Milton Park is starting the first phase of preparation for the recently announced Science Vale UK Enterprise Zone.

Milton Park East comprises a large storage and distribution facility. By demolishing this building, modern commercial premises will be constructed to provide space for companies across the office, science and hi-tech sectors and paves the way for Milton Park to be at the forefront of future economic growth in the region.

Milton Park is moving forward on the Enterprise Zone plan with the first phase of the demolition already in process. Fencing has been installed along the perimeter of the site and the demolition of the existing building started last week. The works are programmed to be completed by the end of December 2011.

Although the actual works will take a matter of days, the contractors will be on site for several weeks as a staggering 95% of the building will be recycled. The 350 tonnes of metal is being melted down and all the glass, wood, plastic and plasterboard being reused. In addition, the rubble produced by the demolition will be left on the site for future construction.

The Enterprise Zone aims to create 8,400 jobs by 2015 within the Oxfordshire LEP region and support the development of Oxfordshire’s skills strategy by creating new apprenticeship opportunities.

James Dipple, Managing Director at MEPC Milton Park, said: “The redevelopment of building 182 is enhancing the potential of Milton Park. It is giving our current occupiers the room to expand and grow as well as creating extra space so new organisations can move to the estate. Creating jobs is the primary reason for the government selecting regions such as ours for the enterprise zone status. As well as the direct employment benefits of the new status, we expect to see wider knock on job creation as the local community expands to support the increased business occupation.”

Agluna® is a novel, patented surface modification technology applied to medical devices manufactured from several metals including titanium and its various alloys. The goal of the technology is to reduce infection rates following surgical procedures. Medical device materials are susceptible to rapid colonisation by bacteria, which then surround themselves with a plaque or biofilm as protection against the body’s immune defences. Implants treated with Agluna® technology have been shown to remain clear of such biofilm formation, thereby reducing the incidence of serious post-operative, device-related infection.

Philip Agg, Chief Executive of Accentus Medical, said: “The award of a CE mark to a device incorporating Agluna® is an important indicator of the broader potential of the technology and we are pleased to have worked closely with Stanmore Implants to achieve this major step in our development. Accentus Medical is now poised to work with Zimmer, Inc., a global market leader in musculoskeletal care, our exclusive partner in the field of joint replacement implants, to further develop this highly promising technology for the global hip and knee market. We have also initiated studies, in disciplines such as cardiovascular medicine and neurosurgery, aimed at placing Agluna® at the heart of infection control beyond the orthopaedic sector.”

Martin Pickford, Senior Vice-President of Business Development for Accentus Medical, said: “Infection following implant surgery can be challenging, costly and time consuming to treat. Prevention of infection at the outset is a highly attractive solution for both patents and clinicians. Data generated from clinical usage of custom made tumour replacement implants at two major UK orthopaedic oncology centres since 2006, has demonstrated how the Agluna® technology can help in realising this solution.”

Brian Steer, Executive Chairman of Stanmore, said: “With infection being a major burden on the healthcare system and often leading to avoidable amputations, we are delighted to secure approval for our silver treated METS system. There is increasing evidence to support silver’s anti-microbial properties and incorporating it into our METS system puts Stanmore in a very strong competitive position. We expect to see demand rapidly increase and we look forward to working with doctors around the world to help improve the lives of patients.”

Reaction Engines (REL) has been at the forefront of the development of technologies for reusable spaceplanes for over 20 years. REL is both expert and experienced in space transformation. In particular, REL is a world authority on heat exchanger technology for the engines of advanced reusable space launchers.

Gordon Harrison of Crossman Engineering commented: “This strategic move in to larger more flexible accommodation supports Reaction Engines testing facility and will enable us to expand our current activities over the next 12 months”.

Emma Jewson, of Kemp & Kemp Property Consultants, Letting Agents for Culham Science Centre said

“Culham Science Centre is an established research and science park renowned for leading edge fusion and energy research. The site is home to a wide range of science and non-science occupiers including those in power solutions and bio science. As well as enabling Crossman to work more efficiently by being close to its parent company’s research base and testing facility they will benefit from access to the wide range of amenities including conference facilities, restaurant, day care nursery and the ability to engage with like-minded businesses.

The INSIGHT100 scanner exceeded the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) standard for use at airports with an almost perfect detection capability and negligible false alarm rate in unopened containers, ensuring maximum safety for the travelling public with the minimum delays. What makes INSIGHT100 special is the capability of identifying explosives unambiguously inside opaque bottles such as coloured plastic shampoo containers, or green glass wine bottles. Other systems do not precisely identify the threat reliably and may lead to large numbers of false alarms or to missing genuine threats.  The system is currently in trials at several major European airports.

The INSIGHT100 system uses a proprietary technology called Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS), which was pioneered at the Science & Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Central Laser Facility at its Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Science Vale UK, and led to the creation of Cobalt Light Systems as a spin out of STFC. 

Dr Paul Loeffen, Chief Executive Officer of Cobalt Light Systems, said: “We have worked incredibly hard over the last couple of years to refine the SORS technology and bring the INSIGHT100 to market. It is a great achievement to have exceeded the European standards at this stage so that we are in a prime position to supply this unique bottle screener to European airports”. The development of the INSIGHT100 was funded under the Innovative Research Call in Explosives and Weapons Detection (2010) initiative, a cross-government programme sponsored by a number of government departments and agencies under the CONTEST strategy.

Prof. Pavel Matousek, at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and inventor of the SORS technique said: “Since STFC made the breakthrough in discovering SORS a few years ago, we have worked closely with the team at Cobalt Light Systems to develop and refine this technology. It is particularly exciting to see how this particular scientific development could now go on to make a real difference to the safety and wellbeing of our society.”

The restriction on liquids was introduced following a failed al-Qaeda bomb plot in August 2006 to bring down several airliners departing London for North America – the terrorists aimed to use liquid explosives carried onto aircraft in bottles. Recently, the European Commission agreed to relax the limit on liquids by introducing new screening measures from April 2013. In just over a year from now, passengers will again be allowed to carry on that expensive bottle of champagne as a gift for friends, provided the bottle is screened.

Representatives of the European Commission, European Parliament and the EU member states agreed a resolution to the project’s funding issues in the latest of a series of trilogue meetings yesterday. This paves the way for ITER – the next-generation international experiment crucial to the development of commercial fusion power – to push forward.

Head of CCFE Professor Steve Cowley was understandably delighted: “We have been waiting for this for a long time – it’s great news for the whole of the fusion community,” he said.

An autonomous navigation system that will enable a future planetary rover vehicle to be in complete control of its own actions as it explores the surface of Mars is being designed by top-calibre scientists and engineers at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell Oxford in Science Vale UK.

The team from the UK, France and Canada are joining forces to design ‘Seeker’ as part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) StarTiger initiative, which tackles specific space-related challenges through targeted projects with fixed timeframes.

The StarTiger-Seeker project, led by RAL Space, is a seven month project that will see the team work intensively day and night to design a navigation system that, unlike previous systems, will enable a rover to navigate around Mars totally independently, covering at least 1km a day. The Seeker navigation system will allow a rover to react better to its surroundings and undertake experiments in more locations, enabling our understanding of the Red Planet to take a major leap forward.

Designed for use on future missions to Mars, Seeker will perform a range of key actions completely unaided by Mission Control or by GPS-type technology. These include: identifying the precise location of the rover on Mars, identifying promising scientific opportunities; long-range pinpointing of particular sites to visit; detecting and avoiding hazards; and navigating back to previously visited sites. It is expected that the Seeker technology will also have potential applications here on Earth, particularly in inhospitable environments.

The Seeker team includes experts from RAL Space, SciSys, BAe Systems, Roke Manor Research (all from the UK), LAAS (France) and MDA Space & Robotics (Canada). It will apply leading-edge skills in autonomy and intelligence, electronic sensing, image processing and other disciplines to tackle the huge challenges presented by the project.

Kim Ward of RAL Space, the Project Director, says: “The keys to Seeker’s success will be imagination, application and team work. With radio signals to conventional rovers taking at least 30 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars, Seeker’s ability to work autonomously in hostile terrain will be crucial to extending our understanding of our planetary neighbour.”

David Willetts, the UK science minister said: “Space captures the imagination of so many people, and it’s excellent to see UK experts playing such a significant role in the groundbreaking StarTiger initiative. The Seeker project has the potential to transform our exploration of Mars and make an important contribution to the international body of knowledge on the universe around us.”

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) was instrumental in bringing the ESA StarTiger project to the UK, through working with ESA Harwell (ESA’s only UK base) and securing funding for ESA Harwell’s establishment as a focus for space exploration.

Run by STFC with a third of support from Diamond Light Source, the Advanced Engineering Apprenticeship scheme at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) has been running for 19 years and is one of the best apprenticeship schemes in the country.

As the government announces new measures to ensure more young people benefit from an apprenticeship, the scheme at RAL celebrates the graduation of another five young engineers as they embark on careers in the technical and engineering sector. Their achievement was applauded during the scheme’s annual awards ceremony in November, with special guest Phil Taylor, from the 2009 series of BBC’s The Apprentice. Phil spoke to the current and graduating apprentices and new recruits about his own experience doing an engineering apprenticeship and the invaluable life skills he picked up along the way, before handing out the awards.

Eynsham resident 19 year old Jamie Nutter, who has just completed his apprenticeship and now works at STFC’s ISIS neutron source as an electronics technician, made a clean sweep picking up three awards: the ‘Alfie Phillips’ award, for consistently good reports in each placement; the ‘Joe Hoskins’ award for achieving an excellent record and helping others with their training; and the ‘Apprentice of the Year’ award, jointly with Paul Cross, aged 19 from Abingdon.

“This is an excellent way to end my apprenticeship, I’m honoured to be given these awards. It’s with thanks to my supervisors and mentors, everyone has been so helpful from day one. I decided to do an engineering apprenticeship because I didn’t think A-levels were for me. I’m so glad I did it because I’ve enjoyed every moment and have picked up lots of important skills along the way, not to mention making some really good friends for life. I’ve been working fulltime now since the start of October and it’s everything I thought it would be – lots of interesting and varied hands-on work.”

Twenty-two year old Lauren Summers from Wantage received the ‘Apprentice Achievement’ award for successfully balancing her engineering training whilst representing Great Britain in the World Ice Hockey Championships. She said, “I didn’t know I was going to receive this award so it’s a great surprise. It has been tricky doing my ice hockey training and the apprenticeship but I thoroughly enjoy both so I don’t mind working hard. My ultimate aim is to work in the space industry. The apprenticeship scheme offers a way into this field with RAL having a Space Department so I’m hoping to get a permanent position there when I complete my training next year.”

“It is vital that facilities such as Diamond help train the skilled technicians of tomorrow. Diamond began supporting this scheme in 2008 so this is the first year we’re seeing apprentices who were placed at the synchrotron graduate. We’re very pleased and proud. Every day we rely on trained technical people to keep our facility operational and many of our current employees have come up through doing apprenticeships so we are keen to play our part and support this scheme.”

Other awards received during the evening were as follows: 20 year old Adam Taylor from Wantage received the ‘Apprentice Progress’ award for his determination to complete his training; 21 year old Jacob Simms from Oxford received the ‘Apprentice Recognition’ award for his work on a promotional DVD for the scheme; and 21 year old Jamie Searis from Wantage received the ‘Lyn and Trevor Woodger’ award for outstanding effort.

The Advanced Engineering Apprenticeship scheme at RAL offers school and college-leavers comprehensive training in electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering in unique working environments such as the Diamond synchrotron, the ISIS neutron source, and RAL Space. The four-year scheme receives applications every March, with successful applicants starting their foundation year at college in the following September. Find out more

Additional work experience opportunities at Diamond include summer placement roles, internships and general short-term work experience.

Polaris, a ‘super microscope’ is one of the most advanced neutron instruments in the world. It will measure objects on the nanometre scale, a million times smaller than a speck of dust. The giant camera will make images of the atomic structure of materials and will be able to watch chemical reactions in real time. Measuring the positions of atoms in a material allows you to understand completely why a material behaves the way it does.

Academics and industry will use Polaris to:

- improve the performance of laptop and mobile phone batteries
- find the structure of new pharmaceutical drugs to understand how they interact with molecules in the body responsible for diseases like Alzheimers
- develop new magnetic materials that can be used to make new forms of computer memory

Around £3.6 million has been spent on items such as electronics, cables and detectors with about 90 per cent being spent with UK companies. The project is a collaboration between the UK, Sweden and Spain.

John Randall who is in charge of installing the instrument said: “When you have seen first-hand the level of detailed work that has gone into constructing an instrument like Polaris, to see it lifted in the air on the crane, even though you know the crane is fully capable of lifting it, is a really nerve-wracking experience. I’m just relieved to see it in place now!”

Dr Stephen Hull, lead scientist on the project said: “Polaris will allow us to make measurements up to 30 times faster than we could before and follow chemical reactions in real time opening up new areas of science. Demand from the community to use the instrument is high, and we already have a queue of experiments waiting for it to come online. I’m looking forward to seeing results from the new rechargeable battery and fuel-cell materials that I’m working on with our Swedish collaborators.”

Commissioning of the instrument will begin in December 2011 and it is expected to be fully operational by February 2012.