1.
Innovate UK
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Innovate UK is the operating name of the Technology Strategy Board, the UKs innovation agency. It is a UK non-departmental public body operating at arms length from the Government reporting to the Department for Business, Energy, in August 2014 the Technology Strategy Board fully adopted the name Innovate UK. The original Technology Strategy Board had its roots in the Innovation Review published by the DTI in December 2003 and these changes all took place in 2004 - with the Advisory Board being appointed in October of that year. In the 2006 Budget Gordon Brown announced the intention to set up the Technology Strategy Board as a public body operating at arms length from the UK Government. It was decided to locate the new organisation in Swindon, in August 2014 the organisation adopted the name Innovate UK, and began a transition to use the new name in all its communications. However the legal name of the organisation currently remains as the Technology Strategy Board, in 2012 the Technology Strategy Board began to establish the network of Catapult centres. Innovate UK maintains an online platform, where members of the Knowledge Transfer Network and other groups concerned with innovation can meet, share information. _connect is a business networking and open innovation portal. The site currently has over 90,000 active user profiles, is home to the Knowledge Transfer Network, businesses can use _connect as a place to meet and network with other organisations and to find business partners for collaborative projects. An example of the work was the UK-wide ultra low carbon vehicle demonstrator programme
2.
Research and development
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Research and development, also known in Europe as research and technical development, is a general term for activities in connection with corporate or governmental innovation. Research and development is situated at the front end of the life cycle. R&D differs from the vast majority of activities in that it is not intended to yield immediate profit, and generally carries greater risk. New product design and development is more often not a crucial factor in the survival of a company. In an industry that is changing fast, firms must continually revise their design and this is necessary due to continuous technology change and development as well as other competitors and the changing preference of customers. Without an R&D program, a firm must rely on strategic alliances, acquisitions, a system driven by marketing is one that puts the customer needs first, and produces goods that are known to sell. Market research is carried out, which establishes what is needed, if the development is technology driven R&D is directed toward developing products to meet the unmet need. Statistics on organizations devoted to R&D may express the state of an industry, some common measures include, budgets, numbers of patents or on rates of peer-reviewed publications. Bank ratios are one of the best measures, because they are maintained, public. In the United States, a ratio of research and development for an industrial company is about 3. 5% of revenues. A high technolog company, such as a manufacturer, might spend 7% or a pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co.14. 1% or Novartis 15. 1%. That is, gross profits will be as much as 90% of the sales cost, with manufacturing costing only 10% of the product price, most industrial companies get 40% revenues only. On a technical level, high tech organizations explore ways to re-purpose and they often reuse advanced manufacturing processes, expensive safety certifications, specialized embedded software, computer-aided design software, electronic designs and mechanical subsystems. Research from 2000 has shown that firms with a persistent R&D strategy outperform those with an irregular or no R&D investment program. Research and development are very difficult to manage, since the feature of research is that the researchers do not know in advance exactly how to accomplish the desired result. As a result, higher R&D spending does not guarantee more creativity, research is the most risky financing area because both the development of an invention and its successful realization carries uncertainty including the profitability of the invention. One way of reducing the uncertainty of researching know-hows is to obtain already researched know-hows, president Barack Obama requested $147.696 billion for research & development in FY2012. Much of this spending was devoted to research on the mechanisms of disease
3.
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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It was disbanded on the creation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 14 July 2016. Following the departments dissolution, it no longer has ministers responsible, the Permanent Secretary was Sir Martin Donnelly. Economic policy is devolved but several important policy areas are reserved to Westminster. Further and higher education policy is mostly devolved, reserved and excepted matters are outlined below. Official website bis. gov. uk/ Archived Website Precursor departments, Department for Business and Regulatory Reform Archived Website Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills Archived Website
4.
Hermann Hauser
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Hermann Maria Hauser, KBE, FRS, FREng, FInstP, CPhys is an Austrian-born entrepreneur who is primarily associated with Silicon Fen in England. When he was 16 he came to the United Kingdom to learn English at a school in Cambridge. After a masters degree in Physics from Vienna University, he returned to the University of Cambridge to do a PhD in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, Hauser is probably best known for his part in setting up Acorn Computers with Chris Curry in 1978. When Olivetti took control of Acorn in 1985 he became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in charge of laboratories in the US, in 1986, Hauser co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge with Andy Hopper, who became the laboratorys director. Hausers role in Acorn was portrayed by Edward Baker-Duly in the BBC drama Micro Men, in 1988, Hauser left Olivetti to start the Active Book Company, investing £1 million of his own money. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes made by Acorn, which had kept its technology to itself, aT&T Corporation acquired Active Book and incorporated it into EO Personal Communicator in July 1991. Hauser became chief officer and chairman of EO Europe. EO folded on 29 July 1994, in 1990, Hauser was involved in spinning out Advanced RISC Machines from Acorn. In 1993, Hauser set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd with Andy Hopper, the company was acquired by Conexant Systems on 1 March 2004. He founded NetChannel Ltd in June 1996 as a company to begin work on marketing the NetStation. NetChannel was sold to AOL in 1996 and he claimed in the 1990s that the networking technology used for AppleTalk was based on the Cambridge Ring. In 1997 he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd, a capital company. In 2000, Plastic Logic was founded, with Hauser as chairman, on 14 June 2001, the Hauser-Raspe Foundation was registered as a charity by Hauser and Pamela Raspe to advance education. In August 2004, Amadeus Capital Partners led the Series B venture capital financing of Solexa, Solexa developed a next-generation DNA sequencing technology which became the market leader. Solexa was sold to Illumina, Inc of San Diego in January 2007 for over $600M, in 2009, Dr. Hauser was announced as the first customer of the Illumina Personal Genome Sequencing service. As of 2009, Hauser is the head of the East Anglia Stem Cell research network, Hauser is a non-executive director of Cambridge Display Technology, a non-executive director of XMOS Ltd and a member of the board of Red-M Ltd. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bath and Loughborough and he is a member of the advisory board on the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and of the UKs Council for Science and Technology. Since 2015, he has actively supported Austrian start-ups and technology companies
5.
Guy's Hospital
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Guys Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kings Health Partners and it is a large teaching hospital and is, with St Thomas Hospital and Kings College Hospital, the location of Kings College London School of Medicine. The Tower Wing is the second tallest hospital building, standing at 148.65 metres with 34 floors. The hospital was founded in 1721 by Thomas Guy, a publisher of unlicensed Bibles who had made a fortune in the South Sea Bubble and it was originally established as a hospital to treat incurables discharged from St Thomas Hospital. Guy had been a Governor and benefactor of St Thomas and his fellow Governors supported his intention by granting the south-side of St Thomas Street for a rent for 999 years. Guy is interred in the crypt of the Chapel of his foundation, Guys has expanded over the centuries. The original buildings formed a courtyard facing St Thomas Street, comprising the hall on the east side, two inner quadrangles were divided by a cloister which was later restyled and dedicated to the hospitals members who fell in World War I. The east side comprised the wards and the counting house with the governors Burfoot Court Room. The north-side quadrangle is dominated by a statue of Lord Nuffield who was the chairman of governors for many years and these original parts of the hospital are now administrative and social accommodation. Despite substantial bomb damage during World War II, the original 18th century chapel remains intact including the tomb of Thomas Guy with a sculpture by John Bacon. A bequest of £200,000 by William Hunt in 1829, one of the largest charitable bequests in England in historic terms, Hunts name was given to the southern expansion of the hospital buildings. These were replaced c.2000 by new buildings for Kings College. In 1974, the added the 34-storey Guys Tower and 29-storey Guys House. At 148.65 metres high, Guys Tower regained its tallest hospital building in the status in 2014 and is currently the 21st tallest building in London. It was designed by Watkins Gray, over 13,650 staff work in Guys Hospital and St Thomas Hospital. They are two of the oldest teaching hospitals, and they are situated right in the heart of the capital, one of the services that the trust provides is dental care, looking after over 120,000 patients a year. The site consists of 19 distinct, but interconnected, buildings with functions including public medical services, teaching, research, collectively the buildings are known by local students as the squirrel due to the buildings strange silhouette. It was for six years surpassed by the Phase 3 Building of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital in Happy Valley, in May 2014 it regained its title following the completion of extensive repair and improvement works
6.
Kings Cross, London
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London Kings Cross is an inner city area of London, England,2.5 miles north of Charing Cross. It is the location and namesake of London Kings Cross railway station, the area was previously a village known as Battle Bridge or Battlebridge which was an ancient crossing of the River Fleet. The original name of the bridge was Broad Ford Bridge, the corruption Battle Bridge led to a tradition that this was the site of a major battle in AD60 or 61 between the Romans and the Iceni tribe led by Boudica. Lewis Spences 1937 book Boadicea – warrior queen of the Britons includes a map showing the positions of the opposing armies. The suggestion that Boudica is buried beneath platform 9 or 10 at London Kings Cross Station seems to have arisen as urban folklore since the end of World War II. The area had settled in Roman times, and a camp here, known as The Brill was erroneously attributed to Julius Caesar. The name is commemorated in two streets lying behind Kings Cross and St Pancras stations, St Pancras Old Church, also set behind the stations, is said to be one of the oldest Christian sites in Britain. The current name has its origin in a monument to King George IV which stood in the area from 1830 to 1845 and it was built at the crossroads of Grays Inn Road, Pentonville Road and New Road, which later became Euston Road. It was sixty feet high and topped by a statue of the king. The statue itself, which cost no more than £25, was constructed of bricks and mortar, the architect was Stephen Geary, who exhibited a model of the Kings Cross at the Royal Academy in 1830. The upper storey was used as a camera obscura while the base in turn housed a police station, the unpopular building was demolished in 1845, though the area has kept the name of Kings Cross. A structure in the form of a lighthouse was built on top of a building almost on the site about 30 years later. Known locally as the Lighthouse Building, the structure was thought to be an advertisement for Nettens Oyster Bar on the ground floor. It is a grade II listed building, London Kings Cross railway station now stands by the junction where the monument stood and took its name. The station, designed by architect Lewis Cubitt and opened in 1852, succeeded an earlier station. St Pancras railway station, built by the Midland Railway, lies immediately to the west and they both had extensive land to house their associated facilities for handling general goods and specialist commodities such as fish, coal, potatoes and grain. The passenger stations on Euston Road far outweighed in public attention the economically important goods traffic to the north. Kings Cross and St Pancras stations, and indeed all London railway stations, after World War II the area declined from being a poor but busy industrial and distribution services district to a partially abandoned post-industrial district
7.
Clerkenwell
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Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. It was an ancient parish and from 1900 to 1965 formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, the well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance, in the 1850s the south-western part of Clerkenwell was known as Londons Little Italy because around 2,000 Italians had settled in the area. There are officially over 200,000 Italians in London, the Italian Procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Sagra takes place each July in the streets surrounding the church. A small number of Italian businesses remain from the century including organ builders Chiappa Ltd. Many other Italian firms survive from the period but have relocated elsewhere, Clerkenwell took its name from the Clerks Well in Farringdon Lane. In the Middle Ages, the London Parish clerks performed annual mystery plays there, Part of the well remains visible, incorporated into a 1980s building called Well Court. It is visible through a window of that building on Farringdon Lane, access to the well is managed by Islington Local History Centre and visits can be arranged by appointment. The Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem had its English headquarters at the Priory of Clerkenwell, St Johns Gate survives in the rebuilt form of the Priory Gate. Its gateway, erected in 1504 in St Johns Square, served various purposes after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, for example, it was the birthplace of the Gentlemans Magazine in 1731, and the scene of Dr Johnsons work in connection with that journal. In modern times the gatehouse again became associated with the order and was in the early 20th century the headquarters of the St John Ambulance Association, an Early English crypt remains beneath the chapel of the order, which was otherwise mostly rebuilt in the 1950s after wartime bombing. The notorious deception of the Cock Lane Ghost, in which Johnson took great interest, was perpetrated nearby, the Charterhouse, near the boundary with the City of London, was originally a Carthusian monastery. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Charterhouse became a mansion and one owner, Thomas Sutton, subsequently left it with an endowment as a school. The almhouse remains but the relocated to Surrey and its part of the site is now a campus of Barts and The London School of Medicine. As it was a suburb beyond the confines of the London Wall, Clerkenwell was outside the jurisdiction of the somewhat puritanical City fathers, during the Elizabethan era Clerkenwell contained a notorious brothel quarter. In Shakespeares Henry IV, Part 2, Falstaff complains about Justice Shallow boasting of the wildness of his youth, the Clerkenwell Bridewell, a prison and correctional institute for prostitutes and vagrants, was known for savage punishment and endemic sexual corruption. In the 17th century South Clerkenwell became a place of residence. Oliver Cromwell owned a house on Clerkenwell Close, just off the Green, several aristocrats had houses there, most notably the Duke of Northumberland, as did people such as Erasmus Smith
8.
Wind power
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Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power. The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of power sources. Wind farms consist of individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. Onshore wind is a source of electric power, competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants. Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore farms have less visual impact, small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations. Wind power gives variable power which is consistent from year to year. It is therefore used in conjunction with other power sources to give a reliable supply. As the proportion of power in a region increases, a need to upgrade the grid. In addition, weather forecasting permits the power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur. As of 2015, Denmark generates 40% of its power from wind. In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16% to 369,553 MW, yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4% of worldwide electric power usage,11. 4% in the EU. Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind, for more than two millennia wind-powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for live stock. The first windmill used for the production of power was built in Scotland in July 1887 by Prof James Blyth of Andersons College. Blyth offered the surplus power to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however. The Brush wind turbine had a rotor 17 metres in diameter and was mounted on an 18 metres tower, although large by todays standards, the machine was only rated at 12 kW. The connected dynamo was used either to charge a bank of batteries or to operate up to 100 incandescent light bulbs, with the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power
9.
Wave power
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Wave power is the transport of energy by wind waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water. A machine able to exploit wave power is known as a wave energy converter. Wave power is distinct from the flux of tidal power. Wave-power generation is not currently a widely employed commercial technology, although there have been attempts to use it since at least 1890, in 2008, the first experimental wave farm was opened in Portugal, at the Aguçadoura Wave Park. Waves are generated by passing over the surface of the sea. As long as the waves propagate slower than the speed just above the waves. Wave height is determined by speed, the duration of time the wind has been blowing, fetch and by the depth. A given wind speed has a practical limit over which time or distance will not produce larger waves. When this limit has been reached the sea is said to be fully developed, in general, larger waves are more powerful but wave power is also determined by wave speed, wavelength, and water density. Oscillatory motion is highest at the surface and diminishes exponentially with depth, however, for standing waves near a reflecting coast, wave energy is also present as pressure oscillations at great depth, producing microseisms. These pressure fluctuations at greater depth are too small to be interesting from the point of view of wave power, the waves propagate on the ocean surface, and the wave energy is also transported horizontally with the group velocity. The mean transport rate of the energy through a vertical plane of unit width. The above formula states that power is proportional to the wave energy period. When the significant wave height is given in metres, and the period in seconds. Example, Consider moderate ocean swells, in water, a few km off a coastline, with a wave height of 3 m. Using the formula to solve for power, we get P ≈0.5 kW m 3 ⋅ s 2 ≈36 kW m, in major storms, the largest waves offshore are about 15 meters high and have a period of about 15 seconds. According to the formula, such waves carry about 1.7 MW of power across each metre of wavefront. An effective wave power device captures as much as possible of the energy flux
10.
Tidal power
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Tidal power or tidal energy is a form of hydropower that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity. Although not yet used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power, historically, tide mills have been used both in Europe and on the Atlantic coast of North America. The incoming water was contained in large ponds, and as the tide went out. The earliest occurrences date from the Middle Ages, or even from Roman times, the process of using falling water and spinning turbines to create electricity was introduced in the U. S. and Europe in the 19th century. The worlds first large-scale tidal power plant was the Rance Tidal Power Station in France and it was the largest tidal power station in terms of output until Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station opened in South Korea in August,2011. The Sihwa station uses sea wall defense barriers complete with 10 turbines generating 254 MW, Tidal power is taken from the Earths oceanic tides. Tidal forces are periodic variations in gravitational attraction exerted by celestial bodies and these forces create corresponding motions or currents in the worlds oceans. Due to the attraction to the oceans, a bulge in the water level is created. When the sea level is raised, water from the middle of the ocean is forced to move toward the shorelines and this occurrence takes place in an unfailing manner, due to the consistent pattern of the moon’s orbit around the earth. Tidal power is the technology that draws on energy inherent in the orbital characteristics of the Earth–Moon system. Other natural energies exploited by human technology originate directly or indirectly with the Sun, including fuel, conventional hydroelectric, wind, biofuel, wave. A tidal generator converts the energy of tidal flows into electricity, greater tidal variation and higher tidal current velocities can dramatically increase the potential of a site for tidal electricity generation. This loss of energy has caused the rotation of the Earth to slow in the 4.5 billion years since its formation. During the last 620 million years the period of rotation of the earth has increased from 21.9 hours to 24 hours, while tidal power will take additional energy from the system, the effect is negligible and would only be noticed over millions of years. Some tidal generators can be built into the structures of existing bridges or are entirely submersed, land constrictions such as straits or inlets can create high velocities at specific sites, which can be captured with the use of turbines. These turbines can be horizontal, vertical, open, or ducted, Tidal barrages make use of the potential energy in the difference in height between high and low tides. When using tidal barrages to generate power, the energy from a tide is seized through strategic placement of specialized dams
11.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
12.
Milton Keynes
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Milton Keynes, locally abbreviated to MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is the centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes and was formally designated as a new town on 23 January 1967. It is located about 45 miles north-west of London, at designation, its 89 km2 area incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Wolverton, and Stony Stratford, along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between. It took its name from the village of Milton Keynes. In the 1960s, the British government decided that a generation of new towns in the south-east of England was needed to relieve housing congestion in London. Since the 1950s, overspill housing for several London boroughs had been constructed in Bletchley, further studies in the 1960s identified north Buckinghamshire as a possible site for a large new town, a new city, encompassing the existing towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Wolverton. The New Town was to be the biggest yet, with a population of 250,000. The name Milton Keynes was taken from the village of Milton Keynes on the site. On 23 January 1967 when the new town designation order was made. Planning control was taken from elected local authorities and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, the Corporations strongly modernist designs featured regularly in the magazines Architectural Design and the Architects Journal. MKDC was determined to learn from the mistakes made in the earlier New Towns and they set in place the characteristic grid roads that run between districts, as well as the intensive planting, lakes and parkland that are so evident today. While still on the board, planners noticed that the main streets near the proposed city centre would almost frame the rising sun on Midsummers Day. CMK was not intended to be a town centre but a central business. This non-hierarchical devolved city plan was a departure from the English New Towns tradition and envisaged a range of industry. The largest and almost the last of the British New Towns, Milton Keynes has stood the test of time far better than most, and has proved flexible and adaptable. The radical grid plan was inspired by the work of Californian urban theorist Melvin M. Webber, described by the architect of Milton Keynes, Derek Walker. From 2004 to 2011 a Government quango, the Milton Keynes Partnership, had development control powers to accelerate the growth of Milton Keynes. Along with many towns and boroughs, Milton Keynes competed for formal city status in the 2000,2002 and 2012 competitions
13.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
14.
Cardiff
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Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales and the eleventh-largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is the chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media. The unitary authority areas mid-2011 population was estimated to be 346,100, the Cardiff metropolitan area makes up over a third of the total population of Wales, with a mid-2011 population estimate of about 1,100,000 people. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographics alternative tourist destinations, the city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan. Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities, the Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area outside the county boundary, and includes the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region contributed to its rise as a major city. Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955, since the 1980s, Cardiff has seen significant development. A new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building, home to the Welsh Assembly, sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium, SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff International Sports Stadium and Cardiff Arms Park. The city was awarded the title of European City of Sport twice, due to its role in hosting major sporting events, first in 2009. The Millennium Stadium hosted 11 football matches as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the opening event. Caerdydd derives from the earlier Welsh form Caerdyf, the change from -dyf to -dydd shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh f and dd, and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology. This sound change had probably first occurred in the Middle Ages, Caerdyf has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning the fort of the Taff. The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans, the anglicised form Cardiff is derived from Caerdyf, with the Welsh f borrowed as ff /f/, as also happens in Taff and Llandaff. As English does not have the vowel the final vowel has been borrowed as /ɪ/, although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Gwynedd Pierce. A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of The Garth, four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiffs present-day county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort, an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta that acted as border defences, the fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a settlement, or vicus, was established
15.
Ernst & Young
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EY is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. EY is one of the largest professional services firm in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, the organisation operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries. It has 231,000 employees in over 700 offices around 150 countries in the world and it provides assurance, tax, consulting and advisory services to companies. The firm dates back to 1849 with the founding of Harding & Pullein in England, the current firm was formed by a merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co. in 1989. It was known as Ernst & Young until 2013, when it underwent a rebranding to EY, the acronym EY was already an informal name for the firm prior to its official adoption. In 2016, Fortune magazine ranked EY as 49th of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, EY is the result of a series of mergers of ancestor organizations. The oldest originating partnership was founded in 1849 in England as Harding & Pullein, in that year the firm was joined by Frederick Whinney. He was made a partner in 1859 and with his sons in the business it was renamed Whinney Smith & Whinney in 1894, in 1903, the firm of Ernst & Ernst was established in Cleveland by Alwin C. Ernst and his brother Theodore and in 1906, Arthur Young & Co. was set up by the Scotsman Arthur Young in Chicago. As early as 1924, these American firms allied with prominent British firms, Young with Broads Paterson & Co. in the year 1979, this led to the formation of Anglo-American Ernst & Whinney, creating the fourth largest accountancy firm in the world. Also in 1979, the European offices of Arthur Young merged with large local European firms. In 1989, the four firm Ernst & Whinney merged with the then number five, Arthur Young. The merger plans were abandoned in February 1998 due to client opposition, antitrust issues, cost problems, EY had built up its consultancy arm heavily during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2002, EY took over many of the ex-Arthur Andersen practices around the world, although not those in the UK, China, in 2010, EY acquired Terco, the Brazilian member firm of Grant Thornton. In 2013, EY changed its name from Ernst & Young to EY. EY expanded further and acquired all of KPMG Denmarks operations including its 150 partners,1500 employees and 21 offices. In 2015, EY opened its first ever global Security Operations Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in India, in 2017 EY announced it was opening an executive support center in Tucson, Arizona, creating over 125 new jobs. In 2017 the company looking for a location for a new, $4.35 million professional services center in Louisville, Kentucky, creating 125 new jobs
