Thursday 22 March saw the official launch event for the Nottingham Impact Accelerator take place in the Great Hall on University Park Campus.

Over 100 registrants took the opportunity to discover more about the internal funding streams available to support translational research and knowledge exchange.

The event was hosted by Professor Todd Landman, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Dr Susan Huxtable, Director of IP Management and Commercialisation. We also welcomed distinguished guest, Sir John Peace – Chair of The Midlands Engine and Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire – who went on to announce the winners of our NIA Fellowship Awards, details of which can be found below.

Dr Danielle Ropar (School of Psychology) with Sir John Peace.

Dr Ropar was awarded a prize along with fellow colleagues from the Schools of Psychology and Law – Dr Nell Munro, Professor John Jackson and Chloe Hocking to fund their project: ‘Influencing practice and policy to help detention officers better support autistic individuals in police custody.’

Professor Simon Avery and Dr Ivey Geoghegan (both of the School of Life Sciences) with Sir John Peace.

Dr Geoghegan and Professor Avery were awarded a prize to fund an industrial secondment to Lucozade Ribena Suntory to support engagement and knowledge exchange.

Dr Yinfeng He (Faculty of Engineering) with Sir John Peace.

Dr He was awarded a prize to fund his project: ‘Scaling up and optimization of the printing process for a patented powder based 3D reactive inkjet technology.’

A further prize was awarded to Dr Gilles Stupfler (School of Mathematical Sciences) and Professor Estelle Derclaye (School of Law) for their project: ‘Legislative impact of an empirical analysis of EU Member States case law on the creation of designs in the EU.’ Dr Stupfler and Professor Derclaye were unfortunately unable to attend the event.