Transcript Engineering Conference 2004

Rolls-Royce in partnership with Academia
Presented by Phil Ruffles
Engineering Professors Congress, Cardiff University
6th April 2004
Why do research in academia ?
Industry benefits  Access to high intellectual capability
 Continuity and independence of thought
 Cost - partially funded overheads/leverage
Academia benefits –
 Opportunity to work on technically
challenging, real problems across a broad
data base
 Attractive cross-cultural working
environment for University staff and
students
Academy - Industry collaboration
- Why a better approach was needed
 Pre-1990
– >80 Rolls-Royce / university links in the UK (different
departments / research teams)
– Largely based on ‘personal’ links, with no security of future
funding
– Few with real ‘critical mass’ - staff or investment
– Supporting infrastructure / facilities limited - difficult to
argue for priority investment in any one academic group
– Duplication between research teams…inevitable ?
– Additional - but low - level of activity in mainland Europe
and USA
(‘critical mass’ taken to mean a minimum of 6
researchers involved in a single field of relevant study
preferably co-located)
Types of research
 Strategic Research
– Emerging or as yet unproven technologies
– Beyond scope of current business plans
– Often applicable to range of products and services
Blended Wing Body
 Applied Research
– Development of generic capability
– Product focused research
– Testing of real components
Fuel Cells
 Technology Validation
– Validation of integrated packages of technology
– Aims to provide “off-the-shelf” capability
ANTLE Demonstrator
Research and Technology Management
Rolls-Royce
Strategic
Intent
New
Product
Planning
Full
Concept
Definition
R&T Strategy
Planning
Strategic
Applied
Research
Research
Global Academic
Network
Product
Realisation
Production
Service
Support
New Capability Realisation
UNIVERSITY
TECHNOLOGY
CENTRES
Technology
Validation
• Generic
• Project Specific
Disposal
• Facilities
• People/skills
• Supply Chain
• Infrastructure
RESEARCH
AND
TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAMME
Rolls-Royce University Technology Centres
“…a case study model for the benefits of effective
Industry/University collaboration.” – Richard Lambert
 Centres of Excellence in specific technology fields
– Concentration of activity into fewer, larger centres
– Based around groups with proven track records
– May be a partnership between institutes
 5 year rolling contract covering business and technical goals
– Security of funding enables recruitment of high quality staff
– Formal IPR agreement to meet needs of both RR and UTC
– Formal performance review by joint RR / UTC group
 Close working enables effective technology transfer
– Staff exchanges / secondments / recruitment
– UTC staff involved in RR training courses and staff development
activities
Global research base
North America
Europe
UTC at Purdue
20 University Technology
Centres (UTCs) in the UK
Strong links to MIT,
Georgia Tech, Stanford,
Penn State
Developing Canadian
relationships
1 UTC in Sweden, other Nordic
links being developed
1 UTC and 1 Prime
Partnership in Germany
1 UTC in Italy
strong links in other countries
Asia
China - NPU, BIAM,
BUAA, SEDRI, Tsinghua
Japan - NAL
Singapore - iHPC
What has been necessary to make it work well ?
 Central control - policy and direction and budgets
– Advisory boards
– Annual Conference
 Cessation of involvement with some research teams
– Breaking of personal links
 Acceptance of lead time to get to useful output
– Up front agreement on IPR, publication, etc
– Establishment of new teams
– Industry commitment to fund in advance of results
 Flexibility - on both sides
– Mutual acceptance that long term research may be deflected temporarily - to work on immediate, production issues
– Feeds back into research areas
 Focus - ensuring research targeted at ‘real’ applications
– Validation and production vehicles
University Technology Centres
Chalmers, Gothenberg
Strathclyde
Hydrodynamics
Electrical Power Systems
Sheffield
Cranfield
Control & Systems Engineering
Materials Damping Technology
Advanced Electrical Machines and Drives
Design Partnership (with BAE)
Performance
Loughborough
Combustion Aerodynamics
Nottingham
UMIST
Manufacturing Technology
Gas Turbine Transmission Systems
Electrical Systems for Extreme Environments
York
Swansea
Systems & Software Engineering
Materials Partnership
Birmingham
Cambridge
Materials Partnership
Design Partnership (with BAE)
Materials Partnership
University Gas Turbine Partnership (UGTP)
Imperial College
Vibration
Oxford
Sussex
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Solid Mechanics
Heat Transfer and Aerodynamics (Osney lab)
Aero-Thermal Systems
Southampton
Surrey
Design Partnership (with BAE)
Noise
Thermo-Fluid Systems
Purdue, USA
Cottbus
High-Mach Propulsion
Turbomachinery
Rolls-Royce Research & Technology funding
UTC Funding today:
Rolls-Royce – PV Money guaranteed for a number of years
EPSRC – paid directly to the University
DTI – paid into a holding account and matched approx. 50% by Rolls-Royce
European – 100% funded by EC, paid directly to the University
MoD – paid directly to the University, some contribution from Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce funding geared by 2 or 3 times
Overhead rate similar to Research council levels
=
Good Value
…however
Significant increase in overhead rates
Future
challenges…
DTI move away from sectoral funding
Since 1992 Rolls-Royce R&T expenditure has doubled
with all of this increase occurring outside the UK
University Technology Centres
Sheffield
Sheffield
Cambridge
Sheffield
Swansea
Cambridge
Cambridge
Sheffield
Engineering perspectives
Some specific examples of success…
Combustion technologies
JSF LiftSystem
Cambridge
AU3D model
Swansea
Summary
Rolls-Royce is proud to recognise that the
company’s success in the market place today
can be directly linked to our close
relationship with academia