A powerful coalition of over 20 industrial partners is joining forces with the universities in the project. a sensor Knowledge Exchange Hub involving Scottish universities, private companies and the public sector being established to help Scotland develop into a world leader in the development and use of sensor systems makes no mention of the UWES activity or work.

The Scottish Funding Council has committed £1.2m to the project, higher education institutions are contributing £1.6m in cash and in-kind support while industry backs it with £1.32m in cash and in-kind support.

The consortium brings together a number of extremely influential industrial and academic groups. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt and St Andrews universities form parts of the Edinburgh Research Partnership in Engineering and Mathematics (ERP), the Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering (GRP) (which actually does mention Paisley University now UWES) the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA), which work with a wide range of local SMEs developing and using sensor system technologies.

At the core of the consortium Glasgow, Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt universities will work closely with leading UK and international companies to produce sensor system products for terrestrial markets.

Aberdeen, Dundee and Robert Gordon universities will work with the National Subsea Research Institute in Aberdeen, its member companies and others to develop products for subsea use in the oil and gas, aquaculture and affiliated sectors.
 
Companies and organisations backing the SSSC with cash and in-kind support include BP, British Waterways, IBM, Freescale, Agilent, Network Rail, Scottish and Southern Energy, and Scottish Water.
 
Aberdeen, Dundee and Robert Gordon universities form the Northern Research Partnership (NRP), which works with local SMEs through Subsea UK and the National Subsea Research Institute (NSRI) and its 22 company members.  
 
The SSSC will be run by a board chaired by a leading industry figure supported by a small administrative staff plus a business development manager in Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Terrestrial work will be led by Professor Steve Beaumont, VP Research and Enterprise at University of Glasgow, assisted by colleagues at Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and St Andrews universities.

Subsea work will be spearheaded by Dr Richard Neilson, of the School of Engineering at University of Aberdeen, working with colleagues and Dundee and Robert Gordon universities.

Complex sensor systems are widely used in areas as diverse as telecommunications, agricultural and environmental sensing, health monitoring and in utilities on land, as well as in the underwater oil and gas sectors.

According to a Scottish Enterprise study, the industry is worth an estimated £2.1bn to our economy. Scotland is a leading supplier of implementation and control systems to the oil, gas and industries with a 20% global market share which supports 40,000 jobs in the UK, 70% of them in Scotland, according to the industry body Subsea UK, and that does not to mention other key sector such as defence or space.
 
The SSSC will focus on sensor systems research and the creation of commercial applications in two domains: land and subsea to harness the R&D activities conducted in academia aligning it to the needs of industry.
               
Mark Batho, CEO of the Scottish Funding Council, said: "This is a great example of collaboration between universities and several business partners which will establish Scotland as a leading global centre for research into these systems."
 
Between June and December 2012, SSSC will identify and fund four initial projects, recruit post-doctoral research assistants, and appoint business development managers in Glasgow and Aberdeen.

In the next 18 months, the subsea and terrestrial work will move towards merging into a single workstream, the first products will be developed, overseas companies will be invited to join and other sources of funding will be sought from agencies such as the European Union.

In the final year of the project in 2015, SSSC is expected to become self-sustaining, supported by a strong network of industrial partners which can leverage additional support from the public sector, research funding organisations, and industry.

UWS MICROSCALE SENSORS

UWES was apparently not in the SSSC release as it had not played a part in the original bid.  (L2R: Emma Bryce, Stephanie Brien, David Hutson, group leader Katherine Kirk, Erman Uzgur, Gerry O'Hare, Michael Butler, Ruozhuo Hou)

But is hardly likely to continue to be cold-shouldered having quietly but effectively developed considerable expertise in its Institute of Physical Research in the University's School of Engineering.

Since the group began in 2001, it has attracted more than £5m of funding and has a strong team of PhD students and Research Fellows and well-equipped research labs.

Expertise at Microscale Sensors ranges from device design and applications of ultrasonics, magnetics, and optics, and generic skills in mathematical modelling, Finite Element  Analysis, Thin Film,  bulk materials processing, device packaging, instrumentation and device performance validation.