Unique European School

9th April 2012

Europa School UK, Oxfordshire’s first free school, opened its admission process for entry in September 2012 on 27 March 2012.

The Europa School is a parent-led initiativethat is phasing in the new Europa School UK as a free school from September 2012. It will fill the gap that will be left by the highly successful European School in Culham when it closes in 2017.

The key features of the Europa School UK are:

Teaching a strong curriculum with a unique emphasis on modern European languages and sciences, with strong links to the business and social communities
Preserving and developing the multilingual and multicultural ethos of the European School
Continuing to prepare students for the unique and desirable European Baccalaureate
Starting with Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes in 2012
Providing the European Schools’ curriculum enhanced by the requirements of the English National Curriculum
Teaching modern European languages by native speakers

For more information visit http://www.europaschooluk.org/index.php

YASA Motors named UK’s Best Enterprise

9th April 2012

YASA Motors, the Oxford University spinout, based at Milton Park that is developing high-torque, high power density Yokeless And Segmented Armature (YASA) motors has been named the UK’s Best Enterprise in the Lloyds TSB/Telegraph Enterprise Awards and won £50,000.

The Yokeless And Segmented Armature (YASA) topology is a new type of axial flux motor that features a very high specific torque (torque-to-weight ratio), a high efficiency (typically up to 95%) and the possibility for low cost manufacturing. The topology is based around a series of magnetically separated segments that form the stator of the machine. The step change in the specific torque of the motor (30N·m/kg is typically at least 2-4 times better than the best alternatives, according to the company) comes from the combination of patented improvements in the magnetics, the cooling and the packaging of the motor.

“We’re looking at installing these high-performance electric motors in the new generation of electric and hybrid vehicles that will come on to the market in 2016/2017 as the design cycle for a new vehicle is four to five years,” says Tim Woolmer, 30, YASA’s founder and chief technology officer, who invented the motor for his DPhil project at Oxford University.

“Electric cars will take some time to become popular as they are still relatively expensive to buy. But by reducing the magnetic materials in the motor, we are helping to make electric cars far cheaper to produce.”

Investing to fight fraud

20th March 2012

Milton Park based Contego Fraud Solutions has received a £350,000 investment from the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund. The fund comes from the Cass Business School which is part of the City University London.

Contego was founded by Adrian Black, a graduated of the 2011 New Venture Creation Programme at Cass. The company works in partnership with online classified advertisers, law enforcement agencies and counter-fraud forums to detect and block fraudulent listings.

As well as securing the funding from the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, Contego have received a further offer of £50,000 from angel investors.

Adrian Black, CEO and Founder of Contego said: “The investment from the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund means that we can develop and progress this exciting new concept. Our pilot project has attracted interest from a range of companies, from smaller specialist firms to FTSE-250 companies and we hope this investment will cement the concept’s global potential as a counter-fraud tool.”

Oxitec boost to fight disease

20th March 2012

Milton Park based Oxitec has been given an £8m boost to further their work in sterilising mosquitoes, which are being released into the wild by experts to stop the spread of deadly diseases.

The £8m comes from Oxford Capital, of Cumnor Hill, which first backed the company in 2005, plus new investors from South America, Saudi Arabia and Asia.

The aim is to reduce harmful populations of mosquitoes by injecting them with a chemical so their offspring die before they can mature.

Diseases such as dengue fevers, known as ‘breakbone’ that can infect more than 50 million people in tropical countries and kill more than 25,000 each year are hoped to be combated by this technique. No treatment or vaccine is available and this sterilisation technique will eventually eradicate insecticides.

Three million sterile mosquitoes were released into the wild over a ten-hectare area, in the Cayman Islands, Caribbean. The results showed an 80 per cent drop in the mosquito population after 80 days.

Work is being developed to roll out the campaign to other countries including Malaysia, the United States and India.

This technique has proven particularly effective against dengue fever as it only involves one species. However, it has been made clear that the aim is not to wipe out the mosquito population altogether.

As a result of the successful trials, Oxitec has grown from 30 to 37 staff in the past year and will recruit another ten this year to work both here and overseas.

Businesses connect with local customers

20th March 2012

Vicinity Global Ltd based on Milton Park, has developed an iPhone app that helps other businesses connect with local customers.

My Vicinity is a location based app for iPhone that allows any business type with offers, perishable goods and time limited products to publicise to customers within a certain radius from the outlet.

The customer is only alerted if they are close enough to the offer to take advantage of the offer and works well with hairdressers, spas, restaurants as well as grocery stores.

The outlet administrator can set a limit to the offer, and once someone has booked that appointment or tables via the app, anyone else trying to book it will be told it is no longer available but offered alternatives.

My Vicinity aims to get shoppers back on the high street, by allowing the outlets to publicise themselves quickly and cost effectively to customers who are able to physically enter the stores with offers.

Already the app has proved a hit with some of the other occupiers on the park, such as Carbon Colour, Biff Bang Pow and Purple Label dry cleaners.

But the app is also seeing success elsewhere, with popupshopup.com in London to be the latest to join My Vicinity.

For more information visit www.myvicinityapp.com or call David Burke on 01235 200 678

European funding for low carbon technology businesses

20th February 2012

The European Union provides a wide range of support to many businesses in the UK through a variety of programmes. Carbon Limiting Technologies (CLT) manages a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) project to provide business support of typically up to £50k to low carbon businesses in the South East of England.

CLT have provided support to over sixty start-ups in both the energy efficiency and energy generation sectors. This assistance has included raising funding and grant awards, commercialisation services and due diligence activities.

To obtain ERDF support a business must be:
 based in the South East of England or have a material association with the South East, such as a collaboration with a South East based university.
 ineligible for support under the Carbon Trust Fast Track for the work program envisaged.
The business should meet one or more of the goals ERDF is seeking to sustain
 The prospect of job creation
 The delivery of high value added services or products from the South East
 The delivery of carbon savings services or products
 Collaboration with South East universities to develop technologies

To discuss the possibility of obtaining support please contact  Mark Bornhoft mark.bornhoft@carbonlimitingtechnologies.com

For a full list of ERDF projects in the South East of England visit the Department of Communities and Local Government