18INNOVATION UK The government's Low Carbon Strategy established the North East and South West regions as the UK's first specialist low- carbon economic areas. UKTI, both in the UK and in Japan, worked with regional and BIS partners, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills Lord Mandelson personally engaged, to facilitate an important, high- value project from long- standing inward investor Nissan. This has led to the company deciding to invest £ 200m to research and build automotive electric batteries in the North East. It is a move that will help establish the UK's place as a global leader in the hi- tech manufacturing and automotive industries. Nissan has also formed a partnership with regional devel-opment agency One North East to explore the feasibility of developing a zero- emission mobility programme in the UK. Support for Advanced Manufacturing was announced in July 2009. A £ 150m package of measures will help UK-based manufacturers seize the opportunities provided by emerging technologies and has been launched as part of the government's targeted strategies for key sectors and markets. The investment, which totals £ 151.5m will expand access to information, encourage take up of new technologies and address specific challenges faced by the aerospace sector. The UKTI record of suporting inovative busines suces UKTI works in partnership with the Regional Develop-ment Agencies, Devolved Administrations, with BIS and with other government departments and external part-ners such as the Technology Strategy Board and the Research Councils to bring more R& D investment into the UK from overseas. During 2008- 9, UKTI worked on 107 R& D- based investment projects. Many investment successes derive from sponsorships of research projects at UK universities. The universities form part of the core of the UK's research base and have a culture of developing tech-nologies with practical commercial applications. In fact, universities in the UK produce a far higher number of spin- outs than their US counterparts per £ 1m of research. UKTI aims to provide a single international voice for UK companies designing, producing and deploying low-carbon solutions, while presenting the UK economy as the destination of choice for low- carbon investment. It estimates that the fight against climate change is creating a new low- carbon products and services industry poten-tially worth £ 4.3tn by 2015. UK Trade & Investment UKTi is the government organisation that helps UK-based companies to succeed in the global economy. It also helps overseas companies bring their high- quality investment to the UK's dynamic economy - acknowl-edged as Europe's best place from which to succeed in global business. UK Trade & Investment offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. It provides companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For more information, contact: Tel: + 44 ( 0) 20 7215 8000 Website: www. uktradeinvest. gov. uk CASE STUDies Phillips Support from UKTI, working with regional investment promotion agency East of England International ( EEI) and partners, including the Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board, helped international healthcare, lighting and consumer products company Philips relocate its new UK R& D centre to Cambridge. When the company re- focused its R& D operation, the team worked closely with Philips Research to emphasise the capabilities and reputation of the UK and of Cam-bridge in preparing the business plan for the new loca-tion. The Philips Research R& D centre in Cambridge opened in November 2008. Lime Technology UKTI was able to help innovative low- energy building materials company Lime Technology grow its exports to North America. Company founder Ian Pritchett saw that the materials used in historic buildings were all low carbon and had little or no fossil fuels used in their pro-duction and wondered about using the same materials in modern- day builds. After research projects with Bris-tol, Bath and Bradford Universities to develop materials based on unfired earth, lime binders, natural aggre-gates and plant fibres, Lime Technology was keen to grow its exports to North America, Australia and parts of Europe and in January 2009 joined a UKTI trade mission to Canada. Lime Technology is now involved in supplying lime- based materials to hundreds of build-ing projects, including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Terminal at St Pancras Station, the new National Trust headquarters and the new Amnesty International office. British Innovation UKTI

INNOVATION UK19 1 Great British Inventions 1935 - CAT'S EYES Anyone who's a driver knows how valuable Cat's Eyes are when driving at night. This device was invented by the Englishman Percy Shaw, born in Yorkshire in 1890. He invented it after he had been driving on a dark, winding road on a foggy night. He was saved from going off the side of the hill by a cat, whose eyes reflected his car's lights. Percy Shaw set about inventing something similar to cat's eyes by inventing a small device with two marbles placed close together in a rubber casing. This would then be set in the road at intervals between the lanes of traffic. The device formed a small hump and would reflect the oncoming car headlights to show the way ahead. Percy was not a man to forget a detail and he realised that his new invention would quickly get dirty and stop reflecting the light, so he put a small depression where the marbles were which would fill with water every time it rained. Any car wheel passing over the device would press the marbles into the depression, forcing the water out and cleaning the marbles. In 1935 he formed his own company and named his invention after the inspiration that gave him the idea, Catseye ® . For his invention, Shaw was awarded the OBE in 1965 and died in September 1976. 1960 - VERTICAL TAKE- OFF AIRCRAFT Sidney Camm, Ralph Hooper, and Stanley Hooker invented a vertical take- off aircraft that can soar straight up into the sky. Rather than using rotors or a direct jet thrust, they built an innovative vectored- thrust turbofan engine. Their invention allows aircraft to take off from sites without runways. Harriers were used effec-tively in the Falklands War, and can be used for rescues in dangerous emergencies. During the mid- 1950s, the idea of vertical take- off fixed-wing aircraft had begun to be investigated, principally in Germany and the US. In Britain, Rolls- Royce had been working on lift engine concepts which used up to eight engines to enable an aircraft to take- off vertically. Pro-totypes were ordered by the British government, and both Avro and Shorts were given contracts to prove the theory. Meanwhile, in France, aircraft designer Michel Wibault was designing a V/ STOL aircraft that he envi-sioned would use four centrifugal blowers placed around the aircraft's centre of gravity. During 1955 and 1956, Wibault approached both the French and US Govern-ments with his ideas, but neither showed any interest. The Bristol Engine Company came to hear about Wibault's ideas and following a meeting with Bristol's Technical Director, Stanley Hooker, Bristol's decided to begin a serious study into the concept. Hooker soon became con-vinced that the idea had potential and the engine could be developed. In early 1957, Hawker Aircraft began working on its P. 1121 project for a single- seat fighter- bomber aircraft, but in April of that year, Duncan Sandys, the British Minister of Defence, announced that most future fighter and bomber aircraft development would be cancelled in favour of guided missiles. This wasn't a popular decision for the British aviation industry, and Hawker in particu-lar. However, undeterred, Sir Sydney Camm and Ralph Hooper began working with Stanley Hooker on a new V/ STOL design using Bristol's revolutionary new engine, the Pegasus. The new aircraft was known as the P. 1127, and work began on building two prototypes at King-ston in 1959. The completed airframes were then moved to Hawker's test facility at Dunsfold, where they were prepared for flight testing. Following the successes of the development programme a further four P. 1127s were ordered in late 1960. Development continued both at Hawker's and at Bristol. On 16 January 1963, Britain, Germany and the US placed a contract for nine development P. 1127s with costs being divided equally. The nine aircraft were delivered between March 1964 and March 1965 and formed the Tripartite squadron at RAF West Raynham in Norfolk. In Novem-ber 1964, Hawker renamed the P. 1127, the Kestrel FGA Mk. 1. A production order was received from the Royal Air Force in 1966 and the Kestrel became the Harrier. The first production Harrier flew for the first time on 28 December 1967 and entered squadron service on 1 April 1969. Great British Inventions Great British inventions