SYNC is web service that enables users to model the interdependencies between multiple urban systems online. The service provides tools to manipulate the physical form, transport infrastructure, land use activity, social, economic and environmental conditions of virtual cities and explore the implications of these changes directly via a web interface. SYNC provides outputs relevant to a wide range of urban planning, design and management problems such as forecasting demographic change, travel patterns, environmental performance, energy consumption, pollution rates and exposures, infrastructure demands, land use and rent distributions, access to health and education resources and socio-economic segregation, all building on relationships between urban sub-systems. SYNC has also been designed to speed up, simplify and automate model procedures and provide a user experience that makes direct online modelling possible. We believe that a successful future for our cities will only be realised if integrated modelling resources are opened up to a much wider market and used more frequently in the planning and design process. We aim to achieve this by providing the technology to democratise the generation of model outputs and help different professional and community stakeholders to collaborate on shared challenges. SYNC is being developed by a team of researchers from University College London and is being supported by UCL Business and The Future Cities Catapult in taking the product to market. Our project will take SYNC from a pre-beta prototype to market release through a structured programme of product development, market research and collaborative engagement with future license holders, developer API users, data providers, web service providers and trials of the consumer service via beta release. We will demonstrate the power of this approach by applying the service to a number of case study projects and undertaking trials of a beta release with members of the prospective user base.

This business-led collaborative project brings together a consortium to develop novel manufacturing capabilities for PCB based fuel cells (FFC). This innovative technology, has been previously funded by the EPSRC and the Carbon Trust during early stage research, The technology has the potential to reduce the cost of fuel cells by up to 48%, reduce significantly the weight and volume and allow any form factor which can be built from two dimensional layers. The main innovation is a) the patented technology behind this novel fuel cell, b) the integration of the manufacturing processes into existing PCB manufacturing which allows rapid up-scaling, reduction of life cycle cost and utilisation of capabilities and c) flexibility and cost competitiveness to serve multiple markets such as automotive and consumer products. The project brings together a consortium of all relevant supply chain partners supported by world leading Universities (University College London and Imperial College London) and the High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute. The project partners will aim to reach MRL4 and parts of MRL5 within the project.

The objective of this 1yr feasibility project is to address a clinical need to heal bone fractures more effectively and at lower cost. The project will involve the application of additive manufacturing, sometimes referred to as 3D-printing. The design & manufacture of tall, thin, Ti-64 intramedullary nails for repairing bone fractures will be addressed to enable them to be mass produced. Moreover, it is intended that the parts will be designed to suit specific types of bone fractures so as to enhance recovery. This development will particularly benefit the different bone injury requirements of younger active patients and the growing demands from the older section of the population. The project consortium will be led by CRDM with UCL Institute of Orthopaedic Medicine as its partner. Collaboration with a global medical device company, Smith & Nephew, will ensure that the technology is exploited through their UK orthopaedics sales channel.

Current water resource decision support systems are either closed or custom systems: a barrier to water management and planning studies. The HYDRA software platform will address this barrier and transform the sector by creating an open and flexible software system where data management, display, user interaction, and solution engines will be standardised and shared for advanced water resource planning. It will: 1) enable rapid development and customisation of complex models that help better manage water resources, 2) enable ground-breaking applied research advances to be swiftly integrated and adopted, and 3) link science with policy making to develop appropriate solutions to water, environment and development challenges. HYDRA will enable vast gains in water security to be achieved by integrating management and strategic planning that encompasses hydrological, engineering, socio-economic and political challenges on a local to transnational scale.