STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Lovely job. So yeah, welcome, everybody. Thank you for coming.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we're a small but beautifully formed audience. So that's good. And I think we probably have that same amount of people online. So welcome to those online as well.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: yeah, so a little bit of context. So I've been meeting regularly with Sinead now more or less, since she started as a director of Ppd and from a few ideas around and between us, we decided it'd be a good idea to
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Talk to the department a little bit about a bit more about the Id. You may know some things you may not know anything at all so hopefully at the end of this morning session. You'll have better idea and the the plan also is so I will go. Then Colin will talk about innovations, and then we're going to introduce you to Alex, and hopefully, Marianne, if she comes
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: who are going to do a little bit more work with Dpd. Over the coming weeks and months.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so my name is Rick Alex. I'm the director of business development and incubation based at sites here on wow, I also look after Pd. And incubation at Edinburgh, for the Uk Agency and the site that we have in Edinburgh. Bit of background. I
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I did physics and laser physics as my degree, and Phd, so, and I used to work a long time ago in the laser facility in the Vulcan ipad areas. So I did a lot of plasma physics and all of that good stuff. So I did think about talking to you about plasma physics. And I thought, No, I've probably forgotten most of that stuff.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I'll talk to you instead about business and innovations and what we do.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I've put this up because this is a really important, I'm sure you all know this.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But Scfc's mission discovering secrets of the universe.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's definitely something. Ppv. Do.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And you do it very well indeed. You also, of course, develop advanced technologies in order to discover the secrets of the universe.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and I'm sure you do. Solving the real world challenges. But
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: what we can help with a lot is this last point, which is how we can support you. To work in solving real world challenges, working with industry and working for
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: for the societal benefit. So put that up as just a little reminder of what we're all here for.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I entitled this book, bridging the gap between pioneering science. That's what we do at Sdfc and business. How do we do that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: in the most efficient and optimum way?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So a little bit about business and innovations directorate for those who don't know we we are, we concentrate in 4 key areas. So
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I'm gonna be talking about business development a little bit about innovation. If people are more interested in that, always happy to talk to you about what we do there.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Colin will be talking to you about innovation, which is over here, and then we have the campus development and the classes as well. So it's kind of 4
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: 4 key areas. We are about a hundred people in the Id now.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and we are distributed across Raoul Dairy Street and Edinburgh.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: As I say, we do all of these different things, and hopefully, by the end of this morning you'll have a little bit more of an idea of how we do this.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So it's all about for business development. It's all about solving industry challenges. So what we like to do is, we say to industry, come to us, come to Sdfc with your challenges, and we will work with you to create solutions to those challenges.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So we have this map
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: of what we've got on offer essentially, and you will see there is a gap. And that gap at the moment is public visits.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So we would love to put some particle physics on this map.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You have obviously very close relationships with technology department. And Alex, who's going to introduce himself later is the business development manager for technology. So which is so, it's a nice synergy there. Obviously, we have high power lasers.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We have the neutron and muon source. We have the synchrotron source of diamond. We have the whole of our space in space engineering in Uk, Atc, and these, of course, are all underpinned by these technologies here, and the high performance and data center computing that we have both through scientific computing. Again, which I know that you'll have very close relationships with. And also the Hartree center. Basically.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So all of those different systems can work together can work with industries to provide these
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: sorts of solutions to their really interesting challenges. Actually, some of the folks that we've worked with across these different facilities are often quite surprised how interesting the and technically challenging some of these things are, and they get a lot of a lot out of actually working on those challenges.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Now, we always say that we are impact 1st and income second.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But what's nice about doing stuff with industry is that you can generate a little bit of income while you're generating your impact. And what's that income do? It makes more impact because you can do more things with that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And in the great new world which I'm sure you're all aware of. Generating. Impact is going to income. Sorry alongside. Your impact is going to be more and more important.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and the reliance on government funding, and the like is going to have to become less because there is less money to go around. So we need to find ways of leveraging money
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: from industry, from private sources, from other research councils which we do but essentially.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: it's this impact 1st and bid have that we're not all about the dark arts of trying to make money and get as much money out of people as we possibly can. We're about, how can we help generate impact. And along the way get some income so that we can. We can do more of that. I can show you the pipeline of
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: What we've got going on at the moment a bit later.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: This is just to show. So we do have an industry engagement strategy that we've written. It's aligned to all of these different strategies. So we've written down kind of how we're going to do that, what we're going to do, what we'd like to achieve. And we have these 4 goals essentially.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So those I won't go into all the details of these. But basically we want to be able to drive the way that industry innovates
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and does its stuff by the use of Spfc facilities, expertise
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: knowledge. And it's stuff. It's the people, the engineers and scientists like yourselves in this room who can really help to drive that innovation?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We also need to know the barriers to industry, to enable to access our skills, facilities and expertise this place. We all know it. We come every day. It's amazing, but also not surprising that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: 95% of folks do not know anything about us.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and so industry need to be shown what we can do. And they also need the barriers lowered so that they can actually come and do it. They think a lot of people think that this is just, for universities come play and do their exciting science. They don't realize that they can. Actually.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we also need to develop a deep understanding of our what we call our customers. So that's the industry. What is it that they can that they are doing that we can help support. This needs updating because the Majesty's government doesn't have 7 technology families any longer. It has something called missions.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and we're going to be aligning to the missions. Further.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: as we go forward, we have to do that, because in in a sense we have to follow the money back. So if we're not aligned to what the government wants.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: then what are we doing?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And then the last bit is around skills gaps. How we can upscale industry by working closely with them.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: How do industry currently access?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's the T facilities.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so the the biggest route, of course, is through their review. So people apply, and they put proposals in, and they get time on Isis, or the laser facility, or
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: or or diamond, or whatever it is. And I know that very, very closely across all of the university systems, and and that will be something embedded with
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: but in industry this is this is as if you were an industry. An industry can come in via partnerships and a lot. Of course, universities have strong industrial partnerships so they can come in by an academic partner. They can come in through these rooms, which you'll be very familiar with innovate Uk's Crmd,
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we will actually do commercial contracts. And we do global
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and so if an industry wants to come in, do a piece of work and protect their intellectual property from that work, then they can pay for it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Isis. I don't know whether you know this, but Isis have their own collaborative R. And D program where industries can obtain access in a slightly different way to the Peer Review range.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And then, finally, we run lots of different programs. There's several on the go at the moment innovate. Uk run something called analysis dot innovators. And we're a partner in that. And then I started up with innovative a fund called the Industry Impact Fund, where innovate actually provides funding to Sdfc, so Sdfc can provide their facilities out to industry.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So the industry don't get the money. They get the access to services and expertise, and we get money in order to fund that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And similarly, with Bbs, Rc. And Sbc, you did something there. And we yesterday, actually, we launched the 3rd round of that time really successful. That's an interesting one. Might be
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: a little bit away from the particle physics, but the the model is really interesting in that. What we do there is, we have a what I call a magic triangle. So you have a partnership between an industry and an academic, and that partnership then accesses. You get this sort of magic triangle works really really well. Bbs, Rc. Pay all the money to us which is really good.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It doesn't cost me.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I just thought I'd flash this up because you may not be aware the business development pipeline. So
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: this is unweighted here. But there is nearly 280 million pounds worth of contracts in the business development pipeline. They're not all done, of course, but it's a big pipeline.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and it's an enormous amount of work that we do. And just to give you an idea, each of the departments here have either one
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: or a number of business development managers that are embedded in their phones.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So they're employed by the id, but they are embedded within the department themselves, so that they work very, very closely with the team management team of the department, and they are day to day. So Alex, for example, is day to day in the technology.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's where she sits. That's where
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: she lives. But there is an overarch in network.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I guess it managed by me, which means that people can come together, share good practice.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: share contacts and all that. Good stuff.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: By far. The biggest thing in this is is route spaces you might expect so well, space
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: are they young?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Don't get particularly
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: large amount if any core funding, so there's a very large amount of contracts coming in to develop space, Heartree doing really really nicely now as well at around that 90 million. Anyway, if you boil all of that down.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: because if you wait that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: in some way, in terms of qualify, develop, propose, and close for those contracts. It's around about 35 million quid. And last year we did about 30 million pounds. So actually, it's a, it's around about right. And so
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: it's not insignificant. It's a small amount in compared to the total budget of Spfc. But it's not an insignificant amount. And bearing in mind that not a penny of this comes into the idea, all goes international.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So all of this work is done so that national labs can benefit from from that income.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Just a brief thing. I'll need to scroll on this
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: brief thing here. So I I think in the past there have been a few people from physics who have got involved with one or 2 of our programs. And I know that there's been a few concerns about how things might continue in the future. Once funding comes to an end, and whether people are expected to just keep working on stuff
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: like, I do.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, that's absolutely not the case. But what we can do is help support you to find out where the next follow on phone.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So we have an internal fund called the Commercial Hub Priming Fund and the the idea behind that is for smallish projects. The fund is usually around about 100 K in total. So we're talking about sort of 5 projects of 20 K or so
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that's in order for a department to do something which makes them more attractive to industry.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So they do a project, and that then releases.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: if you like, the times 3 multiplier on the amount of industry income that they could that they could generate. It's quite small, but it works really well. Alex has got quite a few going from technology in the past, and Colin will talk to you about our proof of concept funds, which is another fund that the Id
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: have, which is much more significant, and it's much more aligned to the sort of IP area that. And then these are just to remind. So these are the 2 different access funds that that we've got going. I've got
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: proposals in within about Uk to continue doing industry impact in the future. And things like that. So I guess the message here is that in particular, for Ppd.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: this could be a really good way of starting to work with industry.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: where the funding doesn't have to come from the company, but they suddenly start to get
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: the feel for how you can help and support them. So for me. This is a pipeline building exercise, where
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: all of a sudden people realize how Sdc. Can help them, and in the future they will come in and they will. They will place contracts with us and work with us more closely.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And then I won't go into a lot of detail on this. But this is business incubation. You may. You know there are
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: 70 odd companies on just on the rail campus who are rent paying companies. They are very much deep tech companies. They are aligned to our clusters. Things like space, health energy.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and we're looking quantum shouldn't be in brackets anymore. We've launched a quantum cluster, and we have quantum business incubation center as well. And then we're looking more and more into the sort of defense and security area as well, so this is a quick kind of wraparound package for companies to locate on site, and they are supported through that system. So it's another part of the the the sort of 4,
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: the areas of the id, if you like. So this is the inflation part. What's interesting through inflation?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Essentially, the operating costs of.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and that's what. So that's all of the staff. Not just the integration people, but all of the staff in Sca in bid are paid for via external linking.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So the only the core funding that we get through Svfc is actually for our funding mechanisms, like proof of concept and and cppx and things like that. So we are the idea, essentially, 50% paid for by external
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: which is something that people actually don't know.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We have these incubation centers. The reason I'm flashing this up is because some people in the room might be interested in thinking about starting companies
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: or being involved in companies or being involved in startups. So we run these various incubation programs where the company gets a small grant they also get access to finance. They get help with IP, and they get an office, and they get access to to labs and things like that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I'm really successful
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: sets of things that we, we most recently launched the quantum bit and the digital bit which is based at Carwell. And we have some ideas for health tech and energy. And and so we originally ran. What was the Cern bit?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: What we found with that in certainly in the past is that there has been not a lot of
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: traction, shall we say with companies who are associated with the certain process which is interesting? I don't know why.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so, but we are working closer and closer with. And we're now the idea now responsible for the sort of the industrial liaison side. And so the return back into the Uk.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: From the from the sun.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: money that comes out of the Uk. So we're we're we're sort of re looking at that. And we'd be really interested in talking to Bpd about where you think that there might be opportunities.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I think that's about it. And then, just to mention these clusters, so across hardware. We have these clusters. And so there is. There's lots and lots of opportunity. There's lots and lots of organizations that we can engage with they're in the deep tech area
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and a lot of them will
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: need help from our engineers. Our expertise, our scientists facilities.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Think that's it. Yeah, I won't bother with that one, and I'll let you questions.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's straight off the bat. So that's true.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh, on zoom, please feel free to ask on Zoom as well. Yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Hi, Hi, Rick! I wonder whether you go into the next presentation, or or whether you'd like a bit more discussion on this one just now what would work best? Because well, let me tell you what I had in mind, I think.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: and people have.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: you know, some experience over the years of going down these roads with pump priming funds, and it might be useful not to navel gaze, but just to pick out, you know why, why, that's been more challenging in the past.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: those possible routes forward, so that might be a useful exercise, or alternatively, to look at ideas that could be on the table now, and how what the path might be. Just work through an example, what path you might suggest for a particular example. Would you rather do that now, or have Collins talk first? st
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We could do that now, if you like, because it's that that sort of side of it is is fresh.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: although there might be, I suppose it could equally apply to things like the proof of concept fund as well
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that Colin's going to describe.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Maybe it would be better. So. We wait. Then, with that, maybe people.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yes, I.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: It'd be filtering ideas in their minds that that we could maybe use it as good examples. Yes, that's that's good idea.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, let's let's do that. So let's electron
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: go. And then I know nothing about this. So this is quite good.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But it seems like the the Vic stuff with to do with Ppd, you showed it was sun and hints. But I can imagine that there are plenty more that Ppd. Could contribute off the top of my head. I can think of things like new on thermography or nuclear decommissioning stuff like this which we would have expertise in.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: but don't come under the remit of those dics that we just saw. How would one get involved in that? Or is there scope to get involved in different areas. Yeah. So I think
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I might have sort of
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: slightly complicated the picture by talking about the business incubation centers because they're more. Then that's about taking a startup company and helping them to grow so. But what you're saying
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: is kind of music to my ears about what Ppd can offer out into industry, for example. So in order to do that, then we can, you know we we can happily discuss with you how that might happen some interesting, you know, companies that could be interested in in that sort of technology. So it would be a actually. And that's where Alex and Marion are gonna come in because they would have conversation with you about what you're thinking is around that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And then they can take that way. Have a think about the kinds of companies that could be interested in there, and then we can make those connections and take it forward. And it it either comes to something interesting. Or, you know, there's there's plenty of places along the way where you say, well, actually, it's that's not gonna work out. So that's how we would do it. We do it through a business development process.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Shut off morning. Everyone.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Right? So not sure how much
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know about innovation about me. I've been Sdfc for just about a year. Now, I mean, prior to that, I was innovative looking at commercialization activities across all of the Uk
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: of universities trying to create entrepreneurs and spin ups prior to that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: very hectic career, and spent a lot of time, things like.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But I hope that give you an idea of what we're trying to do in the innovations team.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And since taking the song with innovations and does, which stands for
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: our 1st content, which is why we're successful. Why, we successful in the past
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: as quite simple. Really, it's the fact that we're the guys of actually all the clever stuff that you do
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: generating sexual poverty.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It doesn't actually need patents, copyrights, design rights. No.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: yeah. Databases. That's all intellectual property. That's stuff that we can help.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You suck with 1st comments on investment.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, the mantra uses ideas mentioned about generating impact. That's our that's our currency within the money.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But generally it's not creating impact.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So we drive impact from actually switching. Sfc, I think
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we try to do it by making sure that using that IP in the right way to actually solve a real problem.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And the impact that we have is actually, we contribute to crazy, crafty what we're doing
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: same as a whole.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: One of the things people think innovation. So it's it's-. It's a unique thing in there. So
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: could be really crazy and really, really clever to deal with myself. Imagine it's a skill.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know, more than anything else, innovation to skill. You can talk it right. And that's what we're here to help you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You know, it's got to be 2 sided.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You come up with something. You have a great idea, you about something. You have an invention, you have an innovation. You've got an invention
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: because somebody uses it and wants it needs it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Then presentation.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So the 1st thing was said. But it's an important point
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that's not gonna get back across Uk life or innovation translate, we will absolutely
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: debate everything with you to understand what we've got. Is there any value? Should we pursue reasonable with it? Yes or no. So this, you know, we will.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Sometimes you think we don't like it, but we're just trying to re-up it. We've got to really understand
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: what's in a PE what's in it for us? What's in the rest of the Fc, yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: innovation requires direction.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Right?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It's got to be something that's gonna do. It's gotta be something it's coming for. It's got to be a way of using it. Somebody be pulled towards answering a question.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So it's all job. And our ability to actually
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: determine engineer what should happen rather than relying on workers from dipty to make sure that things happen.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Remember just returning handed ideas are easy impact is hard.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yes.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So what's my team? Do we try to take you all the better stuff you do
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: when we explore part of what you do this messy bit down this end, all these fancy things you're doing all this kind of stuff.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and we try to actually deal, risk it and take it from being an action, an idea
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: to reach something we can exploit. So take from something which is quite high. Uncertainty could be something could be nothing
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: to something which actually has a way, some exploitation pathway, some certainty about it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, hope this is gonna work.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Hopefully. Hope it's fine.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I'm sure it's
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: this. You don't know the racks. But this is this is what I tend to use. Right is
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: this, hopefully, will highlight what we get? We get people coming up, and all these great ideas.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and then don't know
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we don't know what they're gonna do, what they're gonna be.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know what I got work to do yep
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: into town and sell my Sneed.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You chopped down one of my trees to make that piece of garbage garbage.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh, no!
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh, no! You do not get it. This is a revolutionary product that will change the world as we know it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It's a million uses. Look at this.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It's a swimsuit
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: mud tracked all over your floor by uninvited guests. Well, the nature comes in handy for that. Whoop it
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: but wait! There's more. Thanks to its all-natural microfibers. The need is super.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It also works that course. You probably want to ring it out first.st
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Knock yourselves out.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: but nobody's gonna buy that thing good to know. Well, fortunately, you're not the target market. Weirdo. You're bringing a guitar. Oh, yeah. Oh, I got a little jingle gonna blow. Some minds gonna sell some fees. Yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: okay.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: alright. So that is what we get. It gets going up. It's gonna have 8 things. It's gonna change the world to do everything.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: My job is to make sure is gonna do something
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: right? That's what the devices you see it today. Yeah, it's a central feed.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Make sure that somebody has it has a need, right? You don't remember anything happened today. Remember that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Right?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So, going back to force, we'll continue again.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We'll go from high uncertainty to low uncertainty
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and from social breakthrough to efficiency growth.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, we're going down.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, many small bets. So if you have size winners, right?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Make sure that's going to be, yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you guys do a bit of experimentation? Right?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Give us different things. We want the execution. So how do you actually focus or focus to this, how do you make sure it's gonna work?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah. And we try to get people that go from. Basically.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know, you guys be great with uncertainty. And you would see we've got to make this work. So how do you take it from there? Especially if you were a good organization and planning and actually making sure we can have a plan to make sure it's gonna be a success.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We've got various doing that. So we can help with IP management.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Do you have IP?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: If you have, I mean, I think with it. Do you protect? It? Can protect it while you protect it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, we can go all throughout the court process to do that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So yes, that's what commercial ideas team. That's where we have an internal fund in my team that allows you up to 10,000 pounds to actually go and explore what you might have commercial potential
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: proof of concept. That's a bigger award. That's when you think you've got something needs a bit more work. Bit more understanding might be technical development might do some more market assessment. It might, wherever it needs take to the next step. That's up to 50,000 pounds.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: All the innovation managers within the team can help you with those kind of processes.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's what we can do on the explore side. On the explore side you have a vehicle called Sdfc Innovations Limited, which I run.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and that's where we actually do all the licensing from.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: If you have a startup company.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's where we hold the equity and the investments for those companies. That's how within that, it's a separate legal entity.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So people are negotiating with sill, not sk slash, Uki.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And what happens is any revenues that come in those companies and pro licenses go into sale and get redistributed within. Sk through something called awards schemes.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And there's another scheme which actually gives you money back to the departments, depending on how the process has been set up with the licensing agreements, but all of that can be dealt with discussed as part of the process.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So as we go move on from that left hand to right hand side of things. Just give some idea. Ideation, disclosure forms both my team to work out whether you need to close anything into our process.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: This gives us actually proof that we've got you form or prior art.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know. That's what we're looking for here as we protect you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so we can go through all of that. Then we start to validate it, and we use the internal investment funds like concept.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And the know about that. Don't talk to me.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Then we can use other funding sources when we go to the viability stage. As much proof of concept. What we want to do is actually say, we think something in it. Does anybody else believe in it as much as we do?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We work very closely and have a good relationship with Dumbox's technology transfer, and we tend to use
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: as part of a funding escalate if you like, their funding to help us actually get extra money in to help us develop it in your technology. Further.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that's what we're tending to these days rather than us trying to do war off our own back.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We also have a close relationship with Uk Ios, which is a venture capital fund that's owned by new car, right?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Different parts of it. So a special partner as is space agency and many others to invest in early stage high risk.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: deep tech companies.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: They also have the print corporation support, especially what they're called knowledge assets
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: right? And as a term, the government uses for everything that you do this publicly funded.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you're creating what's called a knowledge asset.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And that's what we we talk about. Now don't say you've got IP got this. You talk about knowledge asset, which may become
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: a form of IP, okay, so it's about expectation at that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And then, obviously, we go through to the last bit, which is, you think you've got something prototype that pivot towards a different market? Need you originally thought, or actually nobody wants it, nobody cares. And you don't want it to the car.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So again, just going through that, so we can help you do the things like
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: go through projects that funding is filtering. So what kind of but we can get this
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: drafting the application so to my team can help think that we're gonna do with that. Then review it. Our decision to go to that proof concept funding
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: commercial ideas keep funding, got funding. We can have you go to that process so you don't have to do it on your own.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Sorry again. It's a bit more about proof concept fund. How can we funded through that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: technology? Prototyping market studies, business plan, development and feasibility studies all of those within this scope?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, it's for us to de-risk your idea to do a school.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I know he's email.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We've evolved it since I've been post from where it was. It used to be multi year up to 100,000 pounds.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know. And it needs to be primarily around technology development.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Had a small number of people that used to get all the money.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So what we tried to do something close to actually change this a bit, reduce the amount of funding to cap it 50,000 pounds.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But we've also launched something which comes out every quarter scheme which is actually using some of that that budget proof of concept to do smaller awards, to try to increase the amount of engagement within different departments, different inventors. And that's working really. Well, actually, we're getting a lot of engagement with. That is a nice 1st step
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: because we've not engaged with the commercialization process previously.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: What does all that lead to when we get to this last stage? There are 3 things that we tend to do is license
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: set out or find another way.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Make some use out of the heart of the
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so obviously, when we license, we find an external licensee.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: which is what's very license, or we can license it into a spin out that we're creating.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So the other route is, once you create, spin out again to go into that business.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and then we've got Epsy that we take within within sill.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and we've got other routes here which is actually trying to look for other collaborations. Other partners, industry collaboration, which is why we work very closely with
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: the guy's imp for something.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So again disciplines the context of the previous.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Hi, Brian, where you've got it sitting over here.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: When you're moving along, you want to start to engage with us. We can start talking about
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Ivf filing item protection, critical concept, commercial idea scheme.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: As you further towards the right hand side. That's when you start talking about.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Thank you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Going off the same kinds of type stuff.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: There's that points.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And then once you move further again, then start talking about all these crazy. See companies out, get licensing revenues. And then hopefully, if you've got a business and you get
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: investment as you move down and
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I'm not going to that one.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh, I got a little jingle gonna blow. Some minds gonna sell some fleas. Yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Everybody needs a feed, a fine that all people.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh, no, I don't know.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Welcome to office.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: It's not.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Oh.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: super attendee hops. It's a title of foreign for about 10 happy Monday smiling. You for exercise.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Appreciate that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we're in business, baby mom, hey? It's me. I told you I was gonna be a success. You need to bring the whole family here right now. We're gonna be rich.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So that's where he's not really mine.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Thank you very much.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Excellent. I'm talking to space. So, Sinead.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: what I suggest we do is if Alex and Marion come to the front and just introduce themselves and tell it about what they do. And then, maybe
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: either one or both of you could do talk through an example of. If
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: one of the folks in Cpb. Has an idea for a commercial, for example.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: what? How would they do that? And where would they go. And how would it work that, I think. Is that right, Shane?
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Yeah, that sounds good to me. Thank you. Yep.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, cool. Okay? So yeah, I'm Alexandrad. I'm the business development manager for the technology department. As Rick previously mentioned, technology do quite a lot of commercial work. They rely relatively and so, as we mentioned before, there's quite a lot of overlap or synergies between what technology?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I'm hoping that we find some things we need to work on, or you know, together we like to do cross departmental work, and then it's not the easiest thing. But it might be another way to
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: yes, increase- increase industrial engagement through Google and making them more familiar.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Hello, I'm Marion Sandler. Sorry I came in late. I have another meeting. I had to attend. I'm the business development manager for scientific computing.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and I guess I've worked in scientific computing for 7 years now, and the breadth of work that I've been involved with is grants horizon. Europe grants. We've done some work with a 4 i and the Sdfc impact for Industry Fund.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But as well, my part of my work is looking for innovation in licensing. So around software licensing. So I work very closely with the innovations team.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And we do a lot of work on trying to develop some new software applications. So, for instance, there may be something around AI that we could explore some kind of software opportunities there for licensing I don't know, but need to get to know a little bit more about. And certainly, you know, there are some funds coming up if we can help you
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: engagement. So my role really is helping the scientists within scientific computing navigate some of the funding and actually helping and supporting to apply for that. So that's really, I think
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: the kind of areas I can help you with.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, alright. Thank you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Just back to the example side of things. So I think before neon tech tomography was mentioned, and it piqued my interest, because very recently we did an i 2 x with a company that uses neon tomography to explore like subsurface uses. And they came to us and actually ended up working with the technology department on the detector that they were using.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But I'm pretty sure that they probably also have other R. And D challenges that people with expertise in photography would be able to help them with. So that would be just like one example where you could possibly work with industry. So yeah, a lot of what you said before in terms of understanding what capability is within. Ppd, so what you excel at where your expertise is, and then the challenges that a company might have. And it's really about trying to make those 2 things match.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And yeah, if there's something that we can do with the our primary fund to solve
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: display that to the company. It might just be like another feasibility project it could. It really probably depends on- on the technology and what you're using. Then, more than likely that once we've demonstrated more and more.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And I think
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: what I would like to explore if there's any sort of novel novel opportunities around AI Plugin to some of the detector data. We had quite a few conversations with quantum detectives.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and they were looking at some kind of means of adding an AI component to the data that comes off the detectors. So there may be something there. In my department. We've obviously got an AI for science theme. So if there's some way we could link up
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: with the 2 departments to see if there's anything we can develop there, and maybe tap into some of the funding to actually explore what that would be, how it would look, or how it would be, what business component, how it would be actually engage from the sales point of view, the end user. Not sure yet. So it's something you need to explore and investigate.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I think that's particularly 1 1 idea.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and maybe it's probably also worth mentioning that I'm already like engaging with Sean and the team. We have done a few commercial contracts last year or so. So and a lot of that again, it's just coming to us when you have either an idea or or a company approaches you. I don't really know how often that happens, but you know, in technology companies will approach various, and they don't necessarily know what to do with that inquiry. So
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: put it to us, and we'll be able to sort of support you. If if it's something that you want to do, then then we can support you on that process, on how you might want to work with them. And if something you don't want to do, then like, yeah, we have standard ways of
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: no, thank you. Maybe not this time. That type of thing, or even it might be that another department can help them. So one of the great things about sort of being linked between the business development is, even though we're embedded in the department, we'll share things with each other. So you know, Space, not that long ago came to me and said, There's this company, and they're talking about all these different metals for
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: it's not really like what we're working on at the moment came to me and said, You know, I'm interested in machine learning the way.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Good.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, thank you. So I think, open it up. If there's any, any, any questions that we can help with.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Perhaps I can make a comment just on on something Alec said, because I think that one of the aspects that might be true of our department. But I think this is something you'll be looking into. One of the aspects that might be true is that we are
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: 2 steps from being able to do this kind of work directly with industry, that what I mean by that is, it might be that working with another department is the natural place for us, and that, you know, bringing our expertise into a different department, whether it be quantum, even Isis and some of the kind of instrumentation challenges there, and so on. It could be. I think we should look at that side of it
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: that it could be that it's internally. It's a kind of. You know the intellectual work. You know that the I mean it's all intellectual work, but you know the actual work within the campus, and then it could be that the other department is the outward facing one. That's a possibility. That's not to say we can't open those doors in the department, but I think we should try and look 2 steps away from the outside world as well.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Yeah, must be yeah. And then sorry. Gary's got his hand up. I don't know whether you're able to see that in the room, but Gary.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Hello. Gary.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: The hand's gone away. So maybe that was.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: I think, I mean, maybe just to provoke discussion. I don't know if there are hands up in the room. But to to provoke some discussion. 1 1 idea, that's been talked about in the department is the idea of a generic
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: data acquisition electronic system there, there's a lot of expertise in that in the department. And one question is, you know, how generic could you go? And if you go to generic? Does that mean that you kind of wash out any
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: anything that would have been useful? Because actually, in the end you need things to be purpose built. Just open that one for discussion, because it's 1 of the ideas that I've heard since coming to to the department. Don't know if there's anyone in the room who can speak about that specifically. But please pipe up. If if there is, I can't see who's in the physical room.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Doesn't look like it. Well, Td. Did try to develop something like that, but it never got further than excel.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Is it worth talking about that one as an example? I don't, I mean, like, I say, the intention here is not to navel gaze, but to just to talk it through. What were the blockers? Was it that it got to a stage where some further funding wasn't realized? Is it that it's technically just not really feasible to be very generic. I wondered, with all the expertise in the room just at the moment I wondered if that would be an example. We could talk through.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So maybe we can reframe that slightly. Then so
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: what is it you were doing with this data acquisition thing, that different to what anybody else can do.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Because if you want something that's unique, and that gives us something to put a look on
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: potentially do something with.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But that's do you risk it internally through my team.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: or have somebody want to pay for a specific application?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You know my understanding of a lot of what's kind of unique.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: for example, gives the the combination of kind of the volume of data, and, for example, very low latency and making decisions.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: The in terms of it's a fixed latency of the order of.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: for example, 10 microseconds with about 1 TB, second breakthrough load switch. Talk about that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: question is for this type of discussion is.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: there are companies that have those types of data processing challenges.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's the yeah, because a lot of certainly a lot. For you know, using it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Google, or something like that. It's it's a very different, not the annotation
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that's latency and 3 purposes for that. So.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Think, and also in answer to your question, was that Colin speaking? I can't say.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Oh, yeah, I guess it's a funny one. Because actually, the answer is that there's nothing. I don't think there's something unique about it. The point is that it's something that lots of people try to do. And each time they design something again.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: So in that sense, it's almost picking something that's not unique. I mean, what is unique, I suppose, is that we think is that we've done this several times internally as well. We're doing it for several different experiments with different kind of design requirements. And so I suppose that's why we think that that's potentially unique.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Probably the same would be true of Td, right? By the way, right? I mean, a lot of this is going to be true of Td as well.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: And so that's what's unique is is that you need a whole load of of different versions of it. But the actual work itself isn't.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, okay, so there's not like a plat underlying platform
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: technology or methodology that then gets used bespoke the different applications.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Yes, yes, yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: I think I mean, there are other people who are pushing this idea. By the way, thinking thinking about it, I think they're not in the room, for example, will will Panduro is one, I guess Will is not there, or he would have spoken by now.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Sorry.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Will's not here.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Yeah. So I think you know that not this isn't. We don't have to solve everything here today. I'm just I was just, you know, working it through as as an example. And I'd just like to to hear your thoughts about that. Gary's hand is up. So at least I think it's Gary. You might want to.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Hello, Gary!
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: He might be on mute. He's muted if you're speaking. There is a raised hand, but it's muted so we don't hear you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And it's from
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: probably. Gary, yeah, yeah, that's it.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: You're on mute.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Okay, I guess he's not. I'll I'll try and message him on teams or something. I guess the takeaway.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Sorry. Oh, you can unmute him. Okay, thank you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I asked him to mute just to know. Okay, he would speak if the handy job.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, I mean, maybe once that that's being sourced out. So, coming back to this kind of generic deck thing, I mean, maybe something that would help with thinking about whether
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know things like that that we do for experiments has
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: spin up potential licensing potential or any of these types of things. Maybe something that would help with that is, for example, some list of examples that we can look at, for example, in
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: the AI.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: Right.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Side of things that you mentioned things that you had spun out there, because even there, with the with the scientific computing in the AI side. I was thinking about how
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you know. How- how would you take something like that from completing and then apply it to seemingly some other company? Because, you know, typically, you have to retrain your networks and things like that. What aspect of the problem?
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Where they? Yeah. So maybe I I imagine you already have kind of this of
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we don't. We have potential ideas. And we've got a willing right? Yeah, I mean, of course, not exhaustive list, but just examples here and there. What we have done is we worked with a company called Crystal World, and they had a software application looking at crystal shapes, for you know, for medicine.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: And they were looking at the right crystal shape so that it could easily penetrate the cell walls. And we developed an AI component of their software so that they could actually analyze data more quickly than they could do before. So really sped up the amount of time they were spending. So that was developed. And it's with that it actually was a spin out from University of Manchester. It was a for I money
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that we tapped into as our department working with them. Was that a case where they had a problem? And they knew that they needed some complex computation for it. They thought AI might solve it, and they came to Sts kind of AI experts to say, We know you've got some expertise here. Could you
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: design this neural network, or whatever you know. Okay.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so that was how it's working
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and the the opposite can and does work as well. In that we
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: gather information about what your capabilities and and areas of interest are, and then take those out and talk to
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: companies about them. So they don't have to find us in order for that. Yeah, I imagine, for for the types of things like Ney was talking about in terms of genetic factor. I imagine that would probably be the maybe the most fruitful reach. Yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: so, but it. But we would need to understand more, which is why. So
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: I mean, I should say so. Both Alex and Marion have
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: full time day jobs in their department. So I've gently persuaded them that this would be a really good thing to do and talk, you know, to gather some more information about Ppd, and what the potential is because, talking to Sinead, it's clear that there is. And so we will do that. And then the intention, of course, is that if if one or 2 really cool things start to happen.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: that actually gives us the opportunity, then also to talk to our exec board about how we might support Ppd. In a much more robust and sustainable way in the future.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Okay, Gary, are you unmuted?
STFC-DL-BID RB3: I hope so. I've struggled with the controls here. Can you.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Man. Yeah.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: Right good. Thank you. Sorry for that. Right. This is concerning Bobby, and I know bid has previously looked at bulb and looked at what the value proposition for Bobby is
STFC-DL-BID RB3: this little private sector involvement in bulb, as as I think you know, we'd like to have more private sector involvement in bully awe. And I think Alex has helped with that. There is a contract which does, I think, have some finance involved from awe to to us for for doing that non proliferation work.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: but thinking in terms of what other sectors might be relevant.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: The one question I've got is the French underground lab.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: A significant part of its operating cost is from
STFC-DL-BID RB3: pseudo and fully private sector companies in the field of environmental science. So I'm not sure if that sector is a sector that is worth reevaluating. So I'm not sure if bid could help in that
STFC-DL-BID RB3: Sean.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: and knows a little bit more. But Sean's way too busy to to go into investigating it, and probably I am also. So that's 1 question with a bit helping whether it's worth and bit could help in looking at the environmental science sector. And secondly.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: through a workshop last autumn we met with people in the nuclear sector.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: and whether and and there was interest in using ball B as an R&D base. So nothing to do with nuclear waste storage. Let's be clear about that from the outset.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: as we know, Bully is a commercial mine. So there's sensitivity around that. So we must be very clear on that, but using Bull Bay and the Geology in Bull Bay as an R. And D place
STFC-DL-BID RB3: for
STFC-DL-BID RB3: studying the geology of the geological, deep deep philosophy. A Gdf. The Uk. Is researching a Gdf. For its low and intermediate nuclear waste. So there was interest in from a different government department in that. So that's another
STFC-DL-BID RB3: a possibility that we have yet to investigate.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: So I'm not sure if bid is relevant in terms of helping us with that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Fast answer is yes.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: In all of these things what we have to be aware of
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: is the capacity to deliver on something that comes through as a result of that. So and you know it. What we don't want to do is spend a lot of time and resource and effort in investigating a sector.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: and there is no possibility that Sean or his team involving can actually deliver on anything that comes as a result of doing that.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So that's a polite way of saying that we've got to make sure that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: they are prepared to do some work if some work comes their way.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So that's that's 1 of the barriers that has been in the past. And I'm not pointing fingers. I'm saying that resource
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: is very difficult, and everybody is constrained.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But we have to have some confidence that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: something's going to happen as a result of putting, you know a Bdm. On something for 6 months.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: So I think the short answer there is that
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: you, Gary, will be one of the people that Marion and Alex will be talking to.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Because I think that will be those. Both of those examples are very interesting things that we could take forward.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: But we do need to.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: We do need some sort of commitment.
STFC-DL-BID RB3: Okay, thanks. So we should take this offline and and maybe start the dialogue.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: I think that's a. It's a really interesting idea, Gary, and it's a really interesting response, Rick, because, of course, that can apply across the board, can't it? To anything that we might bring in, you know? How do we then manage that along with with other commitments? So yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Absolutely.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Flip side of success is is thinking about that. I guess at the moment we're in the kind of well, it it varies across the department, but in the idea gathering phase. And then it would be kind of scoping. Okay, how would we do that? How would it work?
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: And so. And that's that's in different places. I really endorse Marion's idea earlier about the AI and the, you know, joining up with Scd theme, you know, joining theme groups across departments, I think, is a very good idea, right? Because we've all got at the moment, as I've explained to you, we've got our strategy process running in Ppd, so we've got lots of different theme groups for that.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: And if we're all in some of those cases talking about the same things in different buildings. And yeah, we might as well be talking together about them. So I think that's potentially quite a powerful idea, because there's certainly a lot of AI expertise, you know, on our corridors. Certainly in Scd as well. But that's powerful idea, I think. And we've got, you know, that thing of the well posed problem in the large data set. Lots of people have that. I think we you know, we certainly have that. That's a
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: an interesting aspect of of our field.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: And so, yeah, I think this is the beginning, right? That this we should be clear about that this conversation today. It's not only the beginning, because I know there's lots of ongoing work. So we appreciate all, all of that that's gone
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: before. But I think this is the beginning of a broader look at scoping out what possibilities there are in Ppd, so I think you know, if Marian and Alex come to you, this is a no holds barred conversation. We can brainstorm. We can have ideas about anything. And then it's about rationalising what's possible. And as Rick says, what might be achievable, you know in the context of national labs, and so on.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: And so, yeah, I think, take that as an encouragement. To engage with this doesn't mean you're committed doesn't mean that you need to devote lots of time to it and have that worry just yet. That's the next stage. But yeah, this is just to get us started on brainstorming. Really.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yeah, brilliant.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yes, thanks. Thanks. Sinead, that's
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: That's exactly what we're hoping for, and thank everyone for their time and for coming and saying, Hello, and Alex.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: we'll we'll be talking to you. But I say, yeah, so this is a no hold bars conversation and just to just to
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: sketch out where we are and where the key opportunities might be. And and we're not going to do everything. All. At the same time, we we need to focus so that we've got a few really good things that we can work on.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: 71 or yes, so mine is. And Collins is Marion and Alex are embedded in R, 89. So, yeah.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Yeah, thank you very much. And I guess you'll be reaching out into, you know, right across the department, we've we've given you some ideas
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: definitely. Yeah, yeah.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: strategy groups, and so on. So yeah, there'll be more contact than the people who are in the room today as well. You can, you can reach out into any part of the department.
Sinead Farrington - STFC UKRI: Thanks very much. I'm going to sign off. I think we're probably at the time. Now we really appreciate your time.
STFC-RAL-CR03 R61: Yes, thank you. Let's thank everyone.