The Forum is the trade association for companies operating in the aerospace and defence sectors in Wales and exists to provide the best service it can in promoting its members’ companies and capabilities, providing access to events, networking opportunities and industry expertise. DECA is a full member of this Forum.

Rachael Blackburn, the newly appointed Operations Director for the Aerospace Wales Forum, opened the meeting agenda that included a question and answer session from the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, Ken Skates AM as well as presentations from Dickie Davies, Deputy Director Welsh Government, Rhodri Evans, Price Waterhouse Cooper and Colin Sirett, CEO Advanced Manufacturing and Research Centre

Geraint Spearing, DECA’s Chief Executive also gave a presentation and capability overview to the Forum saying,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to DECA. Through events like this we are committed to developing partnerships and engagement with as many companies as possible. This also allows us to increase DECA involvement within the wider community and welcoming you all here today is a great step towards these goals.

Winning the F-35 assignment is tremendous news and has provided a new lease of life for DECA; a lot of our work involves the repair, maintenance, overhaul and upgrade of legacy equipment and F-35 provides us with an exciting next chapter to continue our long history.

Dickie Davies presented details of the current opportunities for Welsh Government funding saying,

We are here for you and to support and sustain business in Wales and the UK going forward and we are working to deliver an outstanding package of support. Three years ago, if I had said that we would have Aston Martin at St Athan employing 700 people you would have laughed and so would I, but we are actually there and we are growing.

Rhodri Evan, Cyber Security Lead at Price Waterhouse Cooper gave an interesting presentation on the importance of cyber security within industry. He detailed the impact of attacks and their effect, to not only business operations, but also how an attack can seriously affect the supply chain. Rhodri also detailed the new levels of cyber security protection that businesses will have to comply with.

Following on from the speakers, Ken Skates, Assembly Member, Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, National Assembly for Wales held a Q&A session taking questions about rail and road infrastructure, apprentice schemes, trade tariffs, the devaluation of the pound, research and development investment and the implications of Brexit. He spoke to the forum saying,

I am pleased to be with you all here today. We are inevitably proud of our aerospace industry and the announcements of job creation in Wales. Wales as a whole is building on a very strong foundation and we are keen to make sure we find common ground to take advantage of and ensure that Welsh strategy dovetails with the UK’s industrial strategy and the great news of F-35 assignment for DECA. It gives me great pleasure to work with you and I am looking forward to the future.

The businesses, which all have an innovation that can benefit the environment, went on an Clean + Cool Mission this week (10 to 17 June 2017).

The mission is backed by Innovate UK and Long Run Works. It supports early-stage, high-potential companies to connect with opportunities through being part of an organised programme. This means they are able to explore cross-border opportunities and find faster routes to their target market.

Innovative UK SMEs

All of the businesses were selected to take part by a panel of judges. The panel was made up of representatives from Clean + Cool, Innovate UK, Department for International Trade, Knowledge Transfer Network, Greenhouse PR, PwC, Silicon Valley Bank, Volans, Whitefox Technologies and Women in Cleantech & Sustainability.

Businesses on the mission include:

• Aceleron, which produces low-cost remanufactured battery packs from used lithium ion batteries
• Arborea, whose carbon bio-converter ‘bionic leaf’ tiles enable photosynthesis to happen in the built environment
• Bowman Power Group, a provider of electric turbo compounding technology, that improves the efficiency of gas and diesel-fueled engines in industrial stationary power generation
• BuffaloGrid, which gives people in off-grid locations the ability to charge their phones and access internet services through remote solar-powered hubs
• Cellular Agriculture, a company looking to change how protein is produced for food consumption through tissue engineering technology
• CCell, which has pioneered a wave energy, delivering more power while weighing less. Potential users include sea-water desalination plants and remote inhabited islands dependent on diesel generated electricity.
• Gravitricity, which is developing grid-scale energy storage system that uses gravitational potential to store electricity
• Green Fuels, the biodiesel equipment manufacturer that converts waste oils and fats into biofuels, such as jet fuel
• H2GO Power, a University of Cambridge spin-out that uses solid-state, controllable hydrogen storage and generation for fuel cells
• Hexigone Inhibitors, which is developing environmentally-responsive organic and metallic coatings that are protected from degradation
• Kelda Technology, whose digital shower system improves water efficiency to use 50% less water
• Meteor Power, which is developing a new electric, high-performance motorcycle
• Perpetual V2G Systems, producing power systems that harvest energy from vehicles that would be otherwise lost and store it onboard to be used later
• Rotaheat, which has pioneered compact technology that converts mechanical rotational energy to heat fluids at over 120C
• SEaB Energy, whose patented anaerobic digestion systems in shipping containers generate clean energy from organic waste
• Senergy, which designs and manufactures integrated polymer solar thermal panels. It is now part of Lloyd’s Register
• SOMI Trailers, using a novel truck trailer design to to utilise the space underneath and carry 31% extra pallets
• Stickyworld, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform to collect and sort ideas, consult on proposals or engage and educate different stakeholder groups
• Tevva Motors, which has developed electric range-extended vehicles that lower emissions and operational costs
• Topolytics, which combines mapping, machine learning and geospatial analytics to make industrial waste visible, verifiable and valuable

Connecting innovators

Ian Meikle, Director – Infrastructure Systems, Innovate UK says:

Clean + Cool is a great example of the role Innovate UK plays in connecting innovators with the right partners they need to succeed. The Mission tackles the human challenges to innovation, helping early stage CEOs grow their ambition, profile and network, while improving their pitch and insight.

Engineering success

This is the sixth Clean + Cool mission. Previous missions have resulted in success, including UK engineering company Whitefox Technologies.

Through 2 missions to San Francisco and Brazil, they were able to make connections and gain knowledge of the biofuels industry and legislation in the US. This led to them pitching their solutions to US biofuel producer Pacific Ethanol. They now have a commercial deal, and are receiving interest from other companies in North America and Europe.