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Towards 2030: What is FET's Role in Delivering IMPACT from Research and Innovation Investment Research and Impact There is a disconnect (particularly so in Europe) between basic research focused on fundamental scientific questions and translating the outcomes of this research into social and economic impact. Most scientific research comes to impact through a circuitous route; and can take a long time (often 10-20 years or even more). Scientists trying to explain this in public fora appear to be evasive – apparently unable to answer apparently simple, direct questions. But this is truly an honest reflection of the complexity of the research and innovation process.

This paper introduces the work and diversity of the Council for Frontiers of Knowledge (CFK). In a series of vignettes relating to the intellectual interests of some of the leading academics working with the CFK, both the mission and the trans- disciplinary oversight of the agency are explored.

Textiles are ubiquitous to us, enveloping our skin and surroundings. Not only do they provide a protective shield or act as a comforting cocoon but they also serve esthetic appeal and cultural importance. Recent technologies have allowed the traditional functionality of textiles to be extended. Advances in materials science have added intelligence to textiles and created 'smart' clothes. Smart textiles can sense and react to environmental conditions or stimuli, e.g., from mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, or magnetic sources (Lam Po Tang and Stylios 2006). Such textiles find uses in many applications ranging from military and security to personalized healthcare, hygiene, and entertainment. Smart textiles may be termed ''passive'' or ''active.'' A passive smart textile monitors the wearer's physiology or the environment, e.g., a shirt with in-built thermistors to log body temperature over time. If actuators are integrated, the textile becomes an active, smart textile as it may respond to a particular stimulus, e.g., the temperature-aware shirt may automatically roll up the sleeves when body temperature rises. The fundamental components in any smart textile are sensors and actuators. Interconnections, power supply, and a control unit are also needed to complete the system. All these components must be integrated into textiles while still retaining the usual tactile, flexible, and comfortable properties that we expect from a textile. Adding new functionalities to textiles while still maintaining the look and feel of the fabric is where nanotechnology has a huge impact on the textile industry. This article describes current developments in materials for smart nanotextiles and some of the many applications where these innovative textiles are of great benefit.

Environmental water pollution affects human health and reduces the quality of our natural water ecosystems and resources. As a result, there is great interest in monitoring water quality and ensuring that all areas are compliant with legislation. Ubiquitous water quality monitoring places considerable demands upon existing sensing technology. The combined challenges of system longevity, autonomous operation, robustness, large-scale sensor networks, operationally difficult deployments and unpredictable and lossy environments collectively represents a technological barrier that has yet to be overcome[1]. Ubiquitous sensing envisages many aspects of our environment being routinely sensed. This will result in data streams from a large variety of heterogeneous sources, which will often vary in their volume and accuracy. The challenge is to develop a networked sensing infrastructure that can support the effective capture, filtering, aggregation and analysis of such data. This will ultimately enable us to dynamically monitor and track the quality of our environment at multiple locations. Microfluidic technology provides a route to the development of miniaturised analytical instruments that could be deployed remotely, and operate autonomously over relatively long periods of time (months–years). An example of such a system is the autonomous phosphate sensor[2] which has been developed at the CLARITY Centre, in Dublin City University. This technology, in combination with the availability of low power, reliable wireless communications platforms that can link sensors and analytical devices to online databases and servers, form the basis for extensive networks of autonomous analytical 'stations' or 'nodes' that will provide high quality information about key chemical parameters that determine the quality of our aquatic environment. The system must also have sufficient intelligence to enable adaptive sampling regimes as well as accurate and efficient decision-making responses. A particularly exciting area of development is ...

Monitoring of chemical contaminants within the Environment operates predominantly through manual gathering of samples, transportation to centralised laboratories, and analysed by means of sophisticated instruments. This process is expensive and therefore faces limitations under the demands of current and forthcoming bodies of legislation, e.g. the Water Framework Directive. Recent technological breakthroughs have allowed for the realisation of static analytical systems capable of autonomously monitoring key chemical targets in situ. The challenge at present is to reduce the cost of such systems while meeting the demands of legislation. An alternative approach may exist in a moveable device capable of monitoring large water bodies using a single platform.

The ever increasing demand for real time environmental monitoring is currently being driven by strong legislative and societal drivers. Low cost autonomous environmental monitoring systems are required to meet this demand as current monitoring solutions are insufficient. This poster presents an autonomous nutrient analyser platform for water quality monitoring. Results from a field trial of the nutrient analyser are reported along with current work to expand the range of water quality targets.

Water management is an important part of monitoring the natural environment and includes monitoring water quality of both coastal and inland marine locations. This covers the detection of pollution and monitoring the development of harmful algal blooms as well as coastal features and wave patterns. For many years water managers relied on field measurements for coastal monitoring and water quality evaluation. This type of sampling is quite limited on both temporal and spatial scales and is ineffective for capturing dynamic marine events, essential for increased knowledge and better decision making. It also involves costly, time and labour-intensive on-site sampling and data collection. The introduction of new policies such as the EU Water Framework Directive has increased pressure on governments to adopt new methods for continuous monitoring of all water bodies. In recent years, the use of in-situ wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for marine environmental monitoring has been developing to allow continuous real-time monitoring of the marine environment at greater temporal and spatial resolutions. WSNs have brought about great advantages and increased opportunities for environmental monitoring. The WSN concept envisages a world of ubiquitous sensing through large scale deployments of self-sustaining WSNs linked to digital communications, continuously monitoring our environment and detecting and reporting changes in its quality. However there are still several challenges remaining in the area of in-situ wireless sensor networks in order to realise this vision. Among these is the issue of data reliability and the need for a sensor network that adapts to changes in the availability and reliability of its own sensors, as it monitors an already changing environment. We are developing a reputation and trust based event detection system for environmental monitoring which incorporates alternative sensing modalities such as visual sensors (e.g. digital cameras and satellite sensing) and context information alongside an ...

Water management is an important part of monitoring the natural environment and includes monitoring water quality of both coastal and inland marine locations. This covers the detection of pollution and monitoring the development of harmful algal blooms as well as coastal features and wave patterns. For many years water managers relied on field measurements for coastal monitoring and water quality evaluation. This type of sampling is quite limited on both temporal and spatial scales and is ineffective for capturing dynamic marine events, essential for increased knowledge and better decision making. It also involves costly, time and labour-intensive on-site sampling and data collection. The introduction of new policies such as the EU Water Framework Directive has increased pressure on governments to adopt new methods for continuous monitoring of all water bodies. In recent years, the use of in-situ wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for marine environmental monitoring has been developing to allow continuous real-time monitoring of the marine environment at greater temporal and spatial resolutions. WSNs have brought about great advantages and increased opportunities for environmental monitoring. The WSN concept envisages a world of ubiquitous sensing through large scale deployments of self-sustaining WSNs linked to digital communications, continuously monitoring our environment and detecting and reporting changes in its quality. However there are still several challenges remaining in the area of in-situ wireless sensor networks in order to realise this vision. Among these is the issue of data reliability and the need for a sensor network that adapts to changes in the availability and reliability of its own sensors, as it monitors an already changing environment. We are developing a reputation and trust based event detection system for environmental monitoring which incorporates alternative sensing modalities such as visual sensors (e.g. digital cameras and satellite sensing) and context information alongside an ...

High concentrations of CO2 may develop particularly in the closed spaces during fires and can endanger the health of emergency personnel by causing serious physiological effects. The proposed prototype provides real-time continuous monitoring of CO2 in a wearable configuration sensing platform. A commercially available electrochemical CO2 sensor was selected due to its selectivity, sensitivity and low power demand. This was integrated onto an electronics platform that performed signal capture, processing and wireless communication, all within a compact, low-power, rugged enclosure. Wireless transmission (up to 1 km) of the sensor's signal was achieved using a 2.4 GHz Zigbee module with an integrated ceramic antenna. The signal is currently received by a base station which is connected to a PC and monitored using HyperTerminal. The sensors are powered by a nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery which supplies power to the module for approximately 5 hours. The CO2 sensor is directly attached to the wireless module housed within the specially designed protective casing, and finally placed inside of the pocket on the boot of fire-fighter. Sensors are calibrated for CO2 concentrations ranging from atmospheric to 42000 ppm. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Union (Proetex FP6-2004-IST-4), the Centre for Bioanalytical Sciences (IDA-116294), and the CLARITY CSET (SFI-07/CE/I1147). Also, we thank to Diadora-Invicta Group (Italy) for providing the testing boot.

Environmental legislation such as the EU Water Framework Directive is providing a significant impetus towards increased monitoring of natural waters. The widespread availability of autonomous, field deployable systems which can provide long-term, reliable, high frequency data on key water quality parameters via wireless communications would allow a significant improvement in our ability to monitor the quality of our natural water resources. An autonomous sensor for the analysis of a key nutrient, phosphate, in water has been developed by National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) researchers in Dublin City University. This sensor incorporates microfluidic technology, colorimetric chemical detection, and wireless communications into a compact and rugged portable device. The prototype system has been successfully deployed for extended periods at Osberstown Wastewater Treatment Plant, Co. Kildare, and at Swords Estuary, Co. Dublin to monitor phosphate levels over periods of up to several months. Current work is focused on the commercialisation of the prototype phosphate analyser. This work is being performed in collaboration with EpiSensor Ltd., a Limerick based SME with expertise in wireless communications, sensor design and data collection systems. The next generation phosphate system will be linked with EpiSensor's reliable and secure 'sensor to database' or SiCA platform. All major components of the analyser have been evaluated and redesigned with a view to reducing cost, power consumption and size, while maintaining sensor accuracy and reliability. The commercial system mass and internal volume have both been reduced by a factor of 7 compared with the prototype system, while component costs have been reduced by a factor of 10. GSM communications on the prototype were replaced with EpiSensors ultra low power ZigBee radio. The system uses 20μl of reagent per reaction cycle and can carry out approximately 1400 measurements using a single lithium battery. The result is a low cost, low power and portable phosphate ...

A new water-based sensor for carbon dioxide containing an ionic liquid is presented. The sensor is based on the acidity of the CO2 molecule. The sensor incorporates an ionic liquid in the matrix, which enhances CO2 solubility, and minimising the response and recovery times of the sensor. The entire concentration range (0–100%) of CO2 has been studied. The sensor is more sensitive at low CO2 concentrations as is usual in this kind of optical sensor. As the sensor is intended for smart food packaging, one of the most important characteristics is stability, and this has been studied under different conditions of light, temperature and relative humidity. The sensor was found to be stablef or more than 14 days, which is the period of use for the intended application. Pork chops were packed at 4 °C and the production of CO2 studied in conjunction with total bacterial counts over a period of 14 days. The results show that the concentration of CO2 dioxide increases in time, in correlation with bacterial counts. As the threshold of CO2 content for human consumption of this meat is 20%, the sensor has been optimised for detection around this concentration. ; Talentia Postdoc Program launched by the Andalusian Knowledge Agency, co-funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (COFUND – Grant Agreement n° 267226) ; Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment of the Junta de Andalucía. ; the Science Foundation Ireland INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics (Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2289)

A paradigm shift in sensing methods and principles is required to meet the legislative demands for detecting hazardous substances in the molecular world. This will encompass the development of new sensing technologies capable of performing very selective and sensitive measurements at an acceptable cost, developed by multidisciplinary teams of chemists, engineers and computer scientists to harvest information from a multitude of molecular targets in health, food and the environment. In this study we present the successful implementation of a low-cost, wireless chemical sensing system that employs a minimum set of components for effective operation. Specifically, our efforts resulted in a wireless, tri-electrode, ISE pH sensor for use in environmental monitoring. Sensor calibration and validated insitu field trials have been carried out and are presented in this paper.

In this work, we present a new system for the determination of dissolved carbon dioxide (from 7.2 ppm to 425.6ppm) in aqueous environments. Microfluidic technology has been incorporated in sensor design to reduce the volume of samples and reagents. Moreover, a detection system has been integrated in the chip, consisting of a white light-emitting diode as a light source and a high-resolution digital colour sensor as the detector, which are able to detect changes in colour produced by the reaction of the sensing chemistry and carbon dioxide in water. The optimised parameters found for the system are: flow rate 0.6 mL·min-1, integration time 30 s and the time for pumping of solutions was 3 min, obtaining a LOD of 7.2 ppm. The CO2 response, reproducibility, precision, and stability of the sensing chemistry have been studied and compared with those obtained using benchtop instrumentation (i.e. a spectrophotometer), obtaining good agreement. ; Talentia Postdoc Program launched by the Andalusian Knowledge Agency, co-funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (COFUND – Grant Agreement nº 267226) ; European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 706303 (Multisens) ; Spanish MINECO (CTQ2016-78754-C2-1-R) ; Unidad de Excelencia de Química aplicada a biomedicina y medioambiente of the University of Granada ; Science Foundation Ireland (INSIGHT Centre, Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2289) ; European Union (FP7 NAPES project, Project ID: 604241)

The cost of monitoring pollutants within natural waters is of major concern. Existing and forthcoming bodies of legislation continually drive the demand for spatial and selective monitoring of key pollutants within our environment. Although research and commercial entities continue to drive down the cost of the infrastructure involved in environmental sensing systems (with an aim to increase scalability), the realisation of deploying a number of such systems even now remains out of reach. High cost and maintenance continue to persist as the major limiting factors. The aim of this work is to combine recent advances in robotics with chemical sensing techniques to remove all but the chemo-responsive material from each sensing node, and package the sensing element within a low cost, mobile, biomimetic robotic fish for effective water quality monitoring. Consequently, this approach is believed to radically reduce the systemic cost and maintenance per node and in doing so it will increase the scalability for spatial and selective monitoring of key pollutants within our environment.