On Wednesday, 26 January 2022, University of Greenwich, in collaboration with Cardiff University and Lovely Professional University (India) successfully co-organized the partnership development workshop, which is funded by UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI: www.ukieri.org), and India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The blended workshop was organized, using the latest digital technology-based Hyflex room at University of Greenwich, where face-to-face and online participants effectively participated in the workshop activities. There were 16 UK participants who attended the face-to-face workshop at Greenwich campus, and 20 participants participated in the workshop using the virtual mode.
The partnership development workshop explored joint research collaborations between the UK and India, to establish new research links with institutions in both countries with the potential for longer term sustainability. The partnerships that emerge out of this workshop would have research potential for creating innovative solutions and making an academic, industrial and social impact.
There were keynote presentations from Prof Rupinder Singh (Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Punjab, India) and Prof Chander Prakash (Lovely Professional University, India) who are the world-class experts in 3D Printing, with more than 12000 citations of their peer-reviewed scientific publications, to provide the overall picture of medical 3D Printing and associated technologies in India. Associate Professor Chi Hieu Le (University of Greenwich) provided the keynote presentation about the state-of-the-art medical 3D printing, with clinical case studies he conducted with his research teams in Europe and Asia, to create big impacts in the enhancement of the quality of life for patients, with the use of personalised implants, surgical guides and medical devices as well as biomodels for pre-operative planning, medical diagnosis, treatments and rehabilitation. With the advancement of 3D printing and 3D medical image processing together with the use of personalised implants, surgical guides, medical devices and biomodels fabricated by 3D printing, the time for surgery can be reduced by up to 50% and the accuracy of surgery can be very much enhanced.
The innovative and cost-effective solutions for the development of high-value added products and services for healthcare and pharmaceuticals were discussed at the workshop. The innovative and cost-effective solutions are considered very important for enhancing the lquality of life for the low-income populations in developing countries, who are inadequately provided with healthcare services or facilities, and who are not able to access high quality products and services for medical diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.
The workshop included capacity building and networking activities to develop UK-India networks to explore joint research collaborations, with a potential to receive joint funding in future, with 8 proposed collaborative projects for starting the UK-India collaborations in research and innovation. In an impactful presentation Prof Simon Cutting (Royal Holloway, University of London) shared his experiences of forming successful UK-India partnerships, to exploit and commercialise the patented inventions, resulting in hi-tech start-ups valued at 150 million USD. Prof. Johannes Benedikt (Cardiff University) shared his experiences of setting up international collaborations with research and higher education institutes, especially in the development of the international centre for doctoral training, taking advantage of the currently invested research labs and resources at leading research centers and companies.
The global manufacturing landscape is rapidly changing in recent years, especially with the rapid advancement of emerging technologies. 3D Printing is one of the key technologies that provides innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for the developments of high-value added products and services, rapidly converting innovative ideas into products, with cost- and resource-effective productions via personalised design and mass-customisation. 3D Printing directly contributes to value chains and impacts of the manufacturing industry to society, with innovative products of high quality and values to meet growing needs of rapidly growing and changing markets.
There was also a roundtable discussion section at the workshop, discussing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how 3D printing can be effectively applied to rapidly develop products during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, 3D Printing has transformed the landscape of healthcare and medicine. With the increasing pressure on supplying critical emergency items, the application of 3D Printing has gained massive momentum, especially in rapid developments and rapid manufacturing of medical products and services (medical diagnosis and surgical planning), including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies such as face shields and valves for respiratory machines).
The Covid-19 pandemic has been creating global disruption of supply chains, leading to a global shortage of medical and healthcare products. There is a potential for the use of 3D Printing to fill supply chain gaps and meet shortfalls, taking advantage of the latest innovations to shorten the product development time, and to directly contribute to enhancement of the quality of medical test, diagnosis, treatments and rehabilitation.
From the shared experiences and information about the research capacities and opportunities, the UK-India workshop has opened the channels for creating fruitful collaborative networks between the UK and India in medical 3D Printing which is a rapidly expanding technology that directly enhances quality of life for people via innovative products for medical test, diagnostics, treatments and rehabilitation. Researchers from the UK and India participating in the project have opportunities to share the research findings, to explore joint collaborations and partnerships in research and higher education, and to co-work on specific research and technology development projects. Especially, early career researchers participating in the workshop have opportunities of enhancing their expertise, professional skills and quality of networking via mentoring programmes, technology transfer and research collaborations with the internationally established researchers in the UK and India.
The funding programmes such as UKIERI-DST, UK’s Newton Fund (£750 million) and Global Challenges Research Fund (£1.5 billion), provide the actual opportunities and potentials for researchers in both the UK and India to network and develop fruitful and sustainable collaborations.
QUOTES ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
The UKIERI-DST partnership development workshop held on 26 January 2022 in London has provided an excellent opportunity for researchers in both the UK and India to share their innovative ideas, experiences and future research interests in Industry 4.0 technologies, especially in additive manufacturing (3D printing) and digital technologies in the medical and health care sector. Future plans for expanding collaboration network and potential jointly funded proposals have been thoroughly discussed and follow up actions have been arranged. The large number of participants through face-to-face and on-line communications worked very well. Thanks to the event organisers’ excellent effort.
Prof. James Gao, University of Greenwich (UK)
The presentations and discussions at the UKIERI-DST partnership development workshop are very interesting, with great potentials for networking and fruitful collaborations in research and innovations between the UK and India. The shared experiences from the well-established researchers and mentors are helpful for early career researchers.
Prof. Chander Prakash, Lovely Professional University (India)
The UKIERI-DST partnership development workshop has been successfully organised and executed. As someone new to these types of partnership developments. I found this workshop to be very useful in expanding my research network and international collaborations. Thank you so much to organisers and the funder for making this happen and hopefully more collaborations will follow after this workshop.
Dr. Yehdego Habtay, University of Greenwich (UK)
The workshop has been well organised. It provided early career researchers a good opportunity to seek potential collaborations and new research topics.
Dr Shuo Feng, Cardiff University (UK)
The UKIERI-DST partnership development workshop had proved thought-provoking and extremely informative. The presentations and discussions were engaging and exciting. There are potentials for fruitful and sustainable collaborations in research, innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as in higher education. The workshop has provided opportunities for the early career researchers to get the wonderful support and advices from the mentoring programme, with the useful experiences shared by the well-established researchers and experts. There are also potentials for impactful research and innovation collaborations between the UK and India in Industry 4.0 technologies, especially innovative and cost-effective development of high-value added products and services in healthcare and medicine for developing countries, where the underserved populations who are inadequately provided with healthcare services or facilities, and who are not able to access to the products and services of high quality for medical diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.
Associate Professor Chi Hieu Le, University of Greenwich (UK)
This partnership workshop has been an excellent opportunity to widen our opportunities in medical AM industry. It was well organised and accommodated every person’s need to my knowledge. I got to learn a lot of development in the field while I was able to meet very accomplished researchers in specific fields. Although I am based in UK, I was given the opportunity to attend remotely and I thank the organisers for that. It provided the opportunity to possibly work with partners in India in the future and to expand the knowledge exchange process.
Dr. Urvashi Fowdar Gunputh, University of Derby (UK)
The workshop photos of high quality can be viewed and downloaded at the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/hieulch/90L8Pf
UK participants at the face-to-face workshop at University of Greenwich on 26 January 2022.
The blended workshop was successfully organized at University of Greenwich, using the latest digital technology-based Hyflex room, where face-to-face and online participants effectively participated in the workshop activities.
The blended workshop was successfully organized at University of Greenwich, using the latest digital technology-based Hyflex room, where face-to-face and online participants effectively participated in the workshop activities.
The blended workshop was successfully organized at University of Greenwich, using the latest digital technology-based Hyflex room, where face-to-face and online participants effectively participated in the workshop activities.
The blended workshop was successfully organized at University of Greenwich, using the latest digital technology-based Hyflex room, where face-to-face and online participants effectively participated in the workshop activities.
In an impactful presentation, Prof Simon Cutting (Royal Holloway, University of London) shared his experiences of forming successful UK-India partnerships, to exploit and commercialise the patented inventions, resulting in hi-tech start-ups valued at 150 million USD.
Prof. Johannes Benedikt (Cardiff University) shared his experiences of setting up international collaborations with research and higher education institutes, especially in the development of the international centre for doctoral training, taking advantage of the currently invested research labs and resources at leading research centers and companies.
Associate Professor Rajesh Ransing (Swansea University, Wales) shared the experiences of international collaborations in innovative development of products, especially for the cases of people with transtibial amputations. 3D Printing has been well-documented about manufacturing capability of making parts and products of complex geometries, especially personalized products, such as personalized prostheses and orthotics.
Dr Shwe Soe (University of the West of England) presented the latest developments of 3D Printing and state of the art technologies for design and product development, with the proposed digital manufacturing framework. The presentation was done with the use of the latest digital technology-based Hyflex room, where face-to-face and online participants effectively engaged in discussions.
