Industry News
OS: Budding developers, entrepreneurs & community groups now have less than a month to enter their ideas into the GeoVation Awards Programme for the chance to win part of a £21,000 development fund. GeoVation, the Ordnance Survey supported community aiming to promote innovative uses of geography, launched its competition in October 2009 by asking people to think of how mapping could help address some of the world’s big challenges.
Since then over 300 people have joined, more than 100 individual ideas have been posted and 33 ventures launched. Among those already submitted are an interactive map of how Britain could look in 2050 based on current climate change models, an application that would help wheelchair users plot safe routes and a map of regional dialects.
The cash will be awarded to 4 winning entries, with £10,000 to the outright winner and two prizes of £5,000 for the runners-up. A community award, as voted by the audience, will receive £1,000. All the money will go towards developing the ideas.
WAG: An innovative, cost-effective access solution for small rural stations was unveiled at Aberdyfi station recently and could soon be seen across Wales. The custom built hump, designed by Network Rail and funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, solves access problems at the small rural station without requiring the re-building of the platform.
For the first time at Aberdyfi people with mobility impairments will be able to board trains with the use of on-train ramps - installed on all Arriva Trains Wales trains. It will also make life easier for all users, including mothers with children & buggies. Previously people with mobility impairments had to be taken by taxi to the nearest station where the platform had the right gradient for the ramp.
Mr Jones said a bid had also been put in for funding under the Department for Transport Access for All Scheme, which would allow them to make the approach to stations wheelchair accessible at the same time as the hump is installed. One example is Llwyngwril station further along the Cambrian Coast where the combination of surface improvements to the approach and a hump would together provide a solution.
The hump solution, which cost £70,000 at Aberdyfi, involves installing a graded hump made of glass reinforced plastic. Its height can be adjusted in the factory to suit the features of the particular station. And as it comes in sections that join together, it can be made to any length required. It is known as a ‘Harrington Hump’ after the station in Cumbria, where it made its debut last year. Normally, it would cost £250,000+ to rebuild one basic platform to bring it up to modern standards.
DECC: Homeowners in Birmingham, Sunderland, Stroud and the London Borough of Sutton will test out new ways to finance whole house energy makeovers under the Government's £4m Pay As You Save scheme. The pilots will give households the opportunity to invest in energy efficiency and micro-generation technologies in their homes with no upfront cost.
Householders will make repayments spread over a long enough period so that repayments are lower than their predicted energy bill savings, meaning financial & carbon savings are made from day one. A total of around 500 homes across England will take part in the trial which will provide evidence of how to foot the bill for the Great British Refurb - the Government's plan to make the 22 million existing homes in the UK more energy efficient.
HEFCE: An Online Learning Task Force has been set up to help the UK higher education (HE) sector maintain & extend its position as a world leader in online learning. The task force, chaired by Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, will make recommendations to HEFCE and other relevant government agencies & institutions regarding the development of excellence in online learning.
It will begin by looking at 4 key areas:
* current levels of online provision in the UK
* international market for online learning
* levels of demand from new & prospective, students
* perceptions of online learning in UK HE
The task force will also investigate different business models for delivering online learning. This will help higher education institutions in planning this form of provision. It will meet over the next year, and will provide an interim report in the spring and a final report in October 2010.
BIS: Ensuring the UK remains a world-leader in the high-growth plastic electronics sector is at the heart of a new government strategy. Plastic electronics technology makes it possible to produce a wide range of innovative products more cheaply and in a more environmentally-friendly way than previously viable. The global market for these technologies is forecasted to grow at an astonishing rate over the next decade, exceeding $120bn by 2020.
This rapid expansion could create up to 20,000 jobs and generate a wealth of economic opportunities for the UK. For example, the recently announced £20m expansion of the Printable Electronic Technology Centre (PETEC) in Sedgefield will also significantly boost product plastic electronics development facilities and create 1,500 jobs over the next 4 years.
The Government has announced that the first stage in the centre’s expansion will be the development of production facilities for prototype flexible lighting panels and low-cost, long-life solar cells. This will be operational by September 2010. Following that, a manufacturing line for plastic electronic displays and integrated smart systems will be installed in the centre in early 2011.
Press release ~ Printable Electronic Technology Centre (PETEC) ~ The Plastic Electronics Strategy for Success: Realising the UK Potential ~ New Industry, New Jobs ~ Advanced Manufacturing package
CRC: The Commission for Rural Communities has launched a major national initiative to tackle rural fuel poverty. Three areas of the country − County Durham, East Riding and Shropshire − have been chosen for the project, based on statistical data that shows high levels of fuel poverty, properties off the gas network and ‘hard to heat’ houses, all of which can result in people living in cold, damp homes.
The project known as ‘Hands Up’ aims to ensure a better understanding of the effect high fuel costs is having on the health, financial & overall wellbeing of people living in rural areas. It will also seek to understand what impact this is having on service providers such as the NHS, and the local economy.
‘Hands Up’ will involve around 7,500 households being asked to provide information about their health & financial wellbeing, what type of fuel they use to heat their home and what concerns they have in relation to affordability or health issues. Based on responses and working with local partners the project will look at what solutions on a ‘house-by house’ basis can be put in place to reduce fuel bills, save people money and make homes warmer & healthier to live in.
The link between poor health and people living in cold, damp & poorly ventilated homes should not be ignored. Cardiovascular & respiratory illnesses (such as asthma) are known to be exacerbated when people are living in such conditions. The average length of stay for people in an NHS hospital with hypothermia is 18.9 days – an average treatment cost to the NHS of £13,230.
Press release ~ CRC: Hands Up ~ Rural Services Network ~ Rural Fuel Poverty ~ Quantifying rural fuel poverty ~ Addressing Fuel Poverty in Rural Cambridgeshire
ScotGov: A new contract to supply gas for the whole of Scotland's public sector, worth around £80m a year from April 2010, has been awarded to Total Gas and Power (Total GP) after a competitive tender. The public sector will benefit by around £5m a year through flexible bulk buying on the wholesale market. The contract also provides access to energy management measures to improve energy efficiency and cut demand.
As part of a competitive tendering process under EU procurement rules, suppliers were invited to tender for large & small scale sites across the public sector. Public body sign up to the gas deal will be via an addendum to the agency agreement already in place for electricity, managed by Procurement Scotland.
ScotGov: Householders & businesses across rural Scotland will benefit from a project to provide improved access to broadband. Following talks with the Scottish Government to identify rural areas needing improvements, BT Scotland has already started work on upgrading 71 telephone exchanges. The first upgrades will be complete from March 2010 and cover exchanges that are all operating at or approaching full capacity for broadband provision.
