Energy storage and clean fuel company ITM Power has secured an $81,000, ten-month sub-contract to undertake a detailed engineering design study for the US research organisation the NextEnergy Centre. The project involves Sheffield-based ITM designing an alpha prototype small-scale hydrogen fuelling appliance (SHFA) for home re-fuelling of hydrogen-powered vehicles currently in development. NextEnergy has received US government approval to use funding to develop the SHFA with technical oversight provided by a steering committee which includes General Motors, Ford, Chysler, Daimler, AG, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai-Kia and Volkswagen. Dr Graham Cooley, ITM’s chief executive, said: “The NextEnergy project will put ITM on the world automotive stage.”

MTL Group, based in Sheffield, has won a €4m contract to supply TL approved armour. TL approval is granted by the German Federal Army as a benchmark to supply the BWB, its defence procurement agency. Karl Stewart, MTL sales director, said: “This is a major breakthrough for us in the German market. We had to ensure all the correct qualifications were in place including the rigorous TL audit that was carried out at our manufacturing site in 2009. This has made us the only supplier to have this qualification in the UK.”

Christian Szurko has taken over management of the Walnut Club Live on Eccleshall Road, Sheffield. The chef, who has cooked at the The Ivy in London, along with the Sheffield’s Blue Room Brasserie, will also manage the Walnut Club Brasserie in Hathersage. Szurko will run the kitchen along with brother Danny, while Chris Barradale, brother of Arctic Monkeys manager Geoff, will manage the restaurant.

Advertising agency Front has launched the new brand identity for Sheffield business consultancy IOD PARC, whose clients include the UN, the UK government and UNICEF. After an initial three-month consultation period, Sheffield-based Front worked on the company’s brand positioning and changed the visual identity of IOD PARC’s website.

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An £11m development at Chesterfield’s Walton Hospital has been completed ready for patients to be transferred on 9 June 2010. Designed by Sheffield architects practice Race Cottam Associates to maximise the building’s use of natural light, the new ward will provide facilities for the hospital’s elderly mental health patients. Race Cottam is also working on projects for the NHS at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital and at Rotherham General Hospital.

Next in the Ask the Expert spotlight is Robert Brown, partner and head of rating at the Leeds office of property consultancy Sanderson Weatherall. Recent changes to the 2010 rating list altered the reference point for the charging of rates for all non-domestic ratepayers in England, Wales and Scotland. What do the new rateable values mean for business? Can occupiers challenge their rateable value? Is there anything a business can do to persuade the Valuation Office Agency to lower its bill? If you have a question for Robert, please click here.

Product design company Fripp Design and Research has appointed Charles Turner, managing director of Sheffield knife manufacturer Durham Duplex, as non-executive chairman. Turner, who is also chairman of Made in Sheffield, has been appointed to lead Sheffield-based Fripp through its intended transition from service delivery provider into manufacturing. Turner said: “Fripp is an exciting company. It is following a well-respected path of UK innovators that recognise it is possible to gain a competitive advantage through the development and manufacture of IP, something which the Sheffield region has a proud history of doing.”

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Forward this morning told Insider that it has recommended the appointment of an interim chief executive, rumoured to be Thea Stein, to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Yorkshire Forward was unable to confirm the identity of its recommended candidate and said an announcement would be made in due course. Stein is on the board of Hull Forward and currently executive director of economic inclusion at Yorkshire Forward. The RDA's previous chief executive Tom Riordan has been appointed chief executive of Leeds City Council.