IF Innovation Themed Webinar

Edward Goodchild took the chair for Intelligence Forums’ (Innovation themed) webinar on 13 August 2020, joined by around thirty members from across the country.

First to speak was Lisa Pinney, MBE, who has been Chief Executive of the Coal Authority (CA)since June 2018. She has had a career of over 20 years at the Environment Agency, and is a Chartered Waste Manager, Chartered Environmentalist, with a degree in Environmental Science, and Masters in both Environmental and Social Policy, and Environmental Decision Making. Passionate about diversity and inclusion she was awarded an MBE in 2014. 

Lisa reminded us that the majority the UK’s coalmining assets, nationalised after World War II, are still state owned. CA is responsibile for managing the liabilities that derive from such mines and the effects of past coal mining. Lisa outlined typical activities, which include management of subsidence damage claims; ground grouting and stabilisation works; investigations and remedial works associated with ground collapses and building damage attributable to recorded and unrecorded coal mining; construction of mine water treatment schemes; preventing mine water pollution; assessment of ground conditions on property owned or rented by the CA; spoil heap stability, and other mining legacy issues.

CA operates over 75 mine water treatment schemes across the UK which manage water levels in abandoned workings and treat over 120 billion litres of mine water each year, to safeguard vital drinking water aquifers, and protect rivers and the environment. 

She described how an abandoned coal mine can provide an attractive source of geothermal energy. Mine water offers a low carbon, sustainable heat source with stable pricing, which under the right conditions can also compete with gas prices. How? …. when a mine ceases production, the pumps that kept it dry are often switched off and it fills with water. The mine water is warmed geothermally, to a temperature which remains stable year-round, and its warmth can be transferred through a heat exchanger to heat nearby homes, or provide energy for horticulture, manufacturing, and other purposes. CA has calculated that the constantly replenished warmed water within these mines could provide all of the heating requirements for the coalfield populations.

She told us of CA’s work with Durham County Council to develop a Garden Village at Seaham. The proposed development will consist of 750 affordable homes, 750 private homes, a school, shops, and medical and innovation centres. It will be adjacent to CA’s Dawdon mine water treatment scheme, which can provide a continuous supply of water at 18°C to 20°C with a potential 6MW of low cost, low carbon sustainable energy available for local space heating all year round. The project has the potential to be the first large scale mine energy district heating scheme in the UK.

The Dawdon operation also protects drinking water for 200,000 consumers, which is abstracted from Durham Magnesian Limestone, pumping around 125 litres of mine water per second to the surface for treatment.

One of our participants noted that he had grown up next to an open cast mining site, and was amazed at how the countryside has now been regenerated. The dust has gone, the slag keeps have been grassed over and it is now a pleasure to drive through the former coalmining countryside. 

Further testament to the work and innovation of CA. 

Our next speaker, Katie Wytwyckyj is the Business Engagement Officer for the Product and Process Innovation (PAPI) project at the University of York. PAPI helps small businesses in York, North Yorkshire and East Riding to develop new products by providing finance for equipment purchases. Grants (up to 40% of equipment cost; minimum value £maximum value of £20k) are available where new equipment would enable innovation and generate new jobs and growth. The project is partly funded by the ERDF and delivered by the University, whose team provides expert support to businesses to help develop funding proposals, as well as guidance and advice through the course of an application. 

Katie graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University 15 years ago and spent seven years working with “Deliciously Yorkshire”, which promotes, supports and develops food and drink businesses in …. Yorkshire.  A move to Manchester followed where she worked for ERDF’s Digital Growth Team, and in 2014 she joined the University of York on a short-term project which set out to link academics with SMEs. The project provided clients with up to £5000 of an academic’s consulting time for free.  

In 2016, recognising the need for an economic development team, the University successfully bid for, and launched the PAPI regional grant funding scheme and Katie was appointed as its Business Engagement Officer. The University had never undertaken such a scheme before and it was, she said, a “hard slog” to promote.

A key part of her role has been networking. She promotes PAPI and builds relationships with potential applicants through direct contacts and (pre-COVID) Business Funding Roadshows. The project also provides free innovation workshops – two days of fully funded support (now carried out online) with the second day, tailored to business specific needs, running two weeks later. Once a business wishes to proceed with a grant application, Katie passes the applicant on to the team for advice and support in making the application.  

PAPI grants have been awarded to business as diverse as a distillery, a veterinary grade bedding producer, school clothing manufacturer, a software developer and a manufacturer of compressed air products. PAPI has awarded grants to over 150 companies to date at a rate of about six per month (reassuringly nine during August) and the project has been extended to 2023. 

It’s hard not to wonder how many small local businesses might be helped in this way for the cost of …… a high speed railway line from London to the West Midlands, for example!

Kanchan Kamdar is the MD and CEO of Automated Payment Transfer Limited “APT”, an approved Bacs Bureau and Bacs software provider. APT has created iConnect for the processing of Direct Debits and Direct Credits in the UK. This enables clients to create and upload files into the Bacs payment system without having to purchase and administer Bacs transmission software.

APT which was established in 1981, is one of 16 approved software providers for Bacs transfers. At number five in the industry, it creates up to 40m transactions, representing around £40Bn of transfers annually. 

Kanchan told us that in 2004 she was employed by APT as a part time Sales and Marketing Manager. In 2007 when the then owner of APT decided to retire, and despite having two small children, Kanchan decided to buy the business through an MBO. With a degree in IT and business, she was inspired by the prospect of running her own. Perhaps this was in her Indian blood, she said, but she was motivated too, by the owner. She saw another woman doing the job, thought “I could be that person”, and went for it. Now she aspires to be one of the small number of females at the forefront of fintech. 

APT has had a “good” lockdown. The payment transaction processing business has not been affected. Financial transactions still have to be processed regardless of COVID, and her employees have been able to successfully work from home. 

She believes that her business is resilient. She told us that once new users have selected a Bacs payment software provider and developed a relationship they tend not to change, provided that the quality of performance and service levels are high. That said, the business model is that users pay a licence fee and a volume usage fee for the software, so larger volume users might tender their business every three to five years. What differentiates the competitors, she said, is the processing capacity that each brings, admitting that security issues, the migration of the software from pc’s to the cloud and power failure have contribute to sleepless nights. 

She added that Bacs has recently been acquired by Pay.UK, a UK centric operation, and she expects further consolidation within her industry……. still no time to sleep easy then!