of science and engineering”, said lead researcher Glen McHale, Professor of Physics at the university.
He said: “Nature has learned to control water in a myriad of ways – the lotus leaf cleanses itself of dust when it rains, a beetle in the desert collects drinking water from an early morning fog, and some spiders can even walk on water. We want to learn how to mimic the adaptations to water that nature has evolved.
“Through these intelligent surfaces we could learn to create anything from better clothes, car windscreens and pipes, to miniature biochemical factories and diagnostic systems on the size of a credit card. The intention of this Platform Grant is not to focus on a single industrial sector or application, but rather to exploit one of the basic interactions in nature.”
Recipients of Platform Grants are required to have an internationally-leading reputation. They also need to hold a substantial portfolio – typically £1m – of current EPSRC research grant funding, which the Platform Grant would underpin.
At Nottingham Trent University the Platform Grant will build on a set of EPSRC and industrial awards which have already generated more than 60 refereed journal articles and been cited more than 400 times since 2001. Professor McHale’s team, which includes Dr Mike Newton, Dr Carl Brown and Dr Neil Shirtcliffe, already has a number of patents in place. These include one for a Sperm Quality Assessment and Detection Device, or SQuADD, which is targeted at the Veterinary Artificial Insemination (VetAI) market.
Professor McHale added: “Being recognised as world-leading by such an important national body as EPSRC is a fantastic team achievement. I am extremely proud of our research students and fellows, many of whom came through our own undergraduate courses in physics and chemistry, who have worked so hard to make this happen. The award will allow us to translate this research into applications that really do improve people’s lives.”
ENDS
Notes for editors: For more on EPSRC Platform Grant Scheme visit http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchFunding/Opportunities/Capacity/PlatformGrants/Scope.htm
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