Building Partnerships with Professor Colin Pulham

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Transcript

My name is Colin Pulham.  I’m a Professor of High-Pressure Chemistry. I have research interests in a range of sectors. The overarching theme is probably crystallisation science. I’m interested in crystallisation under a range of conditions, particularly high pressure. We’re looking at fuels, we’re looking at lubricants, we’re looking at pharmaceuticals, and then more recently we’ve been looking at these phase change materials which are being used for heat storage applications. So wide range of interests, but linked by the study of crystallisation processes.

We have a number of collaborations. With specific reference to heat storage materials: so this is working with a small company called Sunamp Ltd, based in East Lothian, and what we’re interested there is developing new materials that have high energy densities for storing heat for domestic industrial and vehicle applications.

This came initially through a query through Interface and it was actually funded by an Interface voucher. We were approached by Sunamp to do some analysis of some materials that they had been using and they’d been having problems with.

The beauty of consultancy is it’s a relatively low risk so you can get a small piece of work. It starts building that relationship of trust and understanding of the business, of the company, but also the business of the University. If things work well, and there’s sufficient overlap and interest, then these consultancies lead to bigger projects, more collaborative projects.

In terms of benefits for Industry, what they get is access to cutting-edge research equipment, cutting-edge expertise, and that I think allows them to develop a competitive advantage and can have a major impact upon the profitability of the company and how many people it employs.

For the School, a source of funding allows us to fund PhD students; it allows us to fund postdoctoral workers. I think it gives an understanding of the requirements of Industry both large and small.

It’s a very good vehicle for getting into new areas of research because it’s low risk; you have a bit of resource to explore this area and I think that’s a real highlight for academics. I can point to number of the consultancies that I’ve done which have allowed me to move into completely new areas.