“IUCRCs in Northern Ireland” Prof Jim Swindall OBE QUILL Research Centre Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK IUCRC 30 th Anniversary Meeting Washington, DC, 9 th 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 NAME Queen’s University Environmental Science and Tech- nOlogy Research

QuestorResearch AppliedResearch Blue Skies Research

QUESTOR HISTORY Founded 9 th 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 Policy Committee Centre Director Industry Advisory Board National Science Foundation NSF Evaluator Academic Advisory Board Centre Research Committee

QUESTOR FOCUS End-of-pipe Treatment Clean Technology Water Treatment Land Remediation Environmental Modelling Environmental Communication

INTERDISCIPLINARITY Chemistry Chemical Engineering Computer Science Psychology Microbiology Agriculture 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 Programme For Selected Projects with Commercial Potential ATU Consultancy Contract Research Training Product Support Product Development QUESTOR Research Programme Range of Environmental Products Based on Novel Technologies LINKAGES QUESTOR Technologies 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