Experts exploit ceramics advances

Revolutionary materials and technological advances in electro-ceramics are to be exploited by a new company created as a spin-off from the materials department at the University of Leeds.

Ecertec Ltd www.ecertec.com , launched today (Tuesday 4 July) with backing from the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, will draw on the work of lecturer Dr Andrew Tavernor and research fellow Dr Tim Comyn, members of the department's highly regarded electro-ceramics group. Although the group is already well known in the materials industry and wins substantial consultancy funding, the creation of Ecertec will help it find new business opportunities, increase its intellectual property rights base and recruit more commercial expertise.

The Leeds researchers specialise in novel materials used in electronics applications, especially piezoelectric and electrostrictive materials, which can change shape in response to an applied voltage. This property makes them suitable for a wide variety of uses, ranging from switching lasers to inkjet printing and acoustics.

Ecertec will use these materials to design devices and systems tailor-made to customers' needs, while developing newer materials with improved performance. The company's revenue will come from consultancy work, using the materials department's sophisticated analysis equipment, and from the manufacture, sale and licensing of its own inventions.

Dr Tavernor said the company will initially concentrate on high-value, technologically advanced materials rather than the high-volume, low-cost end of the market.

"Our group's existing contracts and contacts show that there is a significant market opportunity here," he said. "The use of active materials is mushrooming and the demand for system integration consultancy is growing with it. Companies often turn to materials like electro-ceramics to update existing products or develop new ones - and this is where Ecertec can help."

Dr Tavernor and Dr Comyn are joined on the new company's board by Dick Gale, of University of Leeds Innovations, and Gerry White on behalf of minority shareholder the White Rose Fund. The Ecertec stake represents the first completed White Rose investment.

The £6m venture capital fund was set up to help academics at the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York create and build commercial ventures based on technology transfer arising from high-quality research.

Professor Chris Taylor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for research at Leeds, said: "The Ecertec stake represents the first completed White Rose investment, but it is the precursor of many more which have been under development in the last year. This reflects the growth of entrepreneurial and 'third-arm' activity at Leeds and its sister universities."

Notes to editors

1. The White Rose Consortium's fund was launched in March 1999, with £4.5m from the Government's University Challenge competition. The three universities invested an additional £1.5m in the seedcorn fund. It plans to fund 100 new companies over the next decade. Revenue from the White Rose stakes in these companies is to provide funds for further investments.

2. For more information on the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, see its website at www.whiteroseseedcorn.com - enquiries may be addressed to fund manager Gerry White at Murray Johnstone Private Equity Ltd, (0113) 242 2644, or by e-mail, gwhite@murrayjohnstone.com

3. The home page of the electro-ceramics research group in the Department of Materials is at http://www.luec.leeds.ac.uk

4. Dr Andrew Tavernor (a.w.tavernor@leeds.ac.uk) can be contacted on his mobile number, 0777 618488. His usual office number is (0113) 233 2373

Issued by the Press Office at the University of Leeds. Fax (0113) 233 4125. Telephone (0113) 233 6699