Frequently Asked Questions

"I need to digitise a million records - but don't know how"

Case Study: Royal Artillery Museum - FirePower archiving project at Woolwich

Working with the Royal Artillery Museum ‘Firepower' at Woolwich Arsenal, the University of Greenwich has been investigating the technical challenges behind turning a paper archive of one million service records from the Second World War into a fully searchable database. The aim is to allow easier access for genealogical, military history and social history studies and assist the museum to diversify its income streams.

The feasibility work, supported by KnowledgeEast, has shown that this could be achieved and the results have generated interest from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which could back full implementation, and the National Army Museum. In parallel, working with Trinity Laban and Goldsmiths the findings from this project aim to stimulate conversations with other museums and cultural institutions in the area about the creation of a Thames Gateway cultural digitisation initiative.

"I need an expert to tell me what I can recycle and what I can't"

Case Study: Express Recycling - environmental technology project at Rainham

Less than 10% of the UK's five million tonnes of plastic waste is recycled. Now solutions are being found for its reuse, thanks to a partnership between KnowledgeEast and Express Recycling. The company, based in Rainham, buys post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste - typically rigid plastic such as children's toys, storage boxes, wheelie bins and packing crates and has an annual processing capability of 60,000 tonnes of waste plastics. It sells on recycled waste to be turned into new products. When the company needed to source a plastics expert with the ability to carry out testing and analysis so that customers could select the right materials - it was KnowledgeEast that it turned to.

The solution had to be cost-effective, with a quick turnaround. Following a meeting with KnowledgeEast's Business Sector Leader for environmental technologies at the University of East London the company was introduced to experts at the Polymer Centre, based at London Metropolitan University, which has an extensive testing and analysis laboratory. The Polymer Centre quickly set up a process to carry out tests on materials before and after they go through the Express Recycling plant with a report on the findings batch-by-batch. With this information, customers can now make an informed choice about which recycled raw materials to use for their products. As a direct result of this, Express Recycling has gained several new contracts. The Express Recycling/Polymer Centre relationship has also provided a mutual transfer of knowledge with students gaining first-hand experience from visiting the plant.

"Our office is too polluting but we don't have a product we can improve, just our own space - how can we go green?"

Case Study: Linklaters - lawyers seeking to reduce their impact on the environment based in Docklands

International lawyers Linklaters wanted to go green, take their environmental responsibilities seriously and develop their environmental auditing. Approaching KnowledgeEast through the East London Business Alliance, the company was keen to work with the local community to find a solution and so decided to use students from universities in East London where the firm is based. Linklaters do not manufacture a product with an environmental impact but are an organisation maintaining several large offices, and whose staff engage in a lot of business travel every year - so most of the company's environmental impact is from energy use in running and managing buildings, in paper waste and air travel. With an environmental policy produced by an external environmental consultant already in place, Linklaters sought to bring in someone who could continue the environmental work in their UK offices to communicate the scheme to staff and raise awareness of what the company was doing for the environment. Just as importantly, for a large multi-site company like Linklaters, having an environmental policy makes good business sense, encouraging more efficient use of resources and so cutting running costs.

Through KnowledgeEast Darryl Newport, Director of the University of East London's Sustainability Research Institute helped the firm find a Masters student studying at the University of Greenwich, who spent four months working in the company to promote the environmental scheme. Using a Masters student to carry out the project was also a very cost-effective way to get short term assignments completed. These students often need real-life problems to solve as part of their studies, and produce reports and recommendations on any business aspect for companies willing to host them. For the student, it delivers practical experience of the workplace. Philip Rulton, Engineering Services Manager at Linklaters commented:

"I would thoroughly recommend any organisation speaking with KnowledgeEast...it doesn't have to be as we chose initially, environmental - it can be absolutely anything...", adding that the people involved have been "extremely motivated and very professional. Without doubt, it has been of benefit to us, and I cannot see why it wouldn't be of benefit to any other firm."