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Dr Brown's prior relationship with UMIST, led to a collaboration with the University through an introduction to the external-examiner of the MSc programme and a sequence of EPSRC-funded research grants and acceptance as a PhD student on a collaborative project with industry. A demonstration unit was co-funded by the University through its agent for technology commercialisation, UMIP, which was followed up with investment from the UMIP Premier Fund. "We realised there were so many potential applications that we decided to seek investment and to form a spin-out company," said Dr Brown. Initially the labs were in the University with an office in Capenhurst. This proved ideal and the Daresbury Innovation Centre was chosen to combine both laboratory and office functions on one site. A chairman (Roger Ford, who had experience in academic and industrial collaboration water-related research) was appointed, and a grant from the regional development agency enabled the development of a full-scale pilot plant. Finally, this led to a relationship with the nuclear industry to decontaminate radioactive oils via a presentation at the Royal Society of Chemistry (2008) and a subsequent approach from Magnox (2009). This has led on to research and a large-scale demo in 2010-2011. The project successfully demonstrated the destruction of radioactive contaminated oil, including decommissioning of the plant to prove that all wastes could be handled by existing site treatment options. A contract to design a full-scale plant in North Wales is currently underway. Arvia Technology 22 UNIVERSITY SPIN-OUT "We realised there were so many potential applications that we decided to seek investment and to form a spin-out company. Initially the labs were in the university with an office in Capenhurst. This proved ideal and the Daresbury Innovation Centre was chosen to combine both laboratory and office functions on one site."

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