BRITAIN has a great tradition of coming up with brilliant inventions... and then failing to make money out of them. But one man from is East Lancashire is aiming to change all that. JENNY SCOTT spoke to him...

THINK of British inventors and you picture lone eccentrics toiling away in a shed at the bottom of the garden, seeking to make discoveries of genius. Think Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

But all too often, an idea gets picked up by an American multinational and thrust upon the world with little credit going to the man whose painstaking experiments led to the discovery in the first place.

And, to make matters worse, British industry misses out yet again on a home-grown idea.

Now a Simonstone-born man is hoping to reverse this trend through his work at the Caparo Innovation Centre in Wolverhampton - one of the few centres of its kind in the country - by seeking to ease the arduous process of commercialising good inventions.

Professor Andrew Pollard, 44, has worked for the centre since it opened 12 months ago.

Its aims, as he explained, are to assist with the designing, prototyping and marketing of good ideas.

He said: "The typical picture of the British is that they are hugely inventive, but generally couldn't market themselves out of a paper bag.

"In this country it's really difficult to transform an idea into a commercial product.

"What we are trying to do is make the commercialising process of inventions more effective so business can benefit from good ideas."

The centre was set up by Wolverhampton University in partnership with Caparo, the engineering group.

Ideas are sent to the centre to be assessed by Prof. Pollard's three-man team, who then decide on the invention's potential. The best ones are set aside by the centre, which negotiates a development agreement with the inventor. The centre then looks after design, prototyping and marketing of the product in exchange for a percentage of the proceeds.

"That's good for the inventor, because few inventors are rich, and good for the university which becomes committed to the same goal - the successful commercialisation of the product," said Prof. Pollard.

Many ideas come from inventing clubs, such as Blackburn-based Ideas North West.

For Prof. Pollard, the fascination of his job lies in the human stories he encounters.

"I think what's interesting is the person behind the invention," he said.

"I like the stories of Mandy Haberman, the mum of three who invented the Anyway Up Cup for toddlers, and Ted Prosser who invented Ronseal Paint and Grain."

In the short time since it opened the centre has looked at 95 inventions and completed development agreements on seven. The team is currently in negotiations with companies about potentially manufacturing two of the products.

"The kind of products we are working on solve problems people have in everyday life," said Prof. Pollard. "Most inventions start off with somebody trying to solve a problem.

"One of the ideas we are working on is to improve people's success in recording CDs."

Prof. Pollard's own background lies in engineering and product development.

A former head boy at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School he studied engineering at Bristol University, originally with the idea of being an accountant.

His place at Bristol was sponsored by British Aerospace in Samlesbury and he began to work for them as a production engineer in 1983.

"Whilst I was at British Aerospace I decided I was much more interested in engineering than accountancy," said Prof. Pollard.

"I enjoyed research and making new discoveries."

As a result of his enthusiasm he decided to return to academia, this time as a post graduate research assistant at the University of Salford.

There he continued research he'd started at British Aerospace into composite materials - this time on miniature submarines instead of aircraft and helped to develop submersibles that could withstand pressure at 10,000 metres below sea level.

After gaining a PhD from Salford he worked at the engineering company GKN in Wolverhampton, where he developed drive shafts for cars - again from composite materials.

"Basically, you can make stronger structures from composite materials than you can from conventional metals," he explained. "They are used in all sorts of things - satellites, aircraft, sports equipment."

His development of a special coupling for wind turbines was one of the innovations to be awarded Millennium Product Status in 2000.

In 2002 he took up his post at the University of Wolverhampton.

He now lives in Shropshire with his wife Lizzy, who runs a period clothes and costume business, and his two sons.

His job has, he feels, allowed him to come full circle - back to the inventive, investigative side of engineering that fascinated him in the first place.

"It's enormously difficult to turn an idea into a commercial product," he said. "There are so many pitfalls along the way, and yet there are so many good ideas around. To help to turn those ideas into real products is very rewarding."