“IUCRCs in Northern Ireland”
Prof Jim Swindall OBEQUILL Research Centre
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
IUCRC 30th Anniversary Meeting
Washington, DC, 9th January 2004
Queen’s University Belfast
• Founded in 1846
• In top 20 of 170 UK universities
• 17,500 full and part time students
• 3,500 total staff
• 1,600 teaching and research staff
• 250 buildings, half listed as being of special architectural merit
QUESTOR HISTORY
• Founded 9th May 1989
• IFI – essential pump priming
• $107,000 planning grant
• $1.122 million over 5 years
• Generated $38 million over 13 years
• Leverage over 6 and over 100
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
Senate
Centre PolicyCommittee
Centre DirectorIndustryAdvisory Board
National ScienceFoundation
NSFEvaluator
AcademicAdvisory Board
Centre ResearchCommittee
QUESTOR FOCUS• End-of-pipe Treatment
• Clean Technology
• Water Treatment
• Land Remediation
• Environmental Modelling
• Environmental Communication
INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Chemistry
Chemical
Engineering
Computer
Science
Psychology
MicrobiologyAgriculture
Civil
Engineering
OWNERSHIP BY THE MEMBERS
• Constructive relationship
• Honoured guests
• Control of research agenda
• Anniversary prize
KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
• Holy grail of all governments
• Students and staff moving
• Industry members interacting
• Mods eg ATU and QTL help this process
LOCAL EXTENSIONS TO THE CONCEPT
• Help for SMEs
• Applied Technology Unit
• QUESTOR Technologies Ltd.
QUESTOR ATU
• Applied Technology Unit – Formed Sept
1999
Set up to apply knowledge and expertise
developed in QUESTOR to assist local
companies, particularly SMEs which
cannot afford the $32,500 membership fees
of QUESTOR
CONSULTANCY and TRAINING
• Consultancy
• Currently 12 projects with a total value of $3.4m
• 140 Companies have used the Service
• 210 Consultancy Projects
CONSULTANCY and TRAINING
• Training courses
• Practical Waste Minimisation
• Operation of Water Treatment Plant
• Data Collection for Environmental Management
• Site Investigation for Contaminated Land
• Environmental Communication
QTL
Business Areas• Sludgeguard – a test for microthrix parvicella Biosettler – a process for improving the settling of
activated sludge Biocol – a process for the removal of colour from textile effluent Precursors made by biocatalysis Phosphate reduction system
Applied Research ProgrammeFor Selected Projects with Commercial Potential
ATUConsultancy
Contract ResearchTraining
ProductSupport
ProductDevelopment
QUESTOR Research Programme
Range of Environmental ProductsBased on Novel Technologies
LINKAGES
QUESTORTechnologies
Ltd
QUILL HISTORY• Founded on 20 April 1999
• Founding Co-Directors - Prof Ken
Seddon and Prof Jim Swindall
• 18 Members - $500,000 pa in subs
• $800,000 refurbishment of laboratory
suite completed 29th October 1999
QUILL HISTORY• Six post docs, four technicians and fourteen
PhD students
• Numerous National Research Council grants awarded
• Manufacturing Molecules grant
• DTI/EPSRC LINK award of $950,000
• Designated an EU Marie Curie Training site in Feb 2000 and renewed Nov 2003
• Income to date $9.2 million
Two Types of Centre
• QUESTOR – broad focus with wide range of disciplines – one Director
• QUILL – highly focussed, still interdisciplinary but leading edge research in new field – two Directors – one research and one organisation
Top Related