The UK food chain, comprising agricultural production, manufacturing, distribution, retail and consumption, involves more than 300,000 enterprises and employs 3.6 million people. The food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector, employing 500,000 people and contributing £80 billion to the economy. It is also estimated that the food chain is responsible for 160 MtCO2e emissions and 15 Mt of food waste, causing significant environmental impacts. Energy is an important input in all stages of the food chain and is responsible for 18% of the UK's final energy demand. In recent years, progress has been made in the reduction of energy consumption and emissions from the food chain primarily through the application of well proven technologies that could lead to quick return on investment. To make further progress, however, significant innovations will have to be made in approaches and technologies at all stages of the food chain, taking a holistic view of the chain and the interactions both within the chain and the external environment. The EPSRC Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains will make significant contributions in this field. It will bring together multidisciplinary research groups of substantial complementary experience and internationally leading research track record from the Universities of Brunel, Manchester and Birmingham and a large number of key stakeholders to investigate and develop innovative approaches and technologies to effect substantial end use energy demand reductions. The Centre will engage both in cutting edge research into approaches and technologies that will have significant impacts in the future, leading towards the target of 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, but also into research that will have demonstrable impacts within the initial five year lifetime of the Centre. Taking a whole systems approach, the research themes will involve: i) Simulation of energy and resource flows in the food chain, from farm-gate to plate to enable investigations of energy and resource flows between the stages of the chain and the external environment, and facilitate overall energy and resource use optimisation taking into consideration the impact of policy decisions, future food and energy prices and food consumption trends. ii) Investigation of approaches and technologies for the reduction of energy use at all stages of the chain through reduction of the energy intensity of individual processes and optimisation of resource use. It is expected that a number of new innovative and more efficient technologies and approaches for energy reduction will be developed in the lifetime of the Centre to address processing, distribution, retail and final consumption in the home and the service sector. iii) Identification of optimal ways of interaction between the food chain and the UK energy supply system to help manage varying demand and supply through distributed power generation and demand-response services to the grid. iv) Study of consumer behaviour and the impact of key influencing factors such as changing demographics, increased awareness of the needs and requirements of sustainable living, economic factors and consumption trends on the nature and structure of the food chain and energy use. Even though the focus will be on the food chain, many of the approaches and technologies developed will also be applicable to other sectors of the economy such as industry, commercial and industrial buildings and transportation of goods. The Centre will involve extensive collaboration with the user community, manufacturers of technology, Government Departments, Food Associations and other relevant research groups and networks. A key vehicle for dissemination and impact will be a Food Energy and Resource Network which will organise regular meetings and annual international conferences to disseminate the scientific outputs and engage the national and international research and user communities

The flexolighting programme is focussed on research and innovations on materials, processes and device technology for OLED lighting with the intention of building a supply chain within Europe. The aim is to realise OLED devices over a large area/surface with high brightness, high uniformity and long life time. A demonstrator will be built and delivered at the end of the project. The main targets are (i). Cost of the lighting panels should be less than Euro 1 per 100 lumens. (II). high luminous efficiency, in excess of 100 lm/W with improved out-coupling efficiency. (ii). white light life-time of at least 1000 hours at 97% of the original luminance of 5000 cdm-2.(iii). The materials and the devices therefrom will allow for differential aging of the colours, thus maintaining the same colour co-ordinates and CRI over its use. (iv). Attention will be paid to recyclability and environmental impact of the materials and the OLED lighting systems. Flexolighting project will also ensure European industrial leadership in lighting. The introduction of OLED Lighting technology is held back by the current cost of the systems, life-time and poor uniformity of luminance on large area panels. The programme aims to combine existing state of the art OLED materials technology (Thermally activated fluorescent materials (TADF) and phosphorescent emitters and world class transport materials) with new developments in processing technologies (Organic Vapour Phase Deposition (OVPD) and printing technologies) to develop new next of generation low cost OLED lighting systems to move forward to scale up and full scale production on novel planarized flexible steel substrates with cost effective conformal encapsulation method. The transparent top contacts made of thin metallic films, conducting polymers or graphene monolayer with metal tracks to reduce the series resistance will be employed in inverted top emitting OLED structures to deliver 100 lumens per Euro.

The proposed knowledge exchange programme, in partnership with a leading UK retailer, addresses a core business problem relating to the internationalisation of retailing. High street retailers face increasing global competition both in the UK and in international markets. Sustainable international growth is imperative for UK retailers to retain their competitive position and this has significant implications for the UK economy. In the past, the record of UK retail internationalisation has been mixed. This project will help UK firms optimize their international strategy and hence support the overall UK economy. The applied research focuses on international franchising which is an area where there is a significant gap in both business and academic knowledge. The work will benefit the user community (the partner and UK retailers generally) and will contribute to the development of new theory on internationalisation. The economic downturn in the UK has seen a renewed focus on internationalisation by UK retailers. Yet internationalisation is the sector is difficult - differences in consumers around the world usually mean the retail offer has to be adapted; the retail brand has to "work harder"; emerging markets (where the greatest new opportunities are) are generally more culturally different and inherently riskier. Retailers also need to have a multi-channel strategy and provide an integrated shopping experience across channels. Franchising is often central to retailers internationalisation strategy as it enables them to expand quickly, keeping pace with shopping mall development, provides a certain amount of local market knowledge and expertise, with a minimal amount of risk. However, retailers also want their partners in other countries to help build their brand and the extent to which they are prepared to do this is influenced by the franchise model. The aim of this research is to help the user group optimize their franchising model especially as it relates to emerging markets, specifically Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and certain areas of the Middle East. Performance comparisons will be made between franchising and other modes of international operation (wholly owned and joint venture operations). The proposed research will also benefit the academic community. Franchising can be seen as a "Cinderella" topic in international marketing and international business research, compared with the allied topics of joint ventures and strategic alliances. What literature there is in existence is predominantly USA-centric, heavily focused on franchising in the domestic market and heavily focused on restaurant and hotel franchises. The academic literature has failed to keep up with the fact that franchising is increasing in its usage by businesses and especially by retailers. While there is some recognition in the literature that franchising is a valuable means to develop a business abroad (e.g. Watson et al, 2004), what studies there are tend to treat franchising as a uniform practice and fail to take account of the specific franchise terms that can result in vastly different franchising models and hence different outcomes for the franchisor. The methodology for the applied research to be undertaken during the knowledge exchange programme uses mixed methodologies: content analysis, qualitative interviews and quantitative data analysis. The study will combine data from a range of sources including interview and survey data from partners in the emerging markets and existing company data. The work is to be managed under an existing confidentiality agreement.

This project will explore the largely unknown international history of British healthcare and beauty, using Boots the Chemists, Britain's most recognised chain pharmacist, as the central case study. The project spans the period from 1919, when the company posted its first sales agent overseas, to the streamlining of its divisions in 1980. It examines how Boots established itself as a prospector, retailer and manufacturer overseas, but also how it continually absorbed international influences as part of its home marketing strategies. Drawing on Boots' vast, underexplored archive (c.5,000 boxes of approximately 500,000 items), this project bridges medical, social, cultural, business, colonial and transnational history. The project team are not interested in writing a classic business biography of Boots' success and growth, rather they are interested in exploring what the Boots story reveals about the international dynamics of the British health and beauty industries. The central research question asks: How does Boots' international archive allow us to map the global networks that moulded and sustained British experiences of healthcare and beauty both at home and abroad? To answer this, thematically focused work packages will recreate the life-cycles of key products within six product domains (pain management, personal hygiene, surgical supplies, vitamins, perfumes, and skincare) across local, national and international spaces. These six focal areas have been selected because of their ample archival resources and their potential to illustrate how complex imperial and other global networks of materials, knowledge and people underpinned the development of British healthcare and beauty, both at home and overseas. This pioneering research will appear in leading academic journals across the historical humanities and in a co-authored book. It will advance early career capacity by employing a full-time postdoctoral researcher, and provide additional opportunities for an already funded M4C doctoral student. Three interdisciplinary academic workshops will explore new perspectives on the internationalisation of the UK beauty and healthcare industries and will open the project to colleagues in geography, pharmacy, medicine, literature and linguistics. The project team will showcase findings via an easily navigable website featuring information about the project, links to relevant resources and quarterly updated project stories, attractively illustrated with archival images. Some of these stories will be authored by the project team and some by 'citizen researchers'. These contributors will be identified through call outs via social media, Boots newsletters, and the local press, and might be local history enthusiasts, former Boots employees or business people reflecting on historical context. Additional outreach will include two pieces of popular history, a high-profile public exhibition, with a touring component and accompanying public talks, timed to coincide with Boots' 175th anniversary in 2024. A further outreach strategy targets professional archivists via three initiatives i) working with Boots Archive staff to help inform their cataloguing and digitisation strategies; ii) holding three innovative 'Archive Roadshows' where team members visit other significant business archives (Unilever, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis) to reflect on the usefulness and accessibility of their resources; iii) hosting an Archive Study Day to bring together company archivists throughout the UK. Finally, team members will work with Nottinghamshire County Council to run two 'Knowledge Labs' to consider how this research might stimulate creative thinking about current issues facing the UK high street. Sessions will discuss not only how local growth is internationally informed, but also how international markets are heavily influenced by smaller local developments.