Physics research at the University of Liverpool

Creating New Companies

Fundamental research drives technology innovations and these in turn can benefit society in various ways. Our department has developed sensors and instrumentation for science experiments all around the world. Many of these technologies were successfully transferred to companies or have led to the setup of entirely new companies, such as the two below:

AIMES

AIMES Grid Services was founded in December 2005 on research that was undertaken at the University of Liverpool and the IP that was generated by the Department of Physics in the development of the Monte Carlo Processing (MAP) system for simulation and analysis of particle physics data. Furthermore, the Department of Physics’ Grid Computing know-how and capabilities that were developed under the e-Science programme enabled AIMES Grid Services to develop into a cloud technology company which provided data centre and application development services to businesses across a range of industries. The newly formed company AIMES Grid Services used its expertise in Grid/Cloud technologies to design and build cloud infrastructure solutions for commercial clients. For example, AIMES built the “Health Cloud” with dedicated high availability communications links to N3 (the national broadband network for the NHS, connecting all NHS locations and 1.3 million employees across England and HSCN (Health and Social Care Network) which provides a reliable, efficient and flexible way for health and care organisations to access and exchange electronic information.

D-BEAM

In 2017, our start up D-Beam was welcomed into the STFC CERN Business Incubation Centre, specializing in advanced beam diagnostics. D-Beam Ltd is a company born out of the research outcomes produced by our QUASAR Group. The company has been partner in a number of UK and EU projects, and has been awarded funding with academic partners through ARIES Proof of Concept, STFC Impact Acceleration Account and STFC Innovation Partnership Scheme Follow on Fund. The company's optical-fibre beam loss monitor (oBLM) was selected as an ASTeC technology highlight of the year in 2018/2019. Research carried out by D-Beam in partnership with Liverpool researchers was also highlighted as an STFC Impact Acceleration Account success story in 2021.