EPSRC UK ACOUSTICS NETWORK

*** THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED ***

EPSRC-sponsored UK Acoustics Network Launch Event is scheduled to take place on the 27th of November 2017 in the Royal Society in London. It is free to register and to attend. We welcome delegates from industry, consultancies, government bodies and academia to participate in and contribute to the formation and future operation of the new Acoustics Network. We particular encourage PhD students and early career staff with interest in acoustics to register and attend this event. This Launch Event will help the wider coordination of acoustics-related research to enable better communication with industry and multiple avenues of research and innovation. This is important to ensure that the quality of the critical mass of the acoustics-related research in the UK continues to stay internationally leading in the foreseeable future.

The UK Acoustics Network (http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/R005001/1) pursues two main aims: (i) transfer new experimental techniques, models and scientific insights related to acoustics; (ii) promote mobility between universities, industry and other non-academic beneficiaries of acoustics-related research.

One reason for this Network is that the UK has a critical mass and international reputation in acoustics which needs to be maintained and enhanced. Acoustics-related research in the UK is internationally leading and underpins key technological areas such as healthcare, manufacturing, defence, energy, digital communications and transport. However, the knowledge transfer and adoption of recent developments in physical acoustics, signal processing and numerical methods by industry and other end users (e.g. consultants and government bodies) needs improving. There are several reasons for this:
Firstly, there is no existing single point of access network/central hub in the UK which brings the key academic and industry players together. Acoustics-related research in the UK's universities is fragmented, often applied to specific topics and length scales and suffers from inadvertent duplication. As a result, it is difficult for industry to engage with, or understand what is happening in, academia, how acoustics research relates more widely to industry needs and who in academia is the right person or which organisation to engage with in order to solve a particular industry need.

Secondly, academia is clearly failing to demonstrate to the end users the value of their acoustics-related research in applications, thus failing to overcome the sector inertia for their research to have a stronger non-academic impact.

Thirdly, there is no network/central hub for the coordination of the acoustics-related research through which a university can engage beyond their very specific, parochial partners, disseminate their work more widely and efficiently to the sector and generate a future road map of research which bears support from a majority of end users.

This Launch Event on the 27th of November 2017 is an opportunity for you to begin to address these issues, building better collaboration networks and increasing the critical mass of acoustics activities in the UK.