A Digital Platform to Transform School Sustainability

RedKnight is delighted to announce it has supported iAM Compliant Ltd with its successful application to Innovate UK’s Innovation Loan competition, securing the Chester-based SME £592,860 of innovation funding.

iAM Compliant was established in 2016 to provide schools and businesses with a one stop shop for premises, health and safety compliance, and cut through the red tape. The company’s novel platform offers a seamless interface and cloud-hosted solution that brings all the information users need into one central place. Having pushed the innovation boundaries from the outset, the platform is used by over 500 state schools around the UK.

iAM Compliant will use the innovation loan funding to extend the platform's functionality to provide the world’s first digital tool for schools to guide them through the process of creating their own Climate Action Plan and help them become more sustainable. The platform will be supported by the development of best in class, accredited learning content.

Tom Moore, Founder & Chief Operating Officer at iAM Complaint said:

“We’re incredibly excited to continue the innovation of iAM Compliant, none more so in the space of sustainability. We know that school leaders have a lot of responsibility, and we’re keen to simplify and support that wherever possible. Having been through the Innovate UK process twice, the difference between our applications came down to RedKnight’s expertise in helping us best present our solution and satisfy the criteria of Innovate UK.”

In April 2022, the UK Government published its policy paper titled Sustainability and Climate Change: A Strategy for the Education and Children’s Services Systems. The policy supports a drive for all UK schools to be “zero carbon” by 2030 and announces long term and consistent policies and funding to enable this (in line with wider Government targets for the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050). The policy ensures there will be investment in training teachers in education for sustainable development across the curriculum, and in equipping colleges and schools to give all learners a connection to nature. The Government also commits to investing in adapting and retrofitting the school estate and the Department for Education commits to improving their building specifications, so that all new school buildings from 2022 onwards will be net zero carbon.

To support these ambitions, by 2025 every school is mandated to have a Climate Action Plan that will result in zero carbon status. Each school will have a trained staff member who acts as a Sustainability Lead and Climate Literacy Training will be offered to every school with sustainability embedded as a statutory feature of careers guidance.

The sustainability responsibility will ultimately rest with site managers (referred to as School Business Managers in schools), many of which manage their current compliance responsibilities disparately across many different spreadsheets. The biggest challenges for those managing compliance is that they are often reactive, limited by budget, resource, and time. There is also often a lack of safety mindset, not necessarily driven by the individual but by the myriad of regulations and legislation they need to interpret and understand. The additional sustainability requirements outlined above will add further weight to the challenge.

The technology and training material to be developed through this innovation loan project will provide a much needed, easy-to-use, cost-effective digital tool to support schools in complying with the new UK Government’s strategy and helping them in becoming more sustainable.

#innovation #education #sustainability #compliance #InnovateUK #iAMCompliant #RedKnight


Futuresoft awarded Innovate UK Smart Grant to support the future of hybrid working

RedKnight is delighted to announce a successful application to Innovate UK Smart Grants on behalf of Futuresoft Ltd. The cutting-edge software-as-a-service (SaaS) company will receive £347,449 to develop its next-generation hybrid office visualiser platform, Focos-HOV.

The successful application means RedKnight has secured more than £10.5 million since launching in 2015. Mr Dayne Hodgson, Director at RedKnight said:

“We are thrilled that Futuresoft have secured this funding to support a game-changing innovation that will help address challenges we have all experienced over the past two years. We look forward to seeing how this exciting technology develops over the next 18 months and where Futuresoft can take it."

The Problem

When the pandemic began in 2020, the tools and technologies that workplaces needed to operate remotely already existed. The main challenge was adopting them quickly and updating longstanding processes.

For some, remote work has created new job opportunities, offered more family time, and provided options for whether or when to commute. These benefits have made many organisations recognise that hybrid working is here to stay as we emerge from the pandemic.

However, the transition to a hybrid workplace is proving more disruptive than the move to remote work, with many organisations greatly underestimating the challenge. One crucial factor is that the technology needed to create a seamless hybrid office experience remains largely nascent, meaning there is a significant technology gap in the Digital Workplace market.

Immersive technology remains costly and impractical as it requires the use of hardware, such as headsets. While non-immersive technology provides virtual environments with no hardware requirement, current solutions only offer basic collaboration functionality. None currently harness the power of big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).

The Solution

Futuresoft’s first-generation product, Focos, enables businesses to operate all their SaaS applications via one single cloud platform, reducing the user’s need to switch between various tabs and windows.

Focos-HOV will build on this technology, harnessing the data collated by Focos and integrating other data sources and AI/ML techniques. The platform will provide an on-screen virtual office environment, showing company members, location, and availability to one another for enhanced remote and office worker awareness. It will enable vital 'unscheduled' interactions between workers to foster creativity and collaboration and reduce unnecessary context switching and interruptions.

Testimonial

Futuresoft said of their Innovate UK Smart Grants success:

"We are excited for the future and how we may positively affect workplace productivity at a time when there has been so much change with working from home. It is great to see Innovate UK acknowledge our ambition and capabilities as a cutting-edge, innovative technology company by awarding us this grant."

Helping companies access innovation grant funding is RedKnight’s core mission. Please get in touch in order to discuss a potential application.


Innovative Free Space Optical communication project secures €674,160 from Eureka Eurostars

RedKnight is pleased to announce another successful grant funding application. Free Space Optical Links for 5G networks (FrOLik) will receive €674,160 from Eureka Eurostars to develop its innovative Free Space Optical (FSO) links technology. Impressively, FrOLik ranked 16th out of all 500 eligible applications to the September 2020 call! This is a testament to the strength of the team and the project’s innovation potential.

The project comprises the following R&D-performing SMEs: Integrated Compound Semiconductor Ltd (ICS – Manchester, UK), VTEC Lasers and Sensors BV (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and Aircision BV (Eindhoven, Netherlands). The Compound Semiconductor Centre (South Wales) will also provide support.

Approach

FrOLik aims to deliver a novel FSO communication product for 5G infrastructure deployment. Currently, point-to-point fibre optic links are the standard deployment option as they provide high integrity and high bandwidth transmission. FSO is a more flexible and lower-cost alternative, but it suffers from outages in adverse weather conditions.

The project involves an innovative structured laser beam technology that enables long-range, 100 Gb/s data transmission with high link reliability. This was developed by The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and subsequently commercialised by Aircision. By leveraging the laser beam technology with unique high-performance detector technology (developed by ICS) and new high-speed component integration techniques (developed by VTEC), FrOLik hopes to deliver a radically new FSO system optimised for 5G interfacing.

It will address the trade-off between bandwidth and range backhaul with two clear advantages:

1) Firstly, the system is easily deployable and cost-effective in comparison to fibre optic links.
2) Compared to microwave links, the system is easier to upgrade, requires no spectrum licenses, and consumes less electricity.

Testimonial

Professor Wyn Meredith, Managing Director of the Compound Semiconductor Centre, said of the success,

“This project brings together highly specialist photonic component and communications system expertise at different levels in a technically challenging supply chain. RedKnight took away the burden of developing the framework and broader narrative of the proposal, to allow the consortium to focus on articulating the advantages of a collaborative approach, and the uniqueness of the proposal solution. The fact that the proposal ranked in the top 5% of all bids submitted in the call speaks for itself….”

If you are a tech-based startup or SME and would like help securing grant funding, then please contact RedKnight today.


Innovative medical imaging camera project led by Thermetrix awarded over €578k from Eureka-Eurostars

RedKnight is delighted to have supported South Wales based start-up, Thermetrix Ltd, with a successful application to the Eureka Eurostars programme. Since 2017, Thermetrix have designed and manufactured hardware and software for medical devices in personal healthcare. The company, along with two SME partners, Quantificare (France) and SymblCrowd (Germany), will now receive €578, 684 in grant funding to develop its Multi-Modal Medical Mapper (M4).

Aims

M4 aims to deliver a prototype of a portable camera that integrates 3D scanning, visual and (thermal) infrared imaging modalities. As the user moves the camera along the human body under investigation, it will capture and display the three representational characteristics in a single 3D representation. During the scanning process, graphical overlays will adaptively guide the user. This will minimise the amount of training required and improve the reliability and repeatability of scans.

The project is disruptive in the digital medical devices sector as there are no existing devices capable of performing all functions at the same time. Therefore, this device opens entirely new possibilities for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, in areas including Diabetic Foot Ulcer treatment, medical aesthetics and wound healing. Importantly, M4 addresses a pressing need for more accurate, reliable devices for wound measurement and management of higher practicality. It will also be usable by all healthcare professionals in various settings and at commoditised price points.

Outcomes

Combined, the global Diabetic Foot Ulcer, Wound Care Management and Medical Aesthetics markets are worth $53.77bn. They pose significant socio-economic challenges to both patients and healthcare systems worldwide. With anticipated high reliability and accuracy, M4 could reduce costs by 13%, saving the EU over $1 billion each year. Crucially, M4 could also save patient lives and improve quality of life for many.

Dr Peter Plassmann, Founder and CEO at Thermetrix said of the success,

“It would have been impossible for us to navigate the complex and time-consuming Eurostars application process on our own. The support from RedKnight was crucial for the success in this highly competitive competition. ”

You can read about more of our recent success stories here. If you would like to discuss your own project with one of our expert advisers, please contact us today.


REDEEMA Awarded €345,566 from Eureka Eurostars

REDEEMA's device will measure greenhouse gases. The picture therefore shows a tree, turbine and house made of grass on a tablet device. RedKnight is delighted to celebrate its 5th birthday with another grant funding success story! A successful application to Eureka Eurostars has secured €345,566 for the South Wales-based Compound Semiconductor Centre Ltd and its partners. The REDEEMA consortium also includes Glasgow-based Amethyst Research Ltd and VTEC Lasers & Sensors, based in Eindhoven.

The project, titled REsonant cavity DEtectors for Environmental Monitoring Applications (REDEEMA), aims to design and develop an inexpensive manufacturable (III-V semiconductor material based) resonant cavity enhanced photodiode (RCE-PD) infrared (IR) sensing array for monitoring greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. A paradigm in high sensitivity mid-IR GHG sensing, the REDEEMA sensor will aid existing analytical instrumentation in the intelligent field deployment of the quantitative analysers and in the determination of gas sources.

Many chemical compounds in the earth’s atmosphere act as GHGs, including water vapour, carbon dioxide, and methane. The percentage of environmentally significant trace gases is rising due to increased human activity. There is a critical need to track these changes to monitor the extent of global changes in the GHG composition of the atmosphere. It is also crucial to actively identify the sources of these emissions so that action can be taken to mitigate and effectively manage the releases.

In this regard, Amethyst's RCE-PD incorporates a unique and revolutionary design, which will be used in the development of next-generation IR detectors capable of meeting the demands of a vast range of applications. The resulting gas-detection system developed through REDEEMA will significantly improve performance over nearest state-of-the-art IR detectors, opening many new opportunities with environmental applications.

Dr. Wyn Meredith, Director at CSC, said of the successful application:

“The Redknight team supported our proposal by taking ownership of the specific requirements of the Eurostars application process, allowing our own staff to focus on the essence of the technical and commercial proposition. This accelerated the development of the bid and ultimately was a key factor in a successful outcome in a highly competitive process.”

Helping companies grow is RedKnight's core mission. For our assistance in putting together a competitive proposal for your business, contact us today.


GeneFirst Awarded €2.8m in Horizon 2020 Grant Funding for Rapid Covid-19 Diagnostic

RedKnight are delighted to have supported GeneFirst with its successful application to Horizon 2020, securing the innovative med-tech start-up and its 4 collaborating partners (two SMEs and two hospitals) over €2.8m in grant funding. In total, 144 applications were submitted to the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) competition, of which 8 projects have been selected for funding (6% success rate). The successful projects represent the most promising advances in therapeutics and diagnostics to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

GeneFirst’s project, entitled RAPID-COVID, aims to clinically validate its innovative multiplex technology in both point of care and high throughput (HTP) settings, which includes testing for SARS-CoV-2. Based in Oxford, GeneFirst provides simple, reliable, and effective molecular solutions to aid the accurate diagnosis of diseases and the improvement of patient management.

 

High Throughput Device to be used in the RAPID-COVID project
High Throughput Device to be used in the RAPID-COVID project

As of July 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 11 million infections globally, claiming more than 500,000 lives. In response to the current outbreak, a rapid and definitive diagnosis of the specific SARS-CoV-2 is crucial.  A recent study has shown that 5.8% of SARS-CoV-2 infected and 18.4% of non-SARS-CoV-2-infected patients had other concurrent pathogen infections. Therefore, single target testing is not optimal; failure to distinguish between different pathogens may lead to unnecessary antimicrobial use, cross-infection of mis-grouped patients, and further spreading of the infection.

 

Simple, sensitive, and multiplex detection of all respiratory pathogens is technically challenging. In response to the need for faster and better detection of multiple respiratory pathogens, GeneFirst has developed a prototype using its innovative proprietary technology - MPA (Multiplex Probe Amplification). The prototype will simultaneously detect and differentiate SARS-CoV-2 as well as 30 other common respiratory bacteria and viruses.

GeneFirst’s assay will allow for accurate, cost-effective, and comprehensive diagnoses during the current outbreak, as well as future routine diagnosis. In this project, the consortium aims to analytically and clinically validate this assay on both high throughput and point of care platforms. This strategy provides maximum flexibility for screening and triage, allows better and faster care, alleviates pressures on healthcare systems, and improves patient recovery rates.

Dr Winnie Wu, COO at GeneFirst, said of the success,

“We are ecstatic with this outcome and all consortium partners are very excited to start the project. For an SME, securing this funding allows GeneFirst to further its R&D and to deliver these crucial diagnostics at scale and pace in time for the winter season. We have pulled together a great project team for the delivery.

We credit our bid success to the RedKnight team; without their support, we would not have been able to achieve what we did in the short time needed to submit the application. We found RedKnight to be professional and diligent, and it has been a real pleasure working with them. This is our first collaborative opportunity and I am confident that our partnership will continue into the future."

Helping companies grow is RedKnight’s core mission. You can find out more about the types of projects we support here.


Medi2Data Awarded Innovate UK Smart Grant

RedKnight are delighted to have supported South Wales based Medi2Data with a successful application to Innovate UK. The healthcare software company will receive a Smart Grant of £259,100 to further develop its innovative mobile application, ‘eMR Health Passport.’

Using the company’s flagship proprietary software, eMR, Medi2Data develops highly secure applications that make it simple for GP practices and patients to exchange data. The project, titled eMR Health Passport – A patient-centric mobile application to securely hold and transmit medical data, aims to further enhance the technology’s potential by developing a fully interactive app that will securely hold a copy of the patient’s medical record in an easy-to-navigate format.

Crucially, eMR Health Passport provides a digital solution to two of today’s most pressing healthcare challenges: 1) GPs are becoming overwhelmed by GDPR requirements for data handling and requests for patient medical records from third parties, costing primary care an estimated £70m. Medi2Data estimates these costs could be considerably reduced by using eMR technology and interfacing through the health passport with the patient. 2) eMR Health Passport also offers a novel solution to rising levels of mental illness, distress, and low wellbeing among UK Higher Education students. It provides students with the first free patient-centric health wallet with access to real-time data monitoring performance.

The interactive app will allow users to control who sees their medical data, ensuring appropriate consent. Information stored in the app can be pushed back to their GP practice from health organisations outside the NHS, or overseas, and ‘redacted’ records can be created for authorised third parties to receive.

The enhanced application will allow users to access and update their health record from anywhere in the world at any time, improving patient outcomes and the relationship between GP and patient.

Mr Richard Freeman, CEO of Medi2Data said of the success,

“We’re delighted to be receiving this grant from Innovate UK in order to develop and enhance our proprietary technologies. The Smart Grant means we can build on our achievements and test new innovative software and applications that not only gives patients control of their medical data, but has the potential for significant societal impact in how healthcare services are delivered for decades to come.

The support we received from RedKnight was excellent. Their professional approach and knowledge of the process was crucial in helping us secure the funding.”

Helping companies grow is RedKnight's core mission. You can find out more about the types of projects we support here.

 


RedKnight Passes Another Test…

RedKnight is delighted to announce an Innovate UK SMART Grant application it supported in April 2019 has secured a grant of £207,628 for RIMO Capital Ltd (trading as RIMO3). The project will develop a next generation product called ACTIV2.0 which aims at combating future cyberhacks as a result of outdated software. The successful application takes RedKnight’s total grant secured beyond £5m in 4 years.

Software testing is a major expense and quality challenge to businesses. In 2017, software failure caused $1.7tr in financial losses whilst dramatically affecting day-to-day business operations; amplified by the recent NotPetya and Wannacry cyberhacks. The latter, a 2016 hack on NHS systems resulted in total clear-up costs of ~£92m - paid for by the UK Government.

The project builds upon the commercial success of the original version, called ACTIV, by integrating key improvements and new features based on feedback from users, which include some of the UK's leading large organisations. ACTIV2.0 will enhance the underpinning proprietary technology by performing auto-remediation of incompatible software through usage of robotic process automation, artificial intelligence (AI) based machine learning (ML) capabilities.

RIMO3’s Chief Product Officer, Mr Alon Moss, said, “We’re delighted to have been recognised by Innovate UK in this manner. This vote of confidence will solidify our position at the bleeding edge of the technology, where RIMO are pioneers in the use of bulk automation and artificial intelligence in the field of IT services”.

RIMO3 is a cutting-edge software company spun out of Global Application Management specialist, Camwood Ltd (www.camwood.com), who introduced the world’s first automated compatibility testing software (AppDNA) for Microsoft Installers (MSI) in 2007, spinning off the product and selling it to Citrix in 2011. Camwood set-up RIMO3 to develop the ACTIV product line and the project team has >50 years’ combined expertise in software engineering, automation, AI and ML.


Sweet success for Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) diagnosis and monitoring device

RedKnight are delighted to announce it has supported South Wales based Thermetrix Ltd with a successful proposal to Horizon 202's SME Instrument Phase 1 programme, winning the company €50k to further develop its innovative med-tech product called PODIUMTM.

The PODIUMTM technology is a novel, extremely reliable and highly sensitive solution for the cost-effective diagnosis and monitoring of Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFUs) through rapid temperature imaging and reliable analysis of thermographs. The phase 1 project will enable Thermetrix to experiment with the higher efficacy, diagnostic value, convenience and cost-effectiveness of PODIUMTM over conventional approaches.

Dr Peter Plassmann, CEO of Thermetrix Ltd said of the success, RedKnight was instrumental in securing this grant. The company fully understood our technology and the advantages it offers. They contributed extensive background research and insider know-how on the European Commission's expectations and selection process, took us by the hand and drove the application process to its successful completion.

Today, there are 60m adults suffering from diabetes in Europe and 3.8m in UK (expected to rise to 50m by 2025). Diabetes has a high mortality rate caused mainly by complications (75,000 deaths per annum, of which 24,000 are premature). One life-threatening complication of diabetes is the development of a DFU. Studies reveal a 12% - 255 lifetime risk of developing DFU for diabetics, meaning over 9m people in Europe might suffer from a DFU in their lifetime. A serious consequence of DFU treatment amounting to 290,000 - 450,000 amputations a year in Europe, at a cost of €2 - 2.5bn.

Critically, a timely response from physicians, facilitated by PODIUMTM, could significantly reduce DFU - related amputations. The technology will provide a considerable Quality of Life (QoL) improvement for users and enable substantial savings to healthcare providers, even if only a very small percentage adopt PODIUMTM.


Supporting the future of telecommunications...

Here at RedKnight we are now accustomed to celebrate every new month with a success, and this November is no different, as another success has been addedd on the RedKnight scoreboard. This time we are delighted to have supported South Wales based Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) Ltd with a successful application to the Eureka-Eurostars programme, scooping a grant of €632,812 for the consortium, which comprises Manchester based Integrated Compound Semiconductors (ICS) Ltd and V-tech Lasers & Sensors, based in Eindhoven. This latest success brings RedKnight's total funding secured since September 2015 to over £4.7m.The project, titled Monolithically Integrated Detector Solutions for Next Generation Comms Applications (MISCA), aims to lever semiconductor material integration to deliver disruptive, scalable component platforms, addressing demands of next generation telecommunications, data communications and optical infrastructure. The consortium will use intelligent monolithic integration of compound semiconductor materials platforms to deliver high-speed detector solutions with co-optimised RF and optical performance.
With Global IP traffic set to increase 3-fold over the next 5 years, having already increased 127-fold from 2005, an enormous market for fibre optic communications components has been created. The EU has built a significant proportion of GDP on digital activities, however the data centre infrastructure required to deliver such services must embrace step changes in data rate improvements to keep pace with demand. This requires reliable, mass produced, high quality optical transceivers to achieve this aim.
In this regard, MISCA will provide a step change in the degree of materials integration used in the volume manufacturing process for PIN (Positive, Intrinsic, Negative) diode and Avalanche Photo-diode (APD) device-based receivers - a major acceleration in the commercialisation of the innovative technology. This integration approach will deliver increased chip-scale specification to unlock packaging simplification and reduced operating power requirements, which has added benefits for environmentally friendly manufacturing.
Mr Wyn Meredith, Director at CSC, said of the successful application “The support from Redknight took away all the effort and angst of understanding the bid requirements and allowed us to concentrate on building the business case for the project. I was impressed at the rate at which the RedKnight team got to grips with the complexities of the technical aspects of the bid, and the added value in their understanding of the needs of the assessment process”