Fulmer Research Institute

Fulmer Research Institute was founded in 1945 as a UK contract research and development organization specializing in materials technology and related areas of physics and chemistry. It was modelled on American contract research companies such as Battelle Memorial Institute and The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. In 1965 it was acquired by The Institute of Physics and the Physical Society, a rare case of a contract research company being owned by a Learned Society. Through the 1970s and 80s Fulmer evolved. Its services in testing, consultancy and certification were greatly strengthened while academic research declined. It continued to make important developments and innovations for industry and government until in 1990 it was split up and sold to other R & D and testing organizations.
A few of the landmark achievements during its forty five years were:
Origins (1945 and 1946).
Fulmer Research Institute was founded in 1945 by Col W C (Dev) Devereux and incorporated in 1946. He had been a pioneer in the use of light metal alloys in aero engines and, in the Second World War, he had an important role in the UK Ministry of Aircraft Production, organizing the assembly in Britain of American aircraft and reorganizing the repair of aircraft and aero-engines.
After the war, in 1945, he set up a company called Almin Ltd (Associated Light Metal Industries) which brought together a group of companies mostly concerned with the production and processing of aluminium and magnesium alloys. He wanted Almin to have research facilities but he recognised that Almin's R&D needs alone were not sufficient to justify the investment in staff and capital equipment required for properly equipped laboratories. His answer was to establish a contract research organization 
along the lines of Battelle Memorial Institute and The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in the USA.
Thus he founded Fulmer Research Institute as one of the first contract research companies in Britain. Initially it was in temporary accommodation but he soon found a permanent base by purchasing a large Edwardian country house with ten acres of grounds, in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Poges. The name 'Fulmer' was the name of the local telephone exchange and that of a nearby village.
Building the team.
Devereux recruited E A G Liddiard from The British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (BNF) to be Fulmer's Director of Research
Among other senior staff recruited were: 
By the end of 1946 Fulmer had about 40 Staff.
Policy.
From the start Fulmer was a commercial enterprise aiming to make a surplus for investment in its own development. It received no grant or membership fees. Its income was solely from projects, each with defined objectives and time and cost limits agreed with individual sponsors from Government or Industry. Normally, the project contract would provide that all results would belong in confidence to the sponsor, who would also own any patents arising from the investigation.
Early years (1946 to 1960).
Context.
Fulmer benefited from the immediate post-war climate which was favourable to Research and Development. The UK Government and its agencies continued to spend heavily on R&D. This was despite the fact that Britain was essentially bankrupt and hugely indebted to the United States and Canada. The technological advances which had been made on both sides of the conflict had been impressive: radar, the jet engine, the V-2 rocket and the atomic bomb are just a few examples. The Cold War soon added urgency to further military development and there was enthusiasm for developing peaceful uses of atomic energy.
Market.
In the years up to 1960 the following approximate division of Fulmer's income applied: about 25% of project work was for UK Government defence agencies; 25% for the Atomic Energy Authority and another 10% for other Government agencies. About 10% was for US Government agencies (the US Air Force and the Office of Aerospace Research); 30% was for British Industry.
Growth.
Fulmer grew steadily so that by 1960 there were about 100 staff. Individual research investigators were often recruited to work on specific projects as contracts were obtained. Each recruit was also expected to develop proposals for work in his or her areas of expertise, whether or not these fitted into Fulmer's existing pattern of work. This system resulted in a progressive evolution and wide diversification of Fulmer's skills base. This was a strength in that faced with a materials problem Fulmer could usually help the client with new perspectives.
Impalco ownership (1960 to 1964).
In 1960 Almin was bought by Imperial Aluminium Company (Impalco), a company formed between the Aluminium Company of America (Alcoa) and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) which incorporated the whole of ICI's aluminium facilities. Impalco's primary interest in buying Almin was to acquire the facilities of International Alloys, a member of the Almin group. Thus Fulmer was acquired incidentally and it did not fit easily into the Impalco group. Since Impalco had huge research facilities in-house, it had no need of Fulmer's services. Impalco's rival companies were also reluctant to place large contracts with Fulmer under this ownership.
Context.
As a background to this change of ownership, the general climate for science and technology was becoming less favourable. Faith in scientific and technological solutions was diminished by some spectacular failures: the de Havilland Comet suffered catastrophic in-flight failures; thalidomide caused tragic birth defects. Government procurement projects were frequently out of control: the BAC TSR-2 was cancelled after enormous overspend in development and only 24 test flights; the de Havilland Blue Streak missile was also abandoned in 1960 after great expense.
With Government budgets under severe pressure, contracts from government agencies were becoming harder to obtain,
Thus most of Fulmer's markets were becoming difficult and Fulmer's long term viability was in doubt.
The Institute of Physics period (1965 to 1990).
In 1964 Impalco decided to offer Fulmer for sale.
At that time Dr (later Sir) James Taylor, who was Chairman of Imperial Metal Industries (IMI), was also the Honorary Treasurer of the Institute of Physics and the Physical Society (IOP). He proposed that IOP should acquire Fulmer and thus become the first Learned Society to own a commercial research company. The Council of the IOP, in recommending the purchase of Fulmer to its membership, expressed the intention that, after providing for equipment needs, income from the investment in Fulmer was to be used to support the scientific and educational work of the IOP. The purchase was made possible by a grant from ICI, to be repaid over ten years from Fulmer profits. Thus, in 1965, IOP became the owner of Fulmer.
1965 to 1970.
With its future thus assured, in 1966 additional laboratories in a new building were opened on the Stoke Poges site. Also in that year Fulmer strengthened its expertise, particularly in electron metallography, by recruiting several key staff who transferred from Aeon Laboratories of Egham, Surrey.
In 1969 Mr Liddiard retired as Director of Research and Dr W E Duckworth was recruited from the British Iron and Steel Research Association and appointed in his place.
In 1970 Fulmer set up a new unit, Fulmer Technical Services (FTS), to provide a focus for its testing and consultancy services to industry.
During this period there was a gradual increase in income and a modest profit while staff numbers remained at about 120.
Context.
By the early 1970s the climate for R&D was again changing.
Government R&D budgets continued to tighten.
The earlier pattern of Fulmer sponsorship, with a large proportion of contracts from UK ministries and government agencies, no longer applied. In 1955 this proportion had been 70% but by 1970 it had fallen to 45%. By 1985 it was to become less than 5%.
Meanwhile, contract R&D was becoming a familiar concept in the UK. 
Following Fulmer, many other contract R&D companies had been formed, important examples being Huntingdon Life Sciences(1957) and Cambridge Consultants(1960). 
This gave Fulmer opportunities for collaboration but also increased competition.
Fulmer promoted contract R&D by publishing "Register of Consulting Scientists and Contract Research Organizations".
In 1971 Lord Rothschild published his report on Government R&D in which a major recommendation was that "applied R&D ... must be done on a customer-contractor basis. The customer says what he wants; the contractor does it (if he can); and the customer pays".
Despite Rothschild's recommendations, government procurement was slow to change. By 1975, leading independent research companies felt that they were not getting a fair share of government R&D contracts and needed a stronger voice. Fulmer joined with six other companies in setting up the Association of Independent Contract Research Organisations (AICRO).
The journal "New Scientist" published a special supplement on Contract Research in 1974
There were two major developments that intensified competition in Fulmer's market.
Firstly, organizations such as Harwell, which had been fully government funded, were seeking contracts from industry to make good their declining government income.
Secondly by 1969, following the Robbins Report(1963) on higher education, nine completely new universities had been founded and the ten existing Colleges of Advanced Technology had been converted into full universities.
Robbins found that in the existing universities, teachers spent a third of their time on teaching and rather less than a third on research.
He recommended that "The balance between teaching and research in the universities should in general be maintained."
The net effect was a huge expansion of R&D facilities in universities, funded by their block grants, and they were naturally keen to supplement their incomes with contracts using these facilities.
Policy.
In response to these market changes Eric Duckworth initiated changes of policy. Fulmer sought to extend its services to include the full range from R&D and testing to small scale manufacture, to extend its area of expertise to cover a wider range of materials and to develop new markets. It sought to collaborate with or to acquire organizations with complementary skills and facilities.
The aim was to be able to offer to industrial companies a comprehensive service in all aspects of materials technology.
Fulmer also changed its policy on intellectual property. Previously patents were applied for as part of sponsored projects so that all rights belonged to the sponsor.
Beginning in 1970, the policy also included the patenting of worthwhile ideas developed in-house before applying for sponsorship so that Fulmer could retain rights and benefit from subsequent exploitation. 
Another new approach was to launch projects in which a number of clients jointly sponsored a development (multi-client projects).
There was also a change of management style. Early in his career Eric Duckworth had spent ten years at the Glacier Metal Company at the time when the Glacier Project - a pioneering new approach to management-staff relations - was being developed there by Wilfred (later Lord) Brown, the managing director, and Elliott Jaques of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.
When he joined Fulmer Eric Duckworth introduced a style of management heavily influenced by his experience of the Glacier Project. Over time this evolved into an open style with features such as a company council with 
representatives from all staff, regular management briefing of staff and transparent grading and pay scales against which individual staff were appraised annually. The grading system enabled parity of career progression between managers and people who focussed on developing their technical expertise.
Growth by acquisition 1973 to 1977.
The first and most important of the complementary organizations to link with Fulmer was Yarsley, whose expertise was particularly strong in plastics and polymers and their applications. The Yarsley organization was founded by Dr Victor Yarsley a pioneer expert in plastics and an entrepreneur. Before the Second World War he had been a consultant in this new field and, starting in 1941 he had built a series of laboratories, mostly by converting and extending domestic premises, just as in the case of Fulmer. By 1970 his group consisted of Yarsley Research Laboratories (YRL) at Chessington, Surrey and Yarsley Testing Laboratories (YTL) at Ashtead, Surrey. A collaboration agreement was signed in 1970 and in 1973 Fulmer purchased Yarsley. By early 1974, most of the Chessington activities had been moved to another new building on the Stoke Poges site and the others to Ashtead.
Also in 1973 Fulmer purchased the engineering activities of Aeon Laboratories, Englefield Green, Surrey. Aeon's engineering work focussed on the manufacture of ancillary equipment for electron microscopes and for computers.
In 1975 Fulmer strengthened Yarsley's plastics processing capability by acquiring IPEC (Independent Plastics Engineering Centre) of Newhaven, Sussex. The Newhaven activities were combined with Yarsley's own plastics processing operation to form a new company: Yarsley Polymer Engineering Centre (YPEC).
In 1977 a new site was acquired at Redhill, Surrey to accommodate YPEC and the Yarsley research and testing facilities. This involved progressively transferring all the staff and equipment from Newhaven and Ashtead and the polymer facilities from Stoke Poges. A new company Yarsley Technical Centre Limited (YTEC) was set up to embrace all the activities carried out by YRL, YTL and YPEC.
In 1982 Fulmer established Fulmer Research & Development (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a joint venture with the Singapore-based company Chemical Laboratories Pte Ltd. The joint venture offered metallurgical and polymer-based technical services.
A second overseas company Fulmer Research (SA) Pty Ltd was set up in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1985. This was not successful and was closed after a few years.
The early 1980s: testing, accreditation and quality.
From their earliest days both Fulmer and Yarsley Testing Laboratories had carried out a wide variety of tests for clients and had designed and constructed specialized test equipment. In 1982 both Fulmer Technical Services and Yarsley Technical Centre were awarded accreditation from the National Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (NATLAS).
By the late 1970s American and European governments and business leaders had become increasingly concerned about competition from Japan. Many decided to adopt some Japanese industrial practices, including quality management, which was thought to have played a large part in the Japanese economic miracle. Beginning in the early 1980s, the quality standard BS 5750 (1979) became widely adopted by British companies. In 1985, Yarsley Technical Centre, which already had a strong background in standards and accreditation, established Yarsley Quality Assured Firms (YQAF) as an independent certification body, supported by the UK Department of Trade and Industry. YQAF assessed conformity to BS 5750 and certified conforming companies. Its certification service was overseen by an independent Certification Board under an independent chairman, thus ensuring that there was no conflict of interest with YQAF's consultancy services.
YQAF was successful and grew rapidly by establishing a network of regional offices throughout the UK. It was incorporated in 1987 and gained accreditation from the National Accreditation Council for Certification Bodies (NACCB).
The gathering storm (1985 to 1989).
In accordance with the terms of IOP purchase, Fulmer's capital investment in new facilities was expected to be financed from profit and Fulmer would make a modest annual contribution to IOP funds. 
However, Fulmer's recent expansion and its large investment in capital equipment required increasing bank borrowing. Considerable management effort and other resources had been taken up with the transfer of facilities between Fulmer, Chessington, Ashtead, Redhill and Slough and there had been a damaging fire at Ashtead.
It was clear that alternative sources of finance were needed. A management buyout was explored and found to be not feasible. Preparations were made for a stock exchange flotation but, in the late 1980s Fulmer sustained large losses and plans to float were postponed.
The balance of Fulmer's activities had changed. Academic research was now a minor part of its work. Most of its income came from testing, consultancy and small scale manufacture. The IOP were becoming concerned that their ownership of Fulmer as a commercial organization might be judged incompatible with their charitable status as a learned society. They were also concerned that Fulmer was making losses and had a growing overdraft. The IOP Council finally decided to sell Fulmer.
Close (1990).
Initially IOP attempted to sell the company as a complete unit but when this was unsuccessful they decided to sell the Fulmer companies at Stoke Poges and Slough, and the Yarsley operation at Redhill as separate entities. 
In 1989 exploratory talks with an American testing and consultancy company were held regarding a merger with Yarsley but no agreement could be reached. An approach was then made to the UK subsidiary of the Swiss company Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS), who were particularly interested in strengthening their activities in quality assurance consultancy and certification. Agreement was soon reached for them to purchase Yarsley, and the sale took place on November 30, 1990. The Fulmer activities at Stoke Poges were merged with
BNF Metals Technology Centre at Wantage Oxfordshire, and the manufacturing unit at Slough was acquired by Sintek of Germany.
Legacy.
Fulmer was a pioneer of Contract R&D in the UK. During its forty five years it provided technical solutions and research results as well as testing and consultancy for hundreds of companies and national and international agencies across the whole field of materials technology and related areas of physics and chemistry. Many papers were published in learned journals and books and many patents were granted to Fulmer authors.
Fulmer sponsored the further education of its technicians and helped many young graduates in metallurgy, physics and other sciences on the road to successful careers. In the 1970s and 80s Fulmer undertook curriculum development projects in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire primary and secondary schools. It thus introduced many young people to engineering, to problem solving methods and to working in teams.[49] A senior staff member joined the Berkshire education advisory service from Fulmer to continue and extend work of this kind.
Among the companies and organizations that owe their origins to Fulmer are:
Fulmer people.
Long-standing members of the senior management team.
Grev Brook; Bill Bowyer; David Davies; Mike Dewey; Bill Flavell; Philipp Gross; Eddie Sugars; GI Williams
Technical staff.
Over the life of Fulmer about 500 people were members of staff. Among these, because of the wide range of projects that Fulmer undertook, investigators and other technical staff had to be able to adapt their specialist skills and to innovate. They were also expected to play a part in attracting the necessary funding from business or Government.
In popular culture.
In 1969, Pinewood film studios hired a chemistry laboratory at Fulmer for use as a film set for the film "The Chairman" (also known as "The Most Dangerous Man in the World"), starring Gregory Peck.