“IUCRCs in Northern Ireland”

Prof Jim Swindall OBEQUILL Research Centre

Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

IUCRC 30th Anniversary Meeting

Washington, DC, 9th January 2004

TRANSFER OF THE IUCRC CONCEPT TO

NORTHERN IRELAND

Population 1,685,267

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

CENTRE

THE NAMEQueen’s

University Environmental Science and Tech- nOlogy Research

QuestorQuestorResearchResearch

AppliedAppliedResearchResearch

Blue SkiesBlue SkiesResearchResearch

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

LOCAL MODIFICATIONS TO THE NSF CONCEPT

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

Applied Technology Unit

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

QUESTOR

TECHNOLOGIES

Ltd

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

Research Centre

THE NAME

Queen’s University Ionic Liquid

Laboratories

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

CONCLUSION

• Valuable mechanism for structured co-operation

• Well proven in the USA

• Flexible

• Shown to be Transferable