Recent Project Additions to the EDC
02/07/2025
7 new projects added
GRN: UKRI-633
Period: 03/06/2025 to 02/06/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing involves the production of agricultural products via cell culture. This innovative method significantly diminishes the environmental impact compared to traditional farming by reducing land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water usage. It also provides enhanced resilience to climate change and enables more distributed manufacturing processes. This approach further generates added value for UK farmers, aligning with the primary goals of the £12 million EPSRC-funded CARMAR Hub. In addition to being assessed on sustainability, societal, and economic metrics, CARMAR's goal of transitioning "from lab to shopping basket" necessitates the development of "novel, underpinning manufacturing technologies". These technologies are designed to achieve necessary process intensities at scale in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. Considering that separation and purification processes account for approximately 15% of the world's energy demand, the innovation of bioseparation processes through the advancement of sophisticated separation technologies will be a key determinant of CARMAR's success. Given the high energy efficiency of membrane separation, which is up to ten times more energy-efficient than conventional separation methods, expertise in polymeric membranes has been secured within the CARMAR consortium. This project aims to further mitigate potential risks associated with chemical compatibility, fouling, and water permeation of polymeric membranes when interacting with a wide range of biomaterials and systems within the CARMAR value chain. To this end, the project is focused on advancing more resilient and high-throughput ceramic membrane technology, thereby elevating the versatility of CARMAR processes by overcoming the limitations of polymeric membranes. To achieve this, we plan to transfer the highly permeable, low fouling, and chemically robust SiC material into an advanced microchannel structured hollow fibre membrane. This membrane, with its high surface area to volume ratio and low permeation resistance, along with its scalable fabrication uniquely available through this project, aims to counteract the high fabrication cost challenge associated with such membranes. Beyond demonstrating its efficacy in bioseparation applications within CARMAR through collaborations, we will extend the benefits of this advanced material to broader research centres/hubs/institutes, such as the biological membrane and bioenergy research and development at Aston University. By providing a new powerful tool for efficient purifications at lower energy consumption, we aim to bring together membrane researchers from biological, polymeric, and ceramic membrane communities, thereby further advancing globally leading membrane innovations for both successful CARMAR and a more resilient UK society
GRN: EP/Z533798/1
Period: 01/03/2025 to 29/02/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
Digital technologies promise to revolutionise sustainable processing and pave the way to a circular economy. Central to a circular economy is the recycling and reuse of materials, while maintaining their highest possible value, for resource efficiency and waste minimization. Metals, particularly critical and platinum group (PGM) metals, are indispensable in renewable low carbon and hydrogen technologies and essential for the UK clean energy transition with demand expected to be up to 600 Mt by 2050. Metals are used as catalysts for efficient feedstock processing (ammonia, refineries) and emission control (Pt, Pd, Rh), and in electronics, fibre optics and flat screen displays. They are mainly obtained from mining which is environmentally damaging and concentrated in very few countries (such as China, South Africa) making their availability susceptible to geopolitics and posing threats to supply chains. Recovery of metals from increasing volumes of waste is thus crucial. To recover the metals, the hydrometallurgical route is an environmentally friendly option which offers high recovery and selectivity. Main operations in this route involve dissolution and solvent extraction. For the final isolation of the separated metals, precipitation or electrochemical approaches can be used. Separation processes are traditionally carried out in batch systems. These suffer from non-uniformities and are difficult to characterise, monitor and digitise, hampering the development of suitable predictive mathematical models needed for process design and control. Intensified flow processing in small channels emerges as a transformative solution to enable digitisation of separations for metals recovery and to transition to fully continuous end to end processing. Crucially important is the potential to increase throughput in a modular way, whereby the number of channels is increased rather than their volume. Our vision in this proposal is to establish digitalised sustainable technologies for recycling of metals based on continuous intensified processing. We have developed a research programme to enable the design of flexible, adaptive, efficient flow processes through key digital tools that respond to the challenges of variable feed compositions, multicomponent mixtures and presence of polymers, solvent use, and high quality metal purification and selectivity requirements. We will demonstrate the potential of the digital technologies with case studies co-created through our strategic partnerships with Johnson Matthey, a global leader on metals recovery for sustainable processes, JIVA, an innovation-based SEM for recyclable printed circuits, West Sussex County and Newham Councils interested in technological waste recycling and public engagement and SHIFT that supports East London innovators. To realise the vision, we will capitalise on the expertise of our team on process design, modelling, intensified processing, measurement, industrial metals recycling and technology translation to deliver on the following objectives: Create a multi-criteria optimization based methodology for the design of the processes, taking into account model uncertainty and variable feeds for robust performance; Develop predictive dynamic models for process steps with uncertainty quantification for robust operation using model-based experimental design techniques; Establish experimental layouts of intensified processes with embedded sensors for data generation and model validation; Develop prototype digital twin units to aid technology translation and public engagement activities. Our proposal will digitise metal recycling processes in support of a circular economy and underpin a resilient, environmentally sustainable and reliable by design digital future in support of the UK's net zero targets.
GRN: EP/Y000315/2
Period: 03/02/2025 to 28/02/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Communications and information networks are ubiquitous in our daily life, and information and communications technology (ICT) is estimated to contribute 1.8%-2.8% of carbon emissions. The successful deployment of 5G has revealed that the total power consumption for a 5G communication system is much higher than that in 4G due to more densely placed base stations in 5G. A recent study also revealed that a potential 6G system would consume nearly 50 times higher power than a 5G system due to a larger number of antennas, a wider spectral bandwidth occupation, and a denser base station deployment strategy. 5G techniques have already been standardized and deployed in real life without the priority on net-zero sustainability. Therefore, to lead the sustainability innovations for next generation net-zero communications, we should reshape the physical layer techniques for 6G. Improving energy efficiency has become the priority worldwide and has been identified as a key technology enabler for next generation 6G systems, and a number of industries and research institutes are chasing for net zero sustainable technology to achieve the objectives of cutting energy usage and carbon emission. This project aims for underpinning research in sustainable communication systems, which aligns with the UK government's top priority and ambitions on net zero in Wireless Infrastructure Strategy: a vision for 2030 (Source: GOV.UK). Power consumption for a communication system is directly linked to physical components such as physical hardware and physical signals. Hardware upgrade via advanced manufacturing can cut power consumption but with limited contributions in 6G when more base stations are required to serve a given area. Therefore, a fundamental breakthrough in energy efficient physical signal design, more precisely waveform design, is timely and specially positioned to achieve net-zero goals in 6G. A number of advancements have been achieved since 1924 when Harry Nyquist developed the foundation of today's digital communication signals. However, the existing waveform design in communication systems faces a number of fundamental challenges (a) Existing energy efficient air interface waveform designs are limited by the Mazo limit, which can only save power by up to 20% without any performance loss. However, the 20% power saving is no longer sufficient and the 20% is achievable at the cost of sophisticated and energy consuming signal processing. (b) Mathematically derived waveforms are limited by known mathematical models and are unlikely to be the optimal. (c) Machine learning can assist signals to have better performance but machine learning algorithms require lots of processing power. (d) Existing signal waveforms and AI models are commonly deployed using high energy consuming hardware because powerful computing resources are needed. To address the above challenges, an ambitious program is proposed including i) fundamental explorations of new waveforms beyond the conventional 20% power saving limit, ii) co-design of waveform and artificial intelligence to derive advanced waveform formats and cut the complexity of AI models, iii) low-cost hardware proof of concept with power saving validations. The fundamental research breakthrough in the signal waveform design with intelligence will have impacts on researchers' work across many areas and fields, from circuit design to new communication systems, artificial intelligence algorithms, sensors and sensor networks, green communication techniques, advanced signal processing, biomedical signals, and other areas.
GRN: EP/Z53464X/1
Period: 01/08/2024 to 31/07/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
Since their inception in 1960, lasers have revolutionized science and technology across data storage, communications, medical applications, and beyond. As biotechnology advances, the need for energy-efficient, biocompatible, and miniaturized devices grows. Integrating biological materials into lasers presents an opportunity to fulfil these demands, enabling biodegradable and compact bio-lasers. Unlike conventional lasers relying on bulky mirrors and cavities, optical cavities can be used to confine light on a submicron scale, achieving strong coupling with biological emitters to create Polaritons (hybrid state of light and matter) which facilitates low-threshold lasing using Polariton Condensation. Recent cavity design innovations, such as curved cavity mirrors and high-reflectivity Distributed Bragg Reflectors, enhance coupling strength and thus efficiency. In this project, I will focus on the development of highly efficient and low-threshold cavity-based compact bio-lasers. Leveraging the advantageous properties of organic materials, particularly large oscillator strength and the ability to activate and excite single fluorescent molecules using Pulsed Activation Localisation Microscopy, I will exploit their single-molecule emission capabilities and adaptability to diverse environments such as in live bacteria to create living-bio-lasers at remarkably low power levels. Ultimately, this project aims to revolutionize bio-lasing technology by creating biocompatible, energy-efficient, and highly sensitive bio-lasers that bridge the realms of biology and photonics at single emitter level, shaping the future of fundamental scientific exploration and technological innovation
GRN: EP/Z002699/1
Period: 15/12/2024 to 14/06/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
UK is a leader and one of the pioneers in additive manufacturing (AM) and approximately, 5% of the world's AM industry is based in the UK. The UK's AM industry is valued at £460 million in 2023 and is expected to grow to £809 million in 2028. Globally, the AM market was valued to be over £7.15 billion in 2021 with a forecasted value of £16.5 billion by 2026. To ensure UK's leadership in AM, adventurous innovations such as METALS are necessary to guarantee the competitive advantage of the UK's AM industry. METALS investigates, designs and tests a new additive manufacturing process with high deposition rate for die-less forging of large metal components used in aerospace, space and marine industries. The aim is to eliminate the need for rigid, costly and time consuming production of forging dies. This significantly reduced the time to market from a few years to a few weeks. The flexibility of the process enables updating and changing designs for large structural parts within a few days prior to manufacturing whilst maintaining the production rate and quality. The majority of existing AM processes are slow and rely on melting of the material and fusion of successive layers. This results in excessive heat input and unfavourable material structure. Extensive heat treatment processes are required to improve the material structure and the parts' mechanical properties. These in turn will reduce the production rate in manufacturing systems and increase the energy footprint of the manufacturing process. Controlled heat input and high deposition rates offered by METALS will ensure high productivity and optimal material structure
GRN: EP/Y036948/1
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
MolCal will contribute to establishing a critical mass of researchers in promising exploratory topics on caloric materials and energy conversion technologies for solid-state cooling and heating applications at near-ambient and very-low temperatures. Temperature control systems are responsible for approximately half of the EU energy consumption expenditure. This figure alone amply justifies the need to dedicate great efforts to the search for alternative refrigeration and heat pump methods. Research on caloric materials has never been as active as it is now, due to the prospect of new-generation refrigerators and heat pumps that are energy efficient and environmentally friendly, on the one hand, and the policies on low-energy consumption and global warming refrigerants, on the other. MolCal presents an approach never tried before in similar collaborative research training programmes. We will consider caloric materials that fall under the umbrella of molecule-based materials and can respond to different sources of the driving stimulus, be it magnetic, electric, and/or mechanical. Since there is no clear-cut consensus on which type of caloric material holds the most promise, this multi-front approach will be an advantage because it will permit transfer of methods already developed from the magnetocaloric subfield into the others, which are increasingly in the spotlight because of their enormous potentiality. Furthermore, MolCal will develop devices based on low-cost barocaloric materials and, due to the molecular characteristics, will progress towards challenging applications by exploring the limits of the smallest size of magnetic refrigerators. Academic and non-academic leaders, from top research institutions in Europe and outside, will expose the doctoral researchers to integrative, multidisciplinary, and multisectoral training in chemistry, materials science, physics, device development, and relevant transversal skills
GRN: EP/V055089/2
Period: 16/09/2024 to 12/10/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
Improving our current lifestyle and ensuring health of a growing population is reliant on the development of more advanced consumer products. Many of these engineered products have advanced functionality delivered by particles with nanometre dimensions, many thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. The exact size of these nanoparticles determines the mechanism of action and performance for the specific application. In healthcare, many drugs require encapsulation within polymer nanoparticles for several reasons, including for dissolving insoluble drugs, protecting drugs from unwanted degradation (e.g. mRNA vaccines) and providing efficient delivery (anti-cancer drugs). In electronics, the colour and intensity of light produced can be finely tuned by controlling the size of quantum dot nanoparticles, thus resulting in much higher quality displays, ultra-thin smart coatings (e.g. for wearable technologies), advanced diagnostics, high intensity medical imaging or high efficiency solar panels. The accuracy required to produce these materials is phenomenal and often only achieved reproducibly in dedicated research laboratories by specialist scientists. There has therefore been little progress on scaling up in a cost-effective or sustainable manner. In this project we will build platform technologies, comprising advanced chemical reactors underpinned by computational intelligence, which can scale up production of advanced nanoparticle products without loss in the precise control over structural dimensions which are achieved in research laboratories. We will build laboratory reactors which can be programmed to monitor the nanoparticle formation process in real time and relate conditions to the particle properties. Throughout the manufacturing process the machine learning algorithms will direct the reactors towards achieving the desired specification through 'self-optimisation' of conditions. A critical part of the project is then using the data obtained in the lab experiments to build a relationship between process and product which can be transferred onto equipment which can make the materials on a commercially relevant scale in a process called augmented lossless scale-up. We will take the optimised laboratory nanoparticle formation processes and demonstrate scale in several manufacturing environments, including R&D process laboratories and Commercial manufacturing facilities at our partners sites. Such demonstration will encourage further innovation beyond the lifetime of the project which can work towards realising advanced materials currently confined to research laboratories.
25/06/2025
55 new projects added
GRN: EP/Z534146/1
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
The project concerns the nanoengineering of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials and MOF-embedded polymer nanocomposites (MOF@polymer), which are fine-tuned for bespoke applications in the nascent field of triboelectric generators (TEGs). Because of their compact architecture and lightweight design, TEG devices are highly attractive as energy harvesters to scavenge energy from mechanical vibrations, human motions, and renewable sources. Likewise, TEGs have potential to yield ultrasensitive tactile sensors for soft robotics, and self-powered sensors for chemical detection and tire monitoring. Compared with contemporary triboelectric materials (e.g. perovskites, metal oxides, MXenes) which typically exhibit a limited power output, MOF-based TEGs offer key advantages. Rich topology of MOFs, constructed from tuneable organic and inorganic building blocks, confer a vast combination of structural versatility and physicochemical functionality. Our pilot studies reveal that fine-scale nanomechanical and nanoelectrical properties of MOF crystals, monoliths, and their composite fibres and films, can be engineered to accomplish efficient contact triboelectrification. It is now timely to address these primary objectives: (1) To rationally design MOF triboelectric materials and engineer composites for tailored electrical output and thermomechanical resilience (2) To characterise the basic properties influencing triboelectric performance of MOF-TEGs and, to probe core mechanisms via nearfield nanoanalytics and correlated multimodal imaging (3) To interrogate the role of mechanics on interfacial response and, to explore electrically coupled phenomena across different length scales (4) To model triboelectrification processes for improved understanding of underlying mechanisms (5) To fabricate designer surface textures and auxetic patterns for customised multifunctionalities (6) To innovate in disruptive MOF-TEG applications and boost device durability for performanc
GRN: EP/Z001382/1
Period: 04/10/2024 to 03/10/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers hold great significance for renewable energy storage and conversion. However, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode has intrinsically sluggish kinetics due to the involvement of multiple proton-coupled electron transfer steps, which is one of the main roadblocks that hinder the practical application of PEM water electrolyzers. Thus, highly active, cost-effective, and durable electrocatalysts are indispensable for lowering the high kinetic barrier of OER to achieve boosted reaction kinetics, so that to improve the overall device efficiency and decrease the applied voltage. To date, only Iridium (Ir) based materials possess adequate corrosion resistance to meet the harsh acidic and oxidative environment of the PEM electrolyzers. Unfortunately, their high degree of scarcity and relatively low OER activity greatly hinder their industrial mass applications. Therefore, the establishment of new strategies for catalyst electrode design and optimization to minimize the Ir metal content while preserving a high activity and stability of OER is of great significance for PEM electrolyzers. Herein, the 3DIr4PEMWE project aims to develop a 3D ordered anode design based on 1D IrO2 nanostructure arrays decorated with atomically dispersed Ru and Sr single atoms catalysts (denoted Ru-Sr doped IrO2). This unique architecture can effectively circumvent the drawbacks of the electrodes based on ultrafine particulate catalysts, including the activity loss due to the low catalyst utilization, and the activity decline owing to particle dissolution and aggregation during the operation, thus simultaneously improved Iridium mass activity, structural stability and mechanical strength will be achieved for the oxygen electrodes during operation. We believe the EU-funded 3DIr4PEMWE project will accelerate the industrialization of PEM water electrolyzer technology and realize the aspiring hydrogen energy society as soon as possibl
GRN: UKRI-321
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Over 800 million people live without electricity globally, 600 million in Africa. African SCENe (Sustainable Community Energy Networks) was born from a desire to accelerate adequate, affordable, and reliable renewable energy within low-income suburban communities in sub-Saharan Africa, whilst enhancing nutrition, clean energy awareness and education. Our vision is to make clean energy accessible to not only drive climate action but also to enable children raised in off-grid and informal settlements to achieve their full potential. African SCENe proposes to turn schools within informal settlements into Community Energy Hubs (CEHs) through innovative business models that make energy generation and storage technology accessible, fostering sustainable energy practices, enhancing local resilience, and empowering communities to take control of their energy production and consumption. The advent of affordable locally supplied energy technology means this is now possible: we can energise the lives of informal settlement dwellers, stimulating community members to collaborate and share benefits. The challenges we are addressing are the lack of proven business models and community support to make it financially and socially viable. The Ayrton themes we are responding to are firstly ‘smart delivery: inclusive energy and leave no-one behind’ and secondly ‘super-efficient demand: modern cooking services and energy efficiency’. The core team spent 12 months in two major informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, working with communities to co-create a workable business model that is supported by informal schools and approved by the Kenyan Ministry of Education. Our study has shown that African SCENe’s concept can be physically and economically viable in both off-grid and informal settlements. Our study established a feasible approach to overcome the biggest hurdle in the deployment of clean energy: financing. The theoretical business model prioritises the use of energy generated by the CEHs for school use during teaching hours and for revenue-generating activities afterschool. This revenue will repay the asset costs over 7-8 years. Assets will be funded using a blended finance model (25% impact grant 75% commercial loan). Accurately sizing the assets, managing energy generation/demand, and costs/revenue administration are some of the areas where research innovation is needed. We now want to test this through a 3-year 10-school pilot in Nairobi that would enable us to address social-economic viability and prove the business model. Kenya experiences similar challenges to other African countries: unequal energy access, energy insecurity, low availability of clean energy, food insecurity, disparities in access and participation to education/training, pressure on educational facilities, and large population living in slums. Once proven in Kenya, the model can be scalable across many sub-Saharan African countries. This funding will enable our interdisciplinary research team to answer remaining questions and validate our concept to bring our vision to reality. The wider vision is for equitable and sustainable community energy to play a significant role in meeting African sustainable development goals (SDG). African SCENe is clearly aligned with SDG7 Affordable and Clean Energy (via the provision of accessible distributed solar energy generation) and SDG13 Climate Action (via increased energy resilience, security, and awareness within informal settlements, raised capacity for climate change-related planning and a focus on the marginalised), and delivers against a further 11 SDGs (see Fig4: Our Alignment with Sustainable Development Goals). Notably, our proposition can improve access and quality of education, enabling informal schools to deliver the new Competency-Based Curriculum through accessing power for IT/labs.
GRN: UKRI-169
Period: 01/12/2024 to 30/11/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
Context: This research project explores the mathematical study of how waves in the ocean behave when they encounter abrupt changes in seabed depth, known as abrupt depth transitions (ADTs). These sudden shifts in seabed topography can create unusual and potentially dangerous wave patterns. The focus is on nonlinear dispersive waves, which can lead to unexpected and extreme outcomes like rogue waves—waves significantly taller than those around them. The Challenge: Extreme (rogue) waves pose risks to coastal and offshore structures, like wind turbines and oil platforms, and ships. Understanding these phenomena is still a challenge but is crucial to improving safety and designing structures that can withstand such extreme conditions. Many existing studies rely on complex computer simulations or experimental setups, lacking the deeper insights that rigorous mathematical modelling can provide. The proposed mathematical approach will allow us to understand the core principles and relationships that govern wave interaction with ADTs, providing a deeper foundational understanding than empirical observations or simulations alone. The proposed model is particularly useful for studying nonlinear systems, where small changes can lead to significant effects. By exploring these nonlinearities, our model will reveal hidden behaviours, stability conditions, or emergent phenomena that are difficult to observe in experiments or simulations. Aims and Objectives: Our aim is to create a robust mathematical model that will explain how waves behave over abrupt depth transitions in three-dimensional settings. This involves developing an analytical framework that will identify the underlying mechanisms of wave propagation and stability. Our key objectives are: Develop a mathematical model that describes how nonlinear dispersive waves interact with abrupt seabed changes in 3D. Identify the conditions under which these waves can become unstable, leading to the formation of rogue waves. Potential Applications and Benefits: The results of this study can have significant practical applications. By understanding the conditions that lead to rogue waves, we can improve the design and safety of offshore structures, contributing to more accurate risk assessments in coastal and offshore engineering. This knowledge also supports the UK's Net Zero Strategy by providing insights that could help design sustainable offshore renewable energy infrastructure. Beyond engineering, the outcomes could benefit a broader scientific community interested in mathematical fluid dynamics, offering a deeper understanding of how waves behave in complex environments. Our findings will be shared with the wider research community through workshops, seminars, and publications, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration
GRN: UKRI-256
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/03/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
This project aims to pioneer the Silicon Brain Cube, a groundbreaking hardware architecture with a three-dimensional implementation capable of enhancing energy efficiency of demanding AI workloads while supporting trustworthy processing. We will carry out joint research based on the expertise in energy-efficient deep learning models and in three-dimensional hardware architecture of the Japanese team, and in trustworthy AI design and in multi-level static and dynamic optimization and tools of the UK team. We will innovate an AI model that enables implementations to best achieve user-defined trade-offs between performance, resources required, energy efficiency, predictive accuracy, and level of uncertainty for trustworthy AI. More than an order of magnitude improvement in energy efficiency would be obtained by novel strategies for reducing memory accesses and irregular/sparse processing on a wired-logic and in-memory reconfigurable computing fabric. To promote research and practice of the Silicon Brain Cube beyond the end of the project, an open-source repository will be developed containing documented designs and tools, as well as online tutorials and application studies
GRN: UKRI-344
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/10/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
The successful implementation of CO2 capture and valorization technologies is a key step within the European Green Deal, and requires the joint development of innovative processes and materials (possibly non-CRMs) to comply with the EU decarbonization timeline (55% less net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030). Nowadays, this goal can only be achieved by a collaborative effort of researchers belonging to different disciplines and bringing together different expertise. Aim of the C-NET proposal is to build a network of experts working in complementary scientific areas in order to promote advancements in the wide “net zero carbon” field. C-NET is conceived as a nurturing environment where researchers can take advantage of facilities and know-how of the partner units, involving both thermochemical and electrochemical CO2 conversion processes. The synergistic collaboration will triangulate people, materials and knowledge between UniUD (green, solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis of non-CRM catalysts and electrocatalysts), Surrey (combined capture and catalytic conversion processes), Sevilla (structured catalytic reactors development for process intensification), Treibacher (materials design, development and scale-up) and China (electro-conversion of CO2). The joint research efforts will be supported and fostered by process modeling (VirtualMech) and advanced material characterization carried out by operando synchrotron light-based techniques (NTNU-ESRF) and in-situ DRIFT experiments (Sabana, Bogota, COL). C-NET, exploiting the planned secondments and the organization of workshops and conferences to promote knowledge-sharing and new skills acquisition, will provide an exhaustive toolkit aimed at overcoming the current state-of-the-art in the field of CO2 valorization processes
GRN: EP/Z535680/1
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
This proposal is underpinned by our recent discoveries: out of plane ferroelectricity in hetero-bilayers of atomically thin body (ATB) semiconductors (Science, 2022); and realisation of wafer scale growth of a universal dielectric in the form of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) (Nature, 2022). The ground-breaking nature of the proposed work is in realisation of ultra-low power devices - namely ferroelectric field effect transistors (FeFETs) and tunnel electro-magneto-resistance (TEMR) devices - using industrially relevant complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible processes that can perform both logic and memory functions to increase the energy efficiency of electronics. The carbon footprint (3% of total CO2 emission) of modern electronics is comparable to that of aviation and is expected to rise to ~10% by 2030 because of the von Neumann bottleneck where information is shuttled between the logic and memory devices, which increases energy consumption and reduces the processing speed. One objective of the proposed work is to directly explore and therefore understand the key processes that underpin the stable operation of FeFETs based on ATB semiconductors to significantly accelerate their development. Second objective is to integrate ferroelectric hetero- bilayers as tunnel layers between two ferromagnetic contacts to realise TEMR devices with magneto-resistance of > 1000%. The advantage of TEMR devices is that the tunnelling probability can be tuned with polarisation of the ferroelectric tunnel layer so that very large MR is achievable. In applications that are of strategic importance for the UK, energy efficient electronics are fundamentally important for meeting the net zero by 2050 goal as well as developing resilient local supply chain for semiconductors. We propose to focus on hetero-bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) compounds as a novel class of ferroelectric semiconductors where probing and understanding of device operation can rapidly improve the quality and control of available devices beyond the state-of-the-art, and for which recent work has highlighted significant application potential for high performance electronics. The motivation for such new devices is to address today's most important scientific challenges, namely that of climate change through energy efficient high-performance electronics. The recently published Nation Semiconductor Strategy highlights the need to develop the UK market and local supply chains. Atomically thin semiconductors were pioneered in the UK and this proposal will leverage the local expertise to develop new technology. Specifically, we aim to: (i) Develop methodology for realising ultra-clean semiconductor/dielectric interface using our recent breakthrough in high quality wafer scale chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown h-BN (Nature, 2022) to eliminate hysteresis due to interface defects. We will also integrate our ultra-clean van der Waals (vdW) contacts on ATBs (enabled via EPSRC funded research (EP/T026200/1) and reported in Nature 2019, 2022) to eliminate defects at metal/semiconductor junctions. (ii) Establish a fundamental understanding of ferro-magnetic (FM) vdW contacts for spin injection and tunnelling behaviour through ATB TMD ferroelectric hetero-bilayers. (iii) Develop an integrated and scalable CMOS compatible fabrication process for ultra-low energy FeFETs and TEMR devices based on wafer scale CVD grown ATB hetero-bilayers using h-BN dielectrics and vdW contacts. (iv) Explore transport properties of FeFETs and TEMR devices that are capable of functioning as both logic and memory devices to establish understanding of fundamental operating mechanisms and energy footprint. Establish new design concepts exploiting the logic and memory functions of FeFETs and TEMR devices for high performance, low power electronics
GRN: EP/Z533592/1
Period: 04/02/2025 to 03/02/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Global warming is a serious worldwide threat with a significant impact on ecosystems, and CO2 emission is intimately tied to this threat. This project aims to design a novel integrated research plan for CO2 capture using Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) and the formation of methanol in the presence of metal catalyst and metal sulfides through a series of innovative investigations. Our objectives are as follows. Objective I: We use density functional theory to predict how we can increase the CO2 uptake capacity of COF by exploring its structure. Objective II: We test the capacity of COFs to uptake CO2 in a multivariable environment by molecular dynamics simulation followed by active learning to produce an effective search algorithm for CO2 capture. Objective III: We use density functional theory to study the mechanism of CO2 reduction to methanol by Pt and by embedding a metal sulfide defect into the COF. The research and innovation objectives of the project benefit from the strong connections between its components, which have been carefully designed for effective measurement and verification. It contributes to the field by deepening our understanding of the functionality of COFs, finding an efficient search algorithm for optimal operation condition for CO2 uptake by COFs, and exploring novel pathways for methanol production. This proposal involves the use of density functional theory, molecular dynamics simulation and active learning as a subset of machine learning to predict materials properties for the use of COFs to CO2 uptake and methanol production. This ambitious effort aims to advance beyond the current state of knowledge by seamlessly integrating various computational chemistry methods. This approach will comprehensively address the potential of COFs based on i) the previous experiences of the researcher and the host and ii) transferring the knowledge and skills between them
GRN: UKRI-320
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
The United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlights that over 50% of Sub-Saharan Africa's population remains without electricity and in some rural areas access plummets to as low as 5%. In response, our project leverages the principles of the circular economy to pioneer the development and deployment of cheaper and cleaner renewable energy microgrids across Africa. Recognizing the continent's urgent need for systemic and sustainable changes in energy access, reliability, and generation, our initiative addresses these issues by tapping into the growing global stock of electronic waste from the first generation of electric vehicles (EVs). By repurposing components such as lithium-ion batteries, power-converters, and electrical motors, which are unsuitable for transport but remain functional for stationary applications, we offer a novel solution to the challenges of energy generation, storage and distribution. These components can be integrated into solar energy storage within microgrids, micro-wind or hydro generation systems and energy controllers, presenting a unique opportunity to bolster renewable energy infrastructure at lower cost while mitigating the environmental impact of electronic waste. The project's objectives are to Create knowledge and build capacity for repurposing electronic waste in microgrid development. Develop a circular value chain framework and business model for microgrid applications. Implement circular economy principles for cost-effective energy storage solutions. Deepen understanding of the dynamics between energy producers and consumers within the African context. Co-create and advocate for circular microgrids through stakeholder engagement and policy formulation across sub-Saharan Africa. Establish a Pan-African, multisectoral, interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence in circular microgrids. The project will be delivered through the Pan-African, multisectoral, interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence—Circular Economy Powered Renewable Energy Centre (CEPREC). CEPREC will serve as a triple helix hub, fostering collaboration among academia, government and industry through workshops, training sessions, and knowledge exchange activities. The project brings together engineering and social sciences expertise from De Montfort University, University of Warwick alongside policy and impact expertise from Chatham House, and partnerships with universities and governments from six African countries. The team will include 26 academics (11 UK & 15 African), 26 Researcher and innovation Associates (5 UK & 21 African) and 16 PhD scholars (2 UK & 14 African). The project, which aligns with the national priorities and targets of the participating countries, has strong government and industrial support with national governments pledging support that includes participating in the steering committee and utilizing project outcomes to shape national policies. Similarly, participating universities and industrial partners have endowed PhD-studentships, which will be jointly supervised by UK and African academics. Aligned with the Ayrton themes of Low Carbon Supplies and Smart Delivery, our project is poised to make a significant impact on the delivery of Affordable and Clean Energy, in line with SDG7 as well as reduce the environmental footprint of energy solutions, contributing to SDG12&SDG 13. Operating across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Namibia, and Rwanda, the project will offer a comprehensive perspective on the energy landscape in sub-Saharan Africa, while also providing insights tailored to each country’s specific needs and opportunities. By adopting an approach that is rooted in interdisciplinary collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and a clear focus on sustainable development, our project is poised to deliver transformative impacts in the beneficiary countries, creating a paradigm shift in the way energy is produced, consumed, and thought about in Africa
GRN: UKRI-318
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
CREDiT project aims to demonstrate the potential of solar energy in rural, off-grid African communities through Participatory Technology Development (PTD) and Service-Oriented Business Models, supported by Digital Twin (DT) platforms. The project focuses on three communities facing significant challenges: Mayungu Beach in Kilifi, Kenya; an agricultural village near Kasinthula, Malawi; and an agricultural college community in Chipembi, Zambia. By implementing off-grid solar mini-grids in these areas, the project seeks to generate interdisciplinary knowledge, provide community training, and deliver lasting benefits both locally and more broadly. Led by the University of York (UoY), CREDiT collaborates with Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) in Kenya, Coastal and Marine Resource Development (COMRED) in Kenya, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi, and United Church of Zambia University (UCZ). The project is motivated by the 2023 SDG7 progress report, which highlights the persistent challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa’s access to electricity. Despite abundant solar resources, over 567 million individuals in the region still lack access to electricity as of 2021. Existing solar installations often fail to meet community needs due to a lack of context-specific design, economic viability and are often undersized for expected demand, and the necessary human capital for effective operation and maintenance. The challenge of delivering sustainable and appropriate solar energy solutions is both social and technical. It requires the development of technical and business models that are attuned to social conditions. Addressing this challenge necessitates transdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, engineers, social scientists, business and industry partners, local communities, and policy stakeholders. Rural communities in Africa, often the poorest users, are typically priced out of investment opportunities and face significant challenges such as upfront risks, lack of installation and maintenance expertise, and issues with sustainable affordability. Limited community participation in the design and maintenance of solar projects often results in poor social, financial, and environmental outcomes, leading to projects being abandoned shortly after completion. To address these issues, CREDiT focuses on deploying a template for sustainable business models supported by digitally enabled technologies. This approach aims to guide the development and scaling of distributed solar, maximizing technological performance (energy usage and efficiency, predictive maintenance, reduced waste), social impact (clean energy adoption, equitable benefits, appropriate functionality), and organizational effectiveness (ownership, financing, scalable solutions). The project will develop a replicable process supported by digital technology platforms and business models. These platforms will ensure community-level access to energy, delivering affordable, reliable, long-term sustainable, and equitable energy access in rural off-grid communities. Trials will take place in diverse use-cases across Zambia, Malawi, and Kenya. The digital platform will ensure that all stakeholders, including local government agencies and private investors (national/international), have full visibility of energy production, providing the transparency needed to attract off-grid solar investments. Our approach establishes an interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary framework using equitable socio-technical co-design, addressing power dynamics, marginalization, and context-specific knowledge creation by integrating three key perspectives: (1) a digital platform featuring predictive models, IoT sensors, remote monitoring, AI, and cloud-based technologies to support load forecasting, optimal usage, and maintenance; (2) co-produced sustainable business models focused on affordability and equitability; and (3) community resilience and empowerment through skills training, knowledge, and resources, particularly for women, to optimize solar energy use and manage its lifecycle, ensuring future energy expansion
GRN: EP/Z533531/1
Period: 01/12/2024 to 30/11/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
The project, Cyber-Resilience Enhancing Detection and mITigation for Networked MicroGrids (CREDIT-NMG), proposes a holistic detection-mitigation framework for NMGs, with the overarching goal to enhance the power grid's capacity to supply the critical load during severe cyberattacks, such as False Data Injection (FDI) and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. For attack detection, the concept of proactive detection, beyond the state-of-the-art method that relies on passive detection, will be proposed. Building on that, an innovative event-triggered scheme will be designed to integrate both passive and proactive detections, where the passive detection results serve as triggers for proactive challenges. For physical impact mitigation, an intelligent decision-making tool incorporating controllability utilization and resource schedule will be developed, where deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is leveraged to tackle uncertain and dynamically changing adversarial scenarios as well as accommodate imperfect detection inputs. Furthermore, given the mitigation strategies, we will further improve the detection methods to target the type and strength of attacks that cause significant impacts, closing the loop to balance the trade-off between detection rate and false positives. A hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) NMG testbed with realistic settings will be established to validate the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed methods
GRN: EP/X041719/1
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
The UK Net Zero Strategy published in October 2021 reflects the urgency of action needed to avoid climate catastrophe. The net zero journey outlined therein addresses economy and emissions reduction in all sectors, with the specific challenge in aviation a notable element. Global aviation is currently responsible for 2% of emissions with 90% currently from aircraft operations, and this will grow progressively as air transportation grows. In response to this technology and policy are changing rapidly offering both opportunity and challenge, but the standard design systems and processes in practice today are insufficiently agile to support the current need for novel designs that can adapt to these rapidly changing future needs. With current approaches solutions get locked in early based on the available technology level, and optimised around that technology, and consequently have limited opportunity for upgrade and enhancement through operational life, which in the case of aerospace is decades. But delivery of net zero demands radical change quickly. Agile and adaptable design systems are needed to help develop solutions that can be easily upgraded to use advanced technology as it emerges. The key here is that constraints are needed to to allow a baseline solution to be found, but in then optimising around this baseline the constraints become a barrier to future enhancements. To allow future variation without redesign needs new capability. In particular capability to map and measure a design space and to subsequently be able to dynamically change the constraints was found to be a core need for progress in this area. The mapping and measurement capability is needed to understand how constraints are influencing the design at this point in time, and the capability to deal with changing constraints to allow understanding of how the design could change with new technology advance or policy changes. The four research questions emerging from this are therefore: 1. Navigation of Dynamic Design Spaces: How can constraints be represented in a design model such that a changing design space can be navigated and the constraints driving or limiting the design can be identified, and their influence on the design quantified? 2. Evolving Constraints over time: How can constraints be allowed to evolve over time and their influence on the design solutions over time captured, including ability to prioritise requirements/constraints? 3. Measurement and Evaluation of Solution Paths: What metrics are appropriate for maintaining a set of time-history linked solutions open to further development? 4. Keeping Design Options Open: How can design options be kept open, and how can technology changes/policy changes or removal over a long time period be studied? In DECIDE for Net Zero constraints will be permitted to evolve just as every part of the design can. In doing this the design context itself will evolve, creating new fitness landscapes for product evolution. Contrary to standard practice today which is to optimise as far as possible, the aim here is to generate a diverse population of solutions that will have many individuals that survive major disruptions even if some may fail. This is moving significantly beyond current concepts of robust design. This variation of constraints requires a completely novel design system architecture using time history dependent genetics. Geometric analogies for design spaces will allow innovative design tools to support exploration of design spaces in a more meaningful way and the latest bio-inspired methodologies will allow exploration of how products evolve in the context of ever-changing constraints. With this capability robust baseline designs can be developed that will enable the fastest transition to net zero, for example a more modular airframe that can accept plug and play solutions for hydrogen or electric propulsion systems and energy supply which are easy to cost effective to maintain.
GRN: EP/Y014235/2
Period: 02/11/2024 to 20/11/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
This project aims to develop a fully intelligent solutions to the challenges of prognostic health management of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT). The research will develop a Physics Informed Deep Neural Network with Uncertainty Quantification (PIDNN-UQ) for real-time diagnosis and prognosis by combining smart and high precision dataset to address big data problem. Numerical simulations of FOWT in coupled multi-physical fields will be conducted to investigate fatigue behaviours and mechanisms. Smart (data-centric) databases of fatigue mechanisms for accurate modelling and analysis of FOWT will be devloped to facilitate realt-time diagnosis and prognosis. The study will design and implement multi-tasking PIDNN-UQ models with physics-informed capability to improved model's knowledge and uncertainty quantification. This will enable the model to diagnose, quantify and predict the remaining useful lifetime of FOWTs. Experimental and field data from Hywind 5 x 6MW FOWTs (Floating wind farm) and open source data from fixed bottom wind turbines (RAVE) would be used to validate and examine the performance of the ULTIMATE. Outcomes of the research will contribute to advances in predictive maintenance, understanding of operation and performance of FOWT in real time. This project will also contribute to knowledge in machine learning application to offshore engineering and renewable energy systems. This will enhance curriculum development in O&M, structural integrity, data science and applied mathematics. engineering, mathematical theories of intelligent operation and maintenance of mechanical systems. The project benefits the industry by developing intelligent maintenance methodologies based on PHM methods that delivers optimal FOWT operation with minimal human interface and improved safety and reliability
GRN: EP/Z533622/1
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
This Fellowship will enable the rigorous study of a fragile structural form that has long left the comfortable confines of the laboratory scale and is increasingly critical to our renewable energy independence. This Fellowship will, for the first ever time: develop open-source solvers for the high-performance simulation of structural systems with sharply nonlinear behaviour suffering from numerical deterioration in partnership with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC); develop protocols for the digital twinning of massive shell structures where the quality of the twinned midsurface is paramount and sub-mm geometric features can be critical, in partnership with reality capture specialists Leica Geosystems (LGS); gather the first terabyte-sized datasets of digital twin inputs representing state-of-the-art offshore wind support structures based on unprecedented access to facilities planned for construction starting in 2025 granted by project partners Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) and COWI; complete the scientific understanding of the nonlinear response of very long tubular structural forms prone to ovalisation phenomena; generate extensive datasets of synthetic buckling resistances of digitally-twinned shells; calibrate actual safety margins of current and future planned offshore wind support structures and disseminate this within the international Eurocode design framework; ('Plus') found a permanent indexed data journal to accumulate empirical and numerical dataset pairs for the wider computational engineering community to validate simulations used in research and safety-critical design. The open-source software development will push the boundaries of computational structural engineering and support an emerging research culture increasingly employing digital twinning. The financial benefits of quantifying actual safety margins of current and future-scale offshore wind support structures are significant: a single modern tower saved from failure saves ~£2M, while even a ~10% reduction in steel saves ~£10M across a 100-tower offshore installation (assuming ~£1k / tonne for structural steel, not including carbon cost)
GRN: EP/Z000440/1
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
Biological-material hybrid systems are increasingly important in medicine, biotechnology and energy. In particular, microbial biohybrids offer unique advantages for sustainable energy conversion (e.g. scalability and product versatility), but their under-performances curtail their application and impact. State-of-the-art approaches to biohybrid research are slow and confined, with many hidden antagonistic interactions at the bio-material interface to overcome. Here, I aim to create a ground-breaking approach that directly targets the creation, identification, and characterisation of synergistic microbial-material interactions to enable a step-change in generating green energy biohybrids that are high-performing, robust and scalable. Towards this, I will i) develop new methodologies to generate large targeted libraries of key biohybrid components (the electrode, cells and charge carriers); ii) pioneer the powerful concept of directed co-evolution for bio-material engineering. Unlike classical directed evolution where only biological elements are optimised, I will iteratively select for high performing bio-material partnerships under stringent criteria. When these outcomes are compared against those from conventional screening, the identification of synergistic, antagonist or purely independent bio-material interactions will be possible. I will then iii) characterise these partnerships to fill large knowledge gaps within the field to understand how synergism can be designed, instead of found. I will employ cyanobacterial hybrids for solar-electricity generation as model systems, targeting final stable photocurrents of near the top theoretical value 2.4 mA/cm2 (>50-fold above typical systems). This work sets the stage for the transformation of other biohybrids and composite functional materials, and the opening up of a new field: the directed co-evolution of hybrid systems
GRN: UKRI-424
Period: 01/01/2025 to 30/06/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
This is a proposal for investment to support a wide range of researchers and fields of research across UoO’s engineering and physical sciences (EPS) remit through the upgrade of existing multi-user equipment. It will support UoO's strategic goals of achieving enduring research excellence, and attracting and developing the best researchers at all career levels. Enabling these goals is the provision of cutting-edge research infrastructure aligning with EPSRC’s “World-Class Labs” ecosystem. The requested equipment items fulfil the call objectives of "underpinning multi-user equipment", "invest to save" and "capital investment with substantial and demonstrable, but not exclusive, benefit to early career researchers and doctoral training activities that they are involved in". Oversight and governance of the Core Equipment award is provided by the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) Division. The project co-leads for each requested item will be responsible for regular reporting to MPLS on progress against objectives. The requested equipment items are: Precession Electron Diffraction System, structuring materials for the energy transition Micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometer for compositional analysis of advanced materials Ultra High-Speed Imaging for Next Generation Diagnostics High resolution X-ray powder diffractometer with high capacity, 2D small angle X-ray scattering and 2D grazing incidence capabilit
GRN: EP/Z532873/1
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2031
Funding Source: EPSRC
The Circular Economy requirements and sustainability goals have been set out by the UK government and the United Nations to address the climate crisis and maintain our standard of living. The environmental impact from the global consumption of engineering materials is expected to double in the next forty years (OECD: Global Material Recourses to 2060, 2018), while annual waste generation is projected to increase by 70% by 2050 (World Bank What a Waste 2.0 report, 2018). A radical departure from traditional forward manufacturing is needed that no longer exclusively focuses on the original manufacturing process and the end of life dispose of manufactured products, parts, and materials. Processes are needed that will significantly prolong the useful life of engineering and especially critical materials (minerals with high economic vulnerability and high global supply risk e.g. rare earth elements for batteries, magnets and medical devices) by increasing the effectiveness of reuse, repurpose, repair, remanufacture, and recycle (Re-X) manufacturing processes. These Re-X processes are currently 3-6 times more labour intensive than traditional manufacturing processes. They are often not economic resulting in many engineering materials being disposed on landfill sites, degraded, or incinerated. UK businesses could benefit by up to £23 billion per year through low cost or no cost improvements in the efficient use of resources. The vision of this hub is to pursue an integrated, holistic approach toward creating a new manufacturing ecosystem for circular resource use of high value products through advances in AI and intelligent automation, empowering the UK to be a world leader in circular manufacturing. To deliver this ambition the hub will focused on two grand challenges: GC1: Radically transform the sustainable use of critical materials. (Goal: >75% Critical components reuse; >20% critical material use decrease; >50% component reclaim increase). GC2: Radically improve the productivity of Re-X manufacturing processes on par with or exceeding traditional forward manufacturing processes (Goal: >10 times improvement). To address these, the hub will establish a truly interdisciplinary team cutting across Manufacturing, Robotics, AI and Automation, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Economics, and Life Cycle Assessment. The hub will focus on three major fronts: Research excellence, community building and user engagement. The new research required to address the grand challenges and overcome the barriers and limitations preventing the transition to a truly circular manufacturing ecosystem will investigate: - New smart processes for disassembly, remanufacturing, separation, and recovery of critical products, components, and ultimately materials. - New sensing and analysis processes to track and determine the state of critical materials throughout their life. - New design methodologies for circular manufacturing. - New testing and validation methods to certify the remaining useful life of crucial products, components, and materials. - New circular Re-X business models. Our research programme will enable rapid scale up of Robotics and AI solutions that are compatible with sector practice, extensible via modular design, and can be repurposed initially in four flagship sector scenarios: energy, medical devices, electric drives, and large structures. Consequently, this Hub will directly address the 80% of the environmental impact of high-value products (Circular Economy Action Plan, European Union, 2020), and save more than 8M tonnes of CO2 emissions annually (HM Government Building our Industrial Strategy report, 2017)
GRN: UKRI-983
Period: 01/12/2024 to 30/11/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
As the signals of an ecological and climate crisis are intensifying, the surface temperature of our planet is already around 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels and is warming at an alarming rate. Against this, researchers at the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), share with us their assessments that meeting the 1.5°C target is possible, and yet it will require "deep emissions reductions” and "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." The International Energy Agency calls to double the pace of energy efficiency progress towards green transition and notes that “large scale financing mechanisms ought to be enacted”. Often alluded as a “Tragedy of Horizon”, climate change related risks had been regarded as the problems of long durée, to be tackled by future generations, leaving little motivation for the current cohorts. But this is no longer the case. As the urgency of the anthropogenic climate crisis becomes more explicit, greening of the global financial system steps ahead in our agenda, central banks being no exception. In fact, pathways to a net zero emissions global economy are relatively well-studied and understood. Yet, many of these studies focused mostly on green transition of the power sector and decarbonization of the industry, while financing of this transition and, particularly the potential role of the central banks, is a relatively neglected area in the design of the green policy infrastructure. Thus, there is clearly an unavoidable need to deepen our knowledge on the design of a “green central bank”, that is, in the words of Dikau & Volz, 2018, a central bank that takes environmental risks including climate change into consideration in its actions. It is the purpose of this research consortium to study the potential of greening of the monetary policy instruments, and set the stage for a new policy environment conducive to the struggle against climate change
GRN: EP/Z536027/1
Period: 02/06/2025 to 01/06/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
Every year chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative and cardiac diseases, cause 40 million deaths worldwide. This toll is predicted to double in the next twenty years, based on an ageing population, population growth and unhealthy lifestyles. In the UK, chronic conditions are the leading cause of deaths and disability, affecting approximately one in three of adults. GLUTRONICS seeks to enhance the quality of life of the millions worldwide affected by chronic conditions, and reduce the incidence of the associated premature deaths, by advancing the progress on implantable bioelectronics for personalised therapy though long-lasting, lightweight and miniature implantable power sources. The use of bioelectronics in healthcare is fast-growing; the UK government has recognised as critical the development of innovative technologies, such as neuromodulators and electroceuticals, that can support preventative, personalised and digitalised care by enabling real-time monitoring, informing on disease progression, and providing tailored intervention. Nonetheless, current implantable medical devices are invasive, primarily due to the need for a power source, typically lithium-ion batteries, which can represent over 80% of the total volume and weight of a device. Lithium batteries hinder long-term use and comfortable deployment of medical devices because are difficult to miniaturise and require high-risk routine surgeries for replacement. As an example, the neurostimulation of the cervical vagus nerve for the treatment of patients affected by epilepsy, requires the implantation of the bulky pacemaker battery in the chest (approximately the size of a tea bag of 20-50 gr), which is connected to electrodes located in the neck via extension wires. In the UK, there are approximately 60,000 children who suffer from epilepsy and may need to have such an invasive device implanted in their body. Moreover, although the neuromodulation of the vagus nerve has shown potential therapeutic benefits for several conditions, including depression, attention disorder and Parkinson's, the invasiveness of current bioelectronic devices, and the consequent major intervention their installation would require, makes their use for these conditions unpractical. GLUTRONICS will lead to a new generation of bioelectronics that are powered by the sugars naturally present in physiological fluids with cutting-edge glucose fuel cells. With a team's experience spanning research on fundamental science (electrocatalysis, glucose fuel cells, mathematical modelling), proof-of-concept trials in animals, in-human studies, regulatory approvals, and commercial translation, and with a cohort of industrial collaborators, GLUTRONICS will globally lead innovation on implantable glucose fuel cells. This success will be possible by: i) generating stable and biocompatible, fully-integrated abiotic glucose fuel cell designs, optimised for maximum power extraction; ii) creating a safe implantation design and an artificial subcutaneous pocket that enables long-term operations thanks to a continuous replenishment of glucose and minimum biofouling risks; iii) creating an implantable monitoring system to measure daily rhythms for tailored in vivo energy management. Load cell tests, both in vitro and in vivo, will simulate the powering of a neuromodulator (power demand >1μW). Chronic tests in large animal models (i.e., pigs), in surgical sites that align with potential areas of application, will demonstrate the clinical potential of the proposed technology. Technical, legal and ethical challenges in the research will be considered via dedicated co-creation activities and several other engagement initiatives, which will provide inputs from a diverse range of stakeholders (patients, carers, clinicians, Med Tech experts, health economists, policymakers) and enable responsible innovation
GRN: UKRI-770
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
The Green Deal has made it necessary to develop low power electronics, using sustainable materials and green processing. The successful implementation of AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes) displays in mobile phones, organic-based electronics illustrates that the Green Deal is possible. However, current organic electronics technologies have yet to be efficiency and not all are produced via low embedded energy processing methods. By using bio inspired organic materials deposited by green process technologies achieving these goals could be realised. During project GHOST, we will focus on inter molecular interactions to help address these issues. Irrespective of application; AMOLED, Organic PhotoVoltaics (OPV), Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFET) or Organic Thermoelectric Generators (OTG), the active materials are used in a solid matrix that stabilises them but also changes their properties relative to those in solution. There are many examples where guest-host interactions, e.g. donor-acceptor materials in OPV devices, completely change the properties of the system. Using light-emitting guests blended in a host or donor-acceptor exciplex systems leads to increasing OLED emission efficiency. But how to control these interactions is not well understood and is still largely emipirical. Interactions can change both the molecule conformation and electro-optic properties of the materials, but theoretical approaches to understanding these mechanisms are still in their infancy. Moreover, the varried effects of such intermolecular interactions in working devices is very poorly understood. Currently our limited understanding of these phenomena limit our ability to develop bio inspired materials and active components. All life on earth is organic and can perform complex of functions. Taking inspiration from living organisims, we aim to develop a new low energy organic electronics technologies
GRN: UKRI-771
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
The Green Deal has made it necessary to develop low power electronics, using sustainable materials and green processing. The successful implementation of AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes) displays in mobile phones, organic-based electronics illustrates that the Green Deal is possible. However, current organic electronics technologies have yet to be efficiency and not all are produced via low embedded energy processing methods. By using bio inspired organic materials deposited by green process technologies achieving these goals could be realised. During project GHOST, we will focus on inter molecular interactions to help address these issues. Irrespective of application; AMOLED, Organic PhotoVoltaics (OPV), Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFET) or Organic Thermoelectric Generators (OTG), the active materials are used in a solid matrix that stabilises them but also changes their properties relative to those in solution. There are many examples where guest-host interactions, e.g. donor-acceptor materials in OPV devices, completely change the properties of the system. Using light-emitting guests blended in a host or donor-acceptor exciplex systems leads to increasing OLED emission efficiency. But how to control these interactions is not well understood and is still largely empirical. Interactions can change both the molecule conformation and electro-optic properties of the materials, but theoretical approaches to understanding these mechanisms are still in their infancy. Moreover, the varied effects of such intermolecular interactions in working devices is very poorly understood. Currently our limited understanding of these phenomena limit our ability to develop bio inspired materials and active components. All life on earth is organic and can perform complex of functions. Taking inspiration from living organisms, we aim to develop a new low energy organic electronics technologies
GRN: UKRI-420
Period: 01/01/2025 to 30/06/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
This proposal for Core Equipment is part of Heriot-Watt University's (HWU) strategy to enhance and further develop its research and related impact. HWU has a particular focus on multi-disciplinary challenge-led research, including in health and care; and Net Zero Energy challenges as driven by our recently-formed Global Research Institutes (GRIs). In parallel, we are investing strongly in our frontier research areas such as quantum and photonics. In alignment with this strategy we have identified requirements for key underpinning investments in our engineering and physical sciences technical capabilities, that cover advanced manufacturing including of medical, quantum, and renewable energy devices; also flow chemistry research equipment, all of which enhances and/or enables a wide range of cutting-edge research activity. We have prioritised 3 key investments that serve to support and enhance our EPSRC portfolio, for funding via this Core Equipment opportunity as detailed below. Vector Network Analyser (VNA) is the core equipment for understanding, testing, validating and designing virtually all microwave and radio frequency (RF) components. It is used to characterise transfer functions between/among multiple ports of the devices under test (DUTs). Our current VNA capabilities can perform such measurements only for linear DUTs and continuous wave (CW) signals. These narrowband linear measurements, unfortunately, deviate from device performance in practical applications that increasingly transition to wideband (up to GHz scale) modulated signals for nonlinear devices. In order to support HWU’s research in areas that include 5G/6G, IoT, satellite communications, medical device manufacturing and quantum engineering, we request the upgrade of our current VNA (Keysight PNA-N5225A) to the PNA-X N5247B. Dielectric deposition system We propose to equip the Nanofabrication cleanroom within the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) at Heriot-Watt University with a deposition system for high quality dielectrics and amorphous semiconductors. The equipment fills a gap within the facility and it will enable >10 research groups to develop novel devices for high impact research in quantum technology, photonics, bio-sensing, energy harvesting, hydrogen production and storage, among others. The equipment will be accessible to academic researchers (including early-career researchers) and local industry, under the Small Research Facility associated with the Nanofabrication cleanroom, ensuring long-term sustainability in operation, maintenance and staff support. Flow System Continuous flow chemistry is a key enabling technology which offers extensive advantages to researchers and is a preferred technique in the chemical industry (worth £75.2 billion to the UK economy per annum). The Continuum Flow Lab facility offers access to cutting-edge continuous flow technologies and expertise but is heavily oversubscribed. We propose to extend the capacity of the facility, allowing an expanded user base of academic researchers from across the UK, as well as industrial partners. In turn, this will allow an increased output of cutting-edge flow chemistry research and ECR training to address a key UK skills shortage
GRN: UKRI-257
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/03/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
This Japan-UK collaboration will establish a novel heterogeneous material integrated MEMS/NEMS-Photonics platform for highly-secured ICT hardware, reducing energy consumption significantly. The lead applicant Tokyo Tech team have strong expertise on Si photonics and material integration technology, while Southampton can provide the state-of-the-art MEMS, NEMS and Metasurface technologies. Starting from the development of individual MEMS/NEMS-integrated photonics components, novel photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for secure communication will be demonstrated. The laboratory-level development will be combined with large-scale wafer process with industrial-level uniformity and spatial resolution by using the pilot 300-mm semiconductor process line available in collaboration with AIST. Metasurface-empowered optical cryptography scheme with reconfigurable functionality will be demonstrated for the first time on chip, taking semiconductor photonics technology to the next level. The project will also contribute to new development of tunable single photon source, leading to the improvement of quantum random number generators that is a key module for quantum secure communication. The ambition of the project is to initiate a new research field of on-chip optical secure communication and consequently take semiconductor research to the next level, with translation to industry in Japan and the UK.
GRN: EP/Z003393/1
Period: 13/01/2025 to 12/01/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
Graphitic components are subjected to fast neutron flux in a molten salt reactor (MSR) for several years and there is a potential for salt or fuel salt infiltration into the bulk graphitic regions. Salt infiltration is generally considered to be unfavourable or harmful to the operation of an MSR due to the potential for graphite degradation, transport of fission products such as 135Xe that can decrease moderation, generation of hotspots, and fuel inventory change. In general, salt permeation and transport, which are dependent on the salt thermodynamics and kinetics, depend critically on the pore/crack shape, morphology and interconnectivity that are not yet well-elucidated. We propose a suite of fuel salt (FLiBe with U) infiltration experiments followed by X-ray computed tomography, mechanical property evaluation, and high-fidelity data analytics and modelling along with complimentary porosimetry measurements and XPS analysis. Three graphite grades are selected in this project: NBG-18, IG-110 and POCO: ZXF-5Q; the selected grades will cover the typical porosities observed in nuclear graphite. The main objective of our investigation is to draw out the differences in fuel salt infiltration behaviour in the selected graphite grades and assess the change in mechanical properties. We anticipate that our work will assist in selecting nuclear graphite grades optimized for the current and advanced MSRs
GRN: EP/Z002974/1
Period: 02/10/2024 to 01/10/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
Sustainable and high-performance energy storage devices are an immediate need in today's world to achieve the UN's sustainability goal of affordable and clean energy. One such energy storage device is the supercapacitor (SC), which can exhibit longer lifetimes, high power densities, faster charging and discharging and safer operation than batteries. The performance, efficiency, as well as the cost of SCs, are critically dependent upon the electrode material used. Historically, electrodes based on carbonaceous, or transition metal oxides have been used, but respectively suffer from lower theoretical capacitance and poor cycling stability. To fully develop the potential of SCs, sustainable and innovative electrode materials are required. In this regard, there has been much interest in 2- dimensional (2D) MXene materials, with general formula Mn+1XnTx where M is a transition metal (typically Ti), X is C and or N and Tx are surface functional groups. These materials combine the properties of carbon-based materials and the efficient pseudocapacitive mechanisms of transition metal oxides. Nevertheless, some salient aspects of MXenes are still unexplored, such as the synthesis of non-Ti based and related hybrid MXenes for SC applications. The proposed project will focus on little or unexplored non-Ti containing MXenes (e.g., Co, Ni, Mn, V), novel carbonitride and hybrid high entropy MXenes. Green synthesis approaches will be investigated to prepare novel and hybrid MXenes for the development of sustainable high performance SCs. To address the need for miniaturised SCs, MXene-based micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) will also be fabricated. The project has been carefully designed based on the researcher's expertise in SC electrode materials development and interdigital micro/nano electrode fabrication, along with the supervisor's extensive experience in the synthesis and characterization of energy materials, to lead to the development of sustainable high-performance SCs and MSCs
GRN: EP/Z000289/1
Period: 04/07/2024 to 03/07/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
'HyWay aims to synthesise hydrogen rich syngas from low cost carbon source, and eliminate the environmental issues from conventional waste management (e.g., landfill or incineration). HyWay advances the state-of-the-art in carbonaceous waste management especially plastic waste, waste tires, waste biomass and crude glycerol for hydrogen production. The overall aim of the HyWay is to establish long-term consolidated research collaborations between the participating institutions with complementary expertise and knowledge to design and develop carbon-neutral, scalable, and socially acceptable pathways to sort and convert waste to hydrogen-rich syngas as part of next generation sustainable fuels. Through secondments, workshops, training, webinar series, and industry-focused events, HyWay produces multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectoral experiences, and academic training in a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary environment. Research results are translated into training materials, including formal academic and industry courses on waste sorting, chemical recycling technologies, process modelling, machine learning, techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis for postgraduate students, early-stage and experienced researchers and industry; training tutorials for industrial and technical staffs; and creating the basis for developing academic textbooks for the wider research community and possibly in undergraduate module delivery. There is also a focus on transferable skills, with dedicated trainings activities specially designed to facilitate personal development, technological and communication skills. HyWay delivers through the effective collaboration of 7 member state/associate country universities and companies, and eight third country universities and companies from China, Japan, Australia and Malaysia.'
GRN: EP/Y016440/2
Period: 10/12/2024 to 01/09/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
In this proposal we aim to develop photonic materials in which novel types of structuring are exploited as a resource to control light absorption and thermal emission. This will deliver future generations of solar-thermal absorbers, with ultra-high optical absorption, low-thermal losses and high-temperature stability. World demand for energy is projected to more than double by the end of the century and identifying adequate supplies of non-polluting energy is set to become one of humanity's top priorities. Solar energy provides a persuasive approach to the challenge of identifying clean, abundant sources which are readily available energy for the future, however, still, the cumulative solar photovoltaic capacity is currently only a small fraction the global power output. Recent advances in theoretical, computational, and nano-fabrication capabilities have allowed unprecedented manipulation of the nanoscale structures controlling solar capture, conversion, and storage. we are no longer restricted to well-defined periodic structures. Instead, we plan to exploit complex systems made of apparently random patterns, which when suitably designed, can lead to performances superior to those offered by conventional photonic systems. The proposed project will focus on the development of hyperuniform disordered metasurfaces, a novel class of photonic structures in which structural correlations are accurately controlled. Discovered in 2009, these new materials have already attracted considerable attention as they combine the robust properties of periodic systems with the flexibility of disordered ones. We will explore the properties of hyperuniform media with the aim of achieving ultimate control over the absorption of solar radiation and emission of thermal radiation, with the goal to create highly efficient frequency-selective solar-thermal absorbing materials. This research proposed will enhance UK's capabilities in disordered photonic materials and high temperature solar absorbers and will have direct impact on more efficient and cost-effective solar power generation. The advanced optical capabilities to be enabled by our research will support the constant exponential growth of novel photonic technologies in the UK.
GRN: EP/Z533403/1
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/08/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
This project creates a new collaboration between SOAS (UK) and UFF (Brazil) through a scoping study of the inclusive green finance project "Fomenta Maricá" and a two-day workshop in May 2025 with academics and policymakers. The goal is to evaluate the initiative and potentially suggest improvements and replication in other oil-rich medium-sized cities in Brazil and abroad. Given the negative socio-economic effects of climate change, a green transition strategy is urgent for oil-dependent regions. Maricá is among 485 Brazilian cities that earn royalties from oil exploitation. Maricá's government has led innovative initiatives to re-distribute earnings and foster the local economy. In 2017, it created the first subnational Sovereign Wealth Fund, of which 30% of funds would be allocated to local development projects. In 2020, it launched the programme "Fomenta Maricá", which provides loans to micro- and small enterprises (MSEs). Unlike previous microloans, those funds have higher borrowing limits, low interest rates and longer maturity. The scoping study will analyse existing quantitative data from Maricá's government project "Fomenta Maricá" to understand the profile of borrowers, how they employ the funds and whether they manage to repay the loan fully and on time. We are particularly interested in the disbursement to solar panel installation firms and their application. We will conduct small-sampled qualitative research with borrowers and policymakers to uncover potential challenges and spillovers that might not be grasped by the quantitative information. Given the existing literature, we could assume gender and race barriers and sectoral differences. We also expect challenges from solar panel firms, such as lack of demand and rising business costs. Yet, we could also expect spillover benefits beyond the firm, such as improvements in household well-being and social cohesion. We anticipate that the results can advance existing research on inclusive green finance by providing new evidence of state-led initiatives for sustainable local development. Three Early Career Researchers will form the research team: Thereza B Reis (SOAS), Fernanda Feil and Fernando Teixeira (UFF). Thereza will contribute to the project with her expertise on financial inclusion, Fernanda will contribute with her insights on state-led sustainable finance, and Fernando will contribute with his knowledge about microfinance and subnational Sovereign Funds in Brazil. To consolidate the partnership between SOAS and UFF, we want to organise a 2-day workshop in May 2025 to discuss issues of green finance and financial inclusion. We will organise it through SOAS' Centre for Sustainable Finance and UFF's Financialisation and Development Research Group (FINDE) to promote and strengthen the relationship between those two networks. We expect our preliminary results and workshop to improve Maricá's sustainable development policies, as well as foster similar initiatives for oil-dependent towns in Brazil and beyond. The Global Talent Exchange Award will be essential for the success of the scoping study as it will allow Thereza to conduct fieldwork in Maricá alongside UFF's researchers. Furthermore, it will provide the financing for the workshop, enabling the attendance of participants from outside Rio de Janeiro. Finally, we believe that such connections will allow for future joint research projects and application to larger funds, such as the ESRC-FAPESP grant, which would allow us to expand the research on inclusive green finance to other cities, such as Ilha Bela (São Paulo)
GRN: UKRI-317
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
It is becoming ever more apparent that the way out of the tension between growth and climate change is innovation. These innovations will not only have to slow the emissions that are driving climate change but also protect people from the unfolding damages. This project will shed light on three major questions via eight distinct projects: (1) How can we enhance resilience to climate change? (i) Transfer Programmes and Climate Resilience, (ii) Intergenerational Climate Resilience, (iii) Climate Migration and Market Linkages; (2) How can we design smart conservation policies? (i) Smart Conservation Zoning, (ii) Smart Conservation Payments; (3) (iii) How can we promote innovation and diffusion of clean energy? (i) China and the Rise of Clean Energy, (ii) Global Diffusion of Solar Energy, (iii) Financing Green Innovation. On climate resilience, I will collaborate with the world's largest NGO to evaluate whether their flagship asset transfer programme enhances climate resilience. On smart conservation, I will work with satellite data and governments in Indonesia and Brazil to research whether smart zoning and payment for ecosystem services can help reduce the tension between development and the conservation of tropical forests. On innovation and diffusion of clean energy, I will investigate whether Chinese city-level industrial policies promoted solar innovation, production and exports and model and analyse what factors affect how solar and other clean energy innovations diffuse globally. This project is distinctive for four reasons. First, it will study innovations that span the space from micro adaptation to macro mitigation. Second, it will place adaptation and mitigation in developing countries at the core of the climate change problem. Third, it will build on longstanding collaborations with governments and NGOs to conduct research at a large scale and high level of influence. Fourth, it will mainstream environmental issues into economics and economic polic
GRN: UKRI-314
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
This fellowship will contribute to developing socio-technical approaches to reducing carbon emissions from heritage buildings, while retaining the values which make them special. The fellowship will include multiple activities to consolidate and extend my PhD research and enhance its wider impact and usability. It will also provide the skills, experience and professional networks to help me develop my research career. Energy use in buildings is responsible for 27% of global emissions. Retrofitting existing buildings to reduce their energy demand and associated carbon emissions is critical to mitigate devastating climate change. However, standard retrofit approaches often focus exclusively on technical and financial aspects, failing to consider residents' preferences and behaviours. These approaches are often inappropriate for the 20-30% of UK homes with heritage value. My interdisciplinary PhD examined heritage homes and their residents, identifying holistic solutions to reduce carbon while retaining heritage. I found that most residents invest heritage values in their homes and that these values affect the retrofits they find acceptable and will enact, although they are often overlooked by experts. In contrast to common assumptions, most heritage residents find their homes comfortable to live in and emphasise excellent comfort in hot weather. I also found that standard energy modelling tools poorly represent both heritage building energy performance and residents' real behaviours and preferences, meaning models frequently recommend inappropriate alterations, leading to poor decisions. Embodied carbon is that required to produce, transport, install, maintain and finally dispose of a retrofit, and is currently not assessed for most projects. I calculated the embodied carbon of the retrofits I studied and found that it can determine which measures make the greatest overall carbon savings, with some measures actually increasing, not reducing, total carbon. It's therefore crucial that we assess embodied carbon in retrofit. My research highlights the need to take a holistic socio-technical approach to carbon reduction. This approach should foreground building users' complex practices and needs, alongside the technical aspects of energy and buildings, to achieve real and lasting change, meet critical climate goals and create a better, healthier, sustainable and resilient built environment. During this fellowship I will undertake research impact training to enhance the effects of my current and future research. I will also undertake training on varied approaches to increasing sustainability in homes, considering the societal context of these approaches and how methods such as Virtual Reality can be used in future research to support residents' retrofit choices. I will develop a funding bid to address the further research identified in my PhD. I will extend my PhD research by considering the micro-economic implications of the retrofits I have previously modelled; I will extend my consideration of comfort, wellbeing and household behaviours through a comparison with a sample of modern homes; and I will analyse the effect of future climate scenarios. This fellowship will provide substantial societal impact and support my career aspirations. I aim to publish articles in four academic journals (Buildings and Environment; Energy and Buildings; Historic Environment: Policy and Practice; and Energy Economics), develop my professional networks and gain teaching experience. With my mentors, I will further develop the policy implications of my research and explore ways to better inform policy. I will further disseminate my research through multiple channels, including public presentations, policy briefings and online videos, to academia, professionals and the public
GRN: UKRI-832
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2030
Funding Source: EPSRC
The Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions recommends incorporating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in any efforts to advance the energy transition.(1) The Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development in Africa advocates for a transition based on social justice and feminist values.(2) The UN Gender and Energy Compact (under the auspices of the SDG7) identifies five outcomes for women to lead, participate in and benefit from a just, sustainable, and inclusive energy transition: increasing women’s access and control over energy resources; incorporating GESI in transition pathways, strategies and regulations; supporting women-owned and led businesses; facilitating women's career advancement in the energy transition; and enhancing the knowledge base to understand processes of exclusion.(3) However, empirical evidence shows a persistent gender and inclusion gap in the energy transition. This gap manifests in the lack of participation of women and gender non-conforming people in the sustainable energy labour force. There is limited knowledge of how gender relations and intersecting forms of social discrimination (such as racism or ableism) reproduce energy injustices in the energy transition. During the last decades, many energy projects have incorporated GESI concerns, for example, collecting gender-disaggregated data or holding single-sex learning sessions. However, such approaches fail to challenge the root causes of discrimination and social inequality. Many projects focus on differences between men and women without questioning the homogeneous, universal categories used to characterise diverse groups and complex experiences of power relations and exclusion. Over-simplifying the relationships between gender relations, discrimination, and access to energy resources leads to decontextualised, inappropriate actions (such as when cookstove improvement programmes make inaccurate assumptions about cooking practices and fuel choices). Such generalisations portray women as passive victims or virtuous stewards in ways that increase their responsibility for delivering collective action without the corresponding rewards (such as when biogas-cooking programmes seek to ‘empower’ women but inadvertently result in additional domestic labour). A GESI-transformative approach to the energy transition requires challenging these types of decisions and practices, which tend to reproduce energy injustices, whatever their intentions. JustGESI will deliver substantive action to advance GESI objectives within the energy transition in Africa, focusing on: How to advance GESI objectives within concrete projects and policy interventions. Identifying and promoting institutional and policy reforms that facilitate GESI objectives. Identifying and delivering forms of capacity building that advance transformative strategies to GESI. This interdisciplinary, international partnership will deliver practical, policy and capacity-building responses through a collaborative programme of work across four countries, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, where our well-established research network has obtained evidence of inclusivity gaps in the energy transition and are already initiating pilot actions to tackle these. The project will address the Ayrton challenge of ‘smart delivery,’ delivering ‘inclusive energy & leave no one behind’ interventions by putting questions of equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the transition to sustainable energy. Simultaneously, the project will address the challenges of ‘super-efficient demand’ and ‘modern cooking services’ by focusing on the delivery of sustainable fuels for cooking. At COP28, world leaders committed to clean cooking for all Africans. However, despite pioneering examples of gender-responsive electric cooking programmes, there is not yet a credible international GESI strategy for clean cooking. (1) https://www.iea.org/programmes/people-centred-clean-energy-transitions (2) https://justtransitionafrica.org/ (3) https://genderenergycompact.org
GRN: EP/Z533361/1
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/08/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
Clean energy access will be key for achieving the global development goals; it has clear links to health, education, water access, etc... Many regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, have low electricity access today. Scalability, cost-effectiveness and abundance of solar irradiance make solar the best technology for this endeavour. Solar Home Systems (SHS) have successfully provided basic services like lighting and mobile phone charging to many communities. However, SHS offer low power output, which limits their ability to support more energy-intensive applications such as electric cooking. Electric stoves, which could significantly reduce reliance on wood stoves, offer health and environmental benefits but require much more power than what SHS can provide. Connecting multiple SHS to form a larger grid has been considered but is often impractical due to high costs and limited scalability. Instead, community-scale solar mini-grids, with larger generation and storage, present a viable alternative. These mini-grids can be designed to support household cooking and industrial and agricultural uses such as grain milling and cooling. They can also provide power for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, an important development in many African cities where motorbike taxis are common. Electric motorbikes offer a cleaner alternative to fuel-powered engines but require reliable and substantial power sources for charging. Integrating mini-grids with local distribution networks can enhance their efficiency and reliability. By connecting mini-grids to these networks, they can share resources and provide power during peak demand times or when the main grid is down. This integration can benefit both the mini-grids and the distribution system, creating a more resilient energy network. The installation of solar panels requires a significant land area, which can conflict with agricultural activities and conservation efforts. However, solar panels can power agricultural equipment like water pumps and with appropriate co-design (agrivoltaics) the panels can provide shade and support soil temperature control and water conservation. Additionally, the revenue from mini-grid services can support local farmers and enhance their economic stability. Our project will explore how mini-grids with EV charging infrastructure for small vehicles can be integrated into agricultural areas and support various community needs. We will develop geographical models to identify optimal locations for these mini-grids and evaluate how different technologies and applications can be combined. Our research team, with expertise in infrastructure planning, political geography, and electrical engineering, will focus on how mini-grids can interact with local distribution networks to maximize their benefits. We plan to test these concepts in real-world settings by deploying a small set of EVs and suitable charging infrastructure. The interaction with the community, industrial developers and national regulators based in Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya will provide steering and inform the development of models and systems required in our work. The project is led by Imperial College London with a consortium of researchers from the University of Strathmore (Kenya), University of Energy and Natural Resources of Ghana, the University of Leeds, the University of Rwanda, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the Kigali Centre for Collaborative Research (Rwanda)
GRN: UKRI-357
Period: 01/02/2025 to 31/01/2030
Funding Source: EPSRC
Nuclear energy is recognised as an integral part of a secure and prosperous future for the UK. Decarbonisation and attainment of net zero by 2050 is unachievable without significant nuclear energy in the mix. To do this there needs to be continued underpinning nuclear research in the UK. This requires access to the National Nuclear User Facilities for all researchers from PhD to Professors. NNUF Successor will provide this access across a wide range of nuclear areas, from materials for fusion to robotics for decommission and disposal, and across diverse project types, covering both early scoping studies to larger long term collaborations. Our vision for the next stage of the National Nuclear User Facility project is to move UK nuclear research closer to the international ‘top table’ by using the state of the art infrastructure provided by NNUF(1) and (2) to further expand the scale and ambition of UK nuclear research, continue to train and grow the nuclear research community, and to leverage resources to build key international collaborations. This will be done through the following: to continue to support the widest possible utilisation of the NNUF facilities network by the UK nuclear research community, increasing the volume, ambition and impact of activity by emphasising and encouraging larger/longer access projects; to extract maximum value from the NIFT-E joint US-UK materials irradiation campaign initiated in the previous phase of NNUF; use the NNUF access scheme to provide high quality research training in response to Government’s Nuclear Skills Task Force report; seek to leverage the NNUF investment to build on existing and to establish key new international research collaborations. Nuclear technology underpins the UK’s ambitions in Net Zero, energy security and defence, while managing our nuclear waste legacy has been described by Government as ‘one of the most demanding managerial, technical and environmental challenges facing the UK in the next century’ (DTI, 2002). Beneficiaries of NNUF Successor will be the UK nation state, the bodies charged with delivering its nuclear programmes (Great British Nuclear, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, UKAEA, the Defence Nuclear Organisation) and their supply chains from leading international blue chips (Rolls-Royce, Jacobs) through academia to small and medium enterprises in the fission sector, the Nuclear AMRC and the developing supply chain for fusion materials and components. These benefits will not just be in the form of research outputs but also in developing the students and researchers who will be trained on world leading nuclear research equipment and be the next generation of leaders in the UK nuclear industry.
GRN: UKRI-319
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Avoiding dangerous climate change is a primary challenge facing society. New solar energy conversion technologies are needed, in addition to silicon, to expand renewable generation and meet this challenge. Molecular electronic materials are chemically tuneable, versatile and low-impact, and have recently achieved solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies near 20%. Greater performance is possible if non-radiative losses of charge carriers can be reduced. In POTENtIAl I aim to develop a framework to design molecular solar energy converters with higher radiative efficiency. I will exploit the remarkable parallels with natural photosystems, which, from early measurements of luminescence, show promising performance. My hypothesis is that nonradiative losses can be reduced in artificial molecular photovoltaics by mimicking structural and electronic features of natural photosystems. To relate structure of the molecular assembly to efficiency and loss pathways, I will investigate recently discovered versions of PS I and PS II that show photochemical action using low-energy infrared photons. The specific objectives are: To develop a coarse grained model of exciton generation in a molecular assembly coupled to onward charge transfer reactions, that can simulate the flux - potential output of molecular PV or PS systems; to measure (electro)luminescence from different designs of PV devices and different varieties of photosystem to establish their radiative efficiency; to interpret luminescence from both types of system and use the model to identify loss pathways and so explain the surprising behaviour of recently discovered PS and molecular PV systems that appear to operate with lower thermodynamic driving force; and to design and engineer PV structures that minimise non-radiative losses and, potentially, improve photochemical stability, using insights gained from the PS analysis. The results should help design high performance molecular PV forsemi transparent and tandems
GRN: EP/Z533233/1
Period: 01/04/2024 to 30/06/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
Imagine you are responsible for ensuring your organisation transitions in a timely and just way to meet its net zero pledge. You know the UK needs to be 11 times faster in its net zero transition, but you are very aware that ‘going green’ can be challenging and sometimes have negative connotations. Your staff are worried about their jobs and the skills and resources you and they need to develop or find. You have faced and overcome this challenge before – the same was stated about the digital transformation you successfully led. By adopting a people-led approach, your workforce was engaged and your organisation transformed how it operated. The impact being your organisation has grown and the workforce expanded. You now wish to achieve the same success for your net zero transition and have created a Flagship programme, People-Led Net Zero (PLNZ) to deliver a people-led, practical, systems-based approach, enabling your organisation to achieve a prosperous, sustainable, timely, resilient and just transition to net zero. PLNZ prioritises human needs and working patterns in the design and implementation of net zero decision making tools and insights. Your experience has shown. People-led, is critical to success, Stakeholders buy-in is needed, and A transdisciplinary team is required for success. You have designed PLNZ with your stakeholders, who highlighted that often the analysis required for evaluating net zero transitions was over whelming, requiring a whole-system analysis, and led to ‘disengaged’ people, at all levels. They stated it is crucial to consider and model, both the technical complexities that impact the economy, environment, and society, and the human context, including the motivations, perceptions, and skills of the people creating the model(s), the stakeholders impacted by the proposed net zero mitigations and those using the model outputs for decision-making. During this co-creation, four challenges were identified. Establishing criteria to determine when system modelling adds value—and when it does not—along with a way to recognise this. Identifying both common and unique, factors/rules to incorporate in the creation of fit-for-purpose model(s) tailored to individual contexts. Identify people-led metrics to assess the likelihood of uptake and sustained use of system models. Creating a means to ensure rules and approaches remain fit-for-purpose over time. To address these challenges, you are using live test cases to design and deliver the PLNZ flagship. The test cases encompass the full range of operational life stages (emerging, current, end of life) and cover the range of sectors your organisation works within. TC1, Cellular Agriculture, an emerging system involving experimental research on novel food production; TC2, Mobility as a Service, TC3, nuclear decommissioning a system coming to the end of its life, and TC4, decarbonisation of buildings. TC1: Cellular Agriculture - Novel food production. TC2: Mobility as a Service (MaaS). TC3: Nuclear Decommissioning. TC4: Decarbonisation of buildings. Which will be delivered through five work packages. Co-create people-led current state system models for test cases. Select future state scenarios for an accelerated transition to net zero. Identify rules and create fit for purpose models to achieve a timely and just transition. Evaluate fit for purpose useable models and disseminate outputs. Embed the outputs of PLNZ across all your organisation. The PLNZ flagship will advance your net zero transition by being people-led and will assist the UK to deliver its net zero pledge.
GRN: EP/Z533245/1
Period: 01/04/2024 to 30/06/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
Context Energy inequality continues to hamper socio-economic growth in many African nations, where millions lack reliable access to electricity. Traditional energy sources are expensive, environmentally damaging, and dependent on external supplies, which limits their sustainability and accessibility. The REACH-PSM project (Resilient Renewable Energy Access Through Community-Driven Holistic Development in Perovskite Solar Module Manufacturing) aims to revolutionise energy access by enabling the local development and manufacturing of sustainable perovskite solar modules (PSMs) in Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa. The Challenge With >500 million people in Africa without electricity, there is an urgent need for scalable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy solutions. Current renewable technologies, while beneficial, often fail to address local contexts and can result in significant environmental waste, particularly from end-of-life photovoltaic systems. The challenge lies in developing a localised manufacturing process for next-generation solar technology that is both cost-effective and sustainable, with simultaneous development of efficient end-of-life treatment to mitigate waste, allowing for widespread adoption across Africa. Aims and Objectives The REACH-PSM project seeks to accelerate the development and commercialisation of PSMs by focusing on the following objectives: Delivering commercially competitive low-cost manufacturing of PSMs in partner locations in Africa with a performance of >15% PCE and a lifetime of >10 years. Developing novel components of PSMs, and identification of domestic green supply-chains to enable regional manufacture and improve sustainability. Delivering PSMs designed for the circular economy with optimised end-of-life processing, minimising waste and maximising the circular flow of materials delivering enhanced commercial viability, sustainability, and resource security. Creating novel sustainable business models and community co-designed products that are suitable and appropriate for use. Potential Benefits The REACH-PSM project will accelerate the transforming energy access agenda in Africa by pioneering the development of locally manufacturable PSM, demonstrating the first next generation solar module manufacturing in Africa. This localised production will not only empower communities by fostering energy independence and creating jobs but also set a new standard for sustainable energy solutions. By utilising sustainable materials and processes, the project will also address the environmental challenges associated with traditional solar technologies, offering a more resilient and adaptable energy solution. Ayrton Challenge Areas The project addresses the Next Generation Solar Challenge Area. REACH-PSM advances perovskite technology, which offers the potential of more distributed solar manufacturing thanks to low-cost processing and manufacturing routes. REACH-PSM will collaborate across the Ayrton Fund portfolio to amplify impact. We will align with the Ayrton Challenge on Energy Storage, the LEIA programme, the Climate Compatible Growth Project, and the Zero Emission Generators initiative, exploring synergies in local manufacturing, circular economy principles, and sustainable energy solutions. ODA Compliance REACH-PSM is fully compliant with ODA criteria, as it directly addresses the economic and social challenges of Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa—countries listed on the OECD DAC. By focusing on localised manufacturing and sustainable energy solutions, the project promotes economic development and improves the welfare of communities most in need. The expected outcomes include significant advancements in energy access, environmental sustainability, and economic empowerment, aligning with the broader goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG13 (Climate Action). We also seek to advance progress towards SDG5 (Gender Equality), SDG9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG10 (Reduced Inequality), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production)
GRN: EP/Z533257/1
Period: 01/04/2024 to 30/06/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
This research sets out to explore how energy is being rethought and understood in the context of local energy transitions. Through a 2.5 year ethnographic study of community and municipal energy projects in the UK, the research aims to understand how experiments with new technologies and practices of energy generation, distribution, conservation, supply and visualisation, are shifting understandings of what energy is and how it should be addressed as a tool of social reproduction. The research will focus specifically on the emergence of community and municipal energy projects oriented to local processes of social change and economic regeneration and to the digital and data technologies used within these projects to make energy knowable. It will seek to understand how local energy futures are being pursued by taking as a starting point two geographical areas - one in the North of England and one in London - where energy transformations are taking place. Taking these concrete locations as a starting point, the research will aim to understand how people are experimenting with and rethinking energy as an infrastructure of social reproduction. It will investigate what kinds of understandings of energy are emerging in these projects, the role of different kinds of technologies in positioning energy as a method of social and economic transformation and the possibilities and barriers that this reveals for broader energy transitions in the UK and beyond. The research aims to contribute both to academic research on the relationship between energy and social life, and to policy, community energy and business by outlining the social possibilities and conceptual barriers to an effective energy transition
GRN: UKRI-310
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
GRN: UKRI-311
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
GRN: UKRI-315
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
GRN: EP/Z003415/1
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
My research seeks to reshape urgent debates on sustainability and energy transitions by calling attention to the work of maintaining and repairing energy systems. My doctoral research project documented the centrality of this work to the long-term sustainability of solar energy projects in the Sundarbans region of India - as well as the consequences of its structural devaluation. My programme for the fellowship aims to amplify this message by disseminating research findings and developing impact opportunities at scale, while looking beyond the timeframe of the fellowship to ensure its long-term legacy. This aim will be achieved through five interlinked objectives: Produce a book manuscript from my doctoral thesis to be submitted for publication; the book will be primarily aimed at an academic audience, thus paving the way for my career progression in academia Communicate research findings to colleagues, students, and the wider public through dissemination activities such as departmental seminars, guest lectures, and generalist pieces in public-oriented outlets Undertake an overseas institutional visit to work with a renowed expert at the gender-energy nexus; this collaboration will help me finetune and enrich the book content as well as develop new thinking Undertake a follow-on trip to the Sundarbans together with a India-based creative practitioner(s), which will constitute the premise for a new, multimodal research project to be undertaken after the fellowship Formulate a grant proposal for this project to extend my work into the future; the project will build on my doctoral research project but allow me to speak to publics and debates beyond the academy. The fellowship will be geared towards delivering the following outputs: One book manuscript, either drafted in its entirety or submitted for publication A number of presentations, which can be later repurposed to write new papers At least one generalist piece published in a public-oriented outlet One zine/multimedia report documenting the activities undertaken as part of the follow-on trip to the Sundarbans with the creative practitioner(s) selected for the collaboration A grant proposal extending my work into the future and strengthening its impact
GRN: UKRI-312
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Context Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country and the fourth most populous country globally, boasting over 17,000 islands located in the tropics with an annual average air temperature of 28 ⁰C. The country is also the second largest fishing nation with 6.7 million tonnes of marine catches and 14.5 million tonnes from aquaculture in 2018, representing nearly 7% of GDP contribution. As much as 95% of the country fishery production is made by small-scale fishers, encompassing approximately 6 million people or 2.5 million households engaged in this vital sector. Furthermore, there are 576 fishing ports in Indonesia and 526 (91%) of them are small-scale operations. Yet around 20% of Indonesia's impoverished population hail from fishing households, highlighting systemic challenges. Many of the communities and ports are without adequate cold storage and ice-making facilities. The current cold storage capacity in Indonesia is only sufficient for 500,000 tons of seafood, starkly insufficient for the colossal 20 million tons of fish produced annually. This shortfall not only leads to extensive food loss due to wasted catch but also constraints economic opportunities due to inability to store catches for longer periods. Consequently, Indonesia contends with significant post-harvest losses estimated at 30%. Aim and Objectives This project aims to develop, deploy, and monitor zero emissions and affordable cooling infrastructure, in the form of a cooling hub, for small-scale fisheries in Indonesia. Research objectives Identify small-scale fishers current and future cooling demand profiles across typical fisheries communities; Develop optimised cooling hub design options that integrates multiple cooling services including cold storage, ice making and other ancillary services; Develop viable business models that ensure affordability and adhere to local context; Understand and mitigate the social impacts of deploying the cooling hub; Assess the environmental sustainability of the cooling hub throughout its life cycle; Develop a blueprint to integrate the cooling hub in wider energy and cooling systems; Co-develop policy interventions that foster sustainable cooling practices. Ayrton Fund Themes and Challenge Areas In addressing this pressing issue, this project aligns with the following two Ayrton themes: lower-cost, flexible clean energy supplies suited to the resources of developing countries. super-efficient demand via innovative services, processes and equipment meeting the needs of poor consumers and enterprises. The project will tackle the following four challenge areas: Sustainable cooling for all Zero emissions generators Energy efficiency Inclusive energy and leave no-one behind Potential applications and benefits Access to robust cooling infrastructure will improve the socioeconomic conditions of small-scale fishers. By ensuring the quality and freshness of their catch, these fishers can command higher prices in the market, thereby bolstering their economic viability. By minimising fish loss, the project plays a key role in curbing the loss of protein and micro-nutrient-rich foods, thereby contributing to efforts to mitigate high rates of malnutrition and harming livelihoods. Furthermore, our project seeks to promote a more inclusive development by actively engaging women and youth in activities with higher economic values. In addition, the integrated cooling service will reduce emissions by using energy efficient equipment and natural refrigerants
GRN: EP/Y016114/2
Period: 01/08/2024 to 30/09/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
The Smart Hydropower Solutions (SMART-HS) project will revolutionise the optimisation of clean hydropower energy generation in the Lower Mekong region of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia through the implementation of smart and inclusive hydropower prediction services. SMART-HS aims to support the energy efficiency and dam safety of the existing dense hydropower network to align with fluctuating energy demand and reservoir inflows. This will be achieved in the context of unprecedented climate variability, climate change, and ageing infrastructure in the region, while developing inclusive energy practices to ensure that no community is left behind. Hydropower systems currently provide more than 50% of the energy in the region but are threatened by the increasing frequency of extreme inflows under climate change, the loss of storage due to reservoir sedimentation, and rapidly ageing infrastructure. Integrating advanced monitoring and forecasting systems to secure sustainable hydropower production and dam safety, within this context, is crucial. SMART-HS will enhance the efficiency of the existing network of hydropower plants by using real-time and forecast data on water levels, weather conditions, and energy demand to inform predictive analytics, facilitating proactive adjustments in energy output to meet variations in demand. The existing hydropower network is predominantly composed of micro-plants located in remote and underserved regions, with ageing infrastructure and significant dam safety risks. Ensuring dam safety is paramount to protect downstream communities from harm while sustaining energy provision. We will provide comprehensive training to support sustainable energy generation and minimise socio-economic and environmental impacts, particularly for small hydropower plants in underserved communities. SMART-HS places a strong emphasis on inclusive energy practices to ensure that no community is left behind. By empowering local communities to participate in and benefit from hydropower projects and supporting gender equality, we aim to foster inclusivity and sustainable development. The overarching aim of SMART-HS is to address the pressing challenge of meeting the growing energy demand in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia by distributing clean energy to rural and remote areas in an equitable and sustainable manner. SMART-HS will accelerate the clean energy transition through a smart and inclusive hydropower system. We address this aim through three main objectives. (1) Implement advanced, low-cost monitoring and forecasting systems for hydropower plants across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia through the integration of sensors, IoT devices, and machine learning algorithms for real-time data collection and predictive analytics. (2) Optimise energy generation to align with fluctuating demand and water flow supply, ensuring the efficient utilisation of hydropower resources. (3) Provide training and support for small hydropower plants in underserved communities to ensure sustainable energy access, thereby enhancing sustainability and empowerment. SMART-HS’s applications and benefits include: (1) Enhanced efficiency and reliability of hydropower generation, supporting underserved communities and the stability of the region's energy supply; (2) Improved resilience to demand fluctuations and grid disruptions, ensuring uninterrupted access to electricity; and (3) Promotion of inclusive energy practices, bridging the gap between urban and rural areas and fostering social cohesion and equity. By harnessing smart prediction services and promoting inclusive energy practices, this project offers a transformative approach to sustainable low-carbon hydropower generation and distribution in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, with methods that are transferable to other transboundary systems globally. We aspire to create a more sustainable and equitable clean energy future for all
GRN: UKRI-316
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
The Aim of this project is to drive forward a large-scale clean energy transition in rural communities in Bangladesh through the design, development and demonstration of smart energy systems which exploit the excess electricity from Solar Irrigation Pumps (SIPs). Context: People/Place: Bangladesh is ranked 7th in the Climate Risk Index 60% of the population (c.100M people) rely on agriculture as their main income source. Intensification of irrigation practices: Allows an additional rice crop (55% of total) to be grown during the dry season (Jan-May). 6M irrigation pumps are used including 1.2M tube-wells powered by diesel engines consuming 1MT/yr imported diesel, emitting 3MT of CO2 (c.4% of Bangladesh’s annual gross emission) Replacement of diesel pumps with SIPs provides a critical route to reliable distributed clean energy. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), supported by key state organisations, propose a roadmap to deliver 45,000 SIPs replacing 200,000 diesel pumps by 2031. SIPs are sized to provide sufficient water during peak irrigation demand (100-150 days per year), so only 40 to 60% of the potential electricity generation of the panels is required for irrigation. The ADB report estimates that the 45,000 replacement SIPs will produce 480GWH/yr of surplus electricity. The current recommended method for utilisation of excess electricity is export to grid, but this often requires expensive grid extension, connection and metering. Post-harvest storage/ processing of crops: Fruit and vegetable production is c.17MT/yr, but post-harvest losses range from 25-40%, whilst farmers obtain a poor price due to surplus supply during peak seasons. Both can be alleviated by the availability of cold storage facilities; however, these are limited in Bangladesh owing to high capex/ energy costs. Additional processing of cereals, fruit and vegetables can add value and reduce losses (milling, drying, juicing), but require energy. These factors present a clear opportunity to leverage the excess electricity from SIPs and utilise it locally and smartly to support agriculture and rural communities. The challenge is that techno-economically validated pathways to seize this opportunity are currently not available to potential users (farmers), operators, investors and policymakers. To meet this challenge our project has the following objectives: Capture demand and supply requirements around SIP locations and their local communities into a structured knowledge base. Address key questions surrounding the design, sizing, and smart operation of farm-based microgrids powered by SIP systems. Tailor system solutions to unique local conditions. Provide socio-technical, techno-economic and Life Cycle Assessments of proposed solutions. Build Decision Support Systems and physical field testing and demonstration sites to enable investors/ decision makers to explore the nature and scale of the opportunity and drive strategic innovation, investment, and policy. Build capacity, capability, and resilience within rural communities by co-creating and co-delivering solutions that ensure equitable access to energy and economic development opportunities. Ayrton Challenges – Super Efficient Demand/ Smart Delivery/ Smart Energy Systems/ Sustainable Cooling/ Inclusive Energy Applications/ Benefits: Results/lessons from this work will also inform solarisation of the >10M diesel irrigation pumps that are currently operated in other Southern Asian countries. Bangladesh is categorised as a ‘Least Developed Country’. By improving access to local reliable and affordable clean energy this project will promote socio-economic development by enhancing business performance and stimulating growth; and reduce poverty and inequality of farming communities (particularly for women), increasing income and employment opportunities and building capacity and capability
GRN: UKRI-356
Period: 01/02/2025 to 31/01/2030
Funding Source: EPSRC
This project addresses the key challenge of capturing radioiodine and creating suitable wasteforms for long term disposal. It is an area of research specifically identified within the UK-US action plan collaboration agreement between the US-Department of Energy (DOE) and the department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). This work has importance to both current nuclear facilities in the world today, such as at Hanford in the US but also applies to the development of future nuclear fuel recycling plants where it may fundamentally change the approach to iodine management, reducing environmental impact. This work contributes to a Nuclear Energy University Programme (NEUP) project collaborating with 4 US partners, University of Nevada Reno (UNR), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T) and the University of Houston. The overall project aims to develop materials and processes for the regeneration and recycling of sorbents designed to capture iodine. It includes the transformation of iodine-loaded sorbents into wasteforms suitable for long-term disposal, which is the part of this work that this grant will support. We will be using Hot Isostatic Pressing technology to apply heat and pressure to a sealed container containing the iodine material, combined with a durable encapsulant. The technology eliminates porosity within the material and therefore increase durability. By demonstrating that the iodine capture materials developed in the broader NEUP project can be readily converted into a durable wasteform will enable the deployment of these materials within current and future facilities. Radioiodine management to mitigate hazards present in the nuclear fuel cycle is a vital part of making current waste management safer and future nuclear installations more acceptable to the general public. This is because radioiodine is highly mobile in the biosphere and readily absorbed by the thyroid gland leading to cancerous growth. I-129, the isotope most relevant to disposal scenarios, has a long half life and is highly mobile in the geosphere underpinning the need for a durable wasteform. The current generation of large scale reprocessing plants in the UK and France have managed iodine by redirecting aerial discharges to sea discharge, dispersing the I-129 into a large body of water. This proposal addresses changing that approach by temporally offsetting the release of I-129 into the biosphere by use of a durable matrix material. Thus, the peak impact of I-129 is reduced.
GRN: EP/Z533701/1
Period: 01/01/2025 to 30/06/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Context In June 2023, Pakistan experienced extreme temperatures exceeding 52.2°C, a level at which human cells begin to cook, blood thickens, muscles constrict around the lungs, and the brain is deprived of oxygen. This severe heatwave resulted in the death of 120,000 people, the loss of 26 billion potential labour hours (equivalent to $16 billion in lost income), and up to 9% of the country's GDP. The extreme heat, coupled with frequent power outages, worsened the vulnerabilities of socially deprived communities and women, leading to increased hospitalizations and miscarriages, as reported by the UNDP and the National Commission for the Status of Women (NCSW). Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director in South Asia, called for urgent global action as these heatwaves severely impacted human rights in Pakistan. Co-creation & Co-designing In response to the crisis, the Pakistan Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigeration Society organized the 28th International Exhibition and Conference in June 2023. A working group led by Dr. Shahzad, consisting of researchers, stakeholders, and end users, was established to identify the issue and develop potential solutions. The group held its third meeting in December 2023 at the ASHRAE UK Chapter conference at Loughborough, where UK researchers and solution providers were invited to join this international effort. Currently, the working group includes over 50 representatives from Pakistani and UK institutions and industries. Aims and Objectives The S2Cool project represents a pioneering collaboration between the UK and partners in Pakistan. The primary aim is to develop a novel, low-cost, and energy-efficient cooling solution and capacity building platform. The primary objectives of the S2Cool project are: Design and Development: Develop and test the 20kW Novel Indirect Evaporative Cooler (NIEC) and its integration with Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC) systems. AI Framework Development: Develop and implement an AI framework for process optimization and system integration. GESI and EDI Evaluations: Conduct GESI and EDI assessments to ensure equitable benefits for all community members. Performance and Impact Assessment: Assess performance through life cycle costing, and evaluate social, economic, and sustainability impacts. Technology Scale-up and Commercialization: Establish a framework for technology scaling and commercialization. Capacity Building Platform and Knowledge Dissemination: Develop online platform, conduct training and community engagement sessions, and share knowledge and findings. Potential Applications and Benefits The proposed system is versatile, applicable in residential, commercial, industrial, and vehicular settings, including buses. Its benefits include improved comfort, health, productivity, energy efficiency, and equipment preservation. This project will primarily advance UNSDGs 7 and 13, while also supporting goals 3, 5, 9, and 11 by reducing energy use in air conditioning and lowering emissions to combat climate change and address energy inequity in Pakistan. Ayrton Challenge and Theme The S2Cool project addresses the Ayrton Challenge area of "super-efficient demand." The project aims to develop a cooling solution that is highly energy-efficient, making it suitable for a country with limited energy resources and high electricity costs. ODA Compliance The S2Cool project is compliant with Official Development Assistance (ODA) guidelines, targeting a critical development issue in Pakistan, a low-income country. The project aims to improve living conditions, enhance productivity, and contribute to economic development by providing an affordable and energy-efficient cooling solution. By addressing the impacts of extreme heatwaves and supporting sustainable development goals, the project aligns with ODA objectives of poverty reduction and sustainable development in developing countries
GRN: EP/Z002109/1
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
The global energy sector is facing considerable pressure arising from climate change, depletion of fossil fuels and geopolitical issues around the location of remaining fossil fuel reserves. Energy networks are vitally important enablers for the UK energy sector and therefore UK industry and society. Energy networks exist primarily to exploit and facilitate temporal and spatial diversity in energy production and use and to exploit economies of scale where they exist. The pursuit of Net Zero presents many complex interconnected challenges which reach beyond the UK and have huge relevance internationally. These challenges vary considerably from region to region due to historical, geographic, political, economic and cultural reasons. As technology and society changes so do these challenges, and therefore the planning, design and operation of energy networks needs to be revisited and optimised. Electricity systems are facing technical issues of bi-directional power flows, increasing long-distance power flows and a growing contribution from fluctuating and low inertia generation sources. Gas systems require significant innovation to remain relevant in a low carbon future. Heat networks have little energy demand market share, although they have been successfully installed in other northern European countries. Other energy vectors such as Hydrogen or bio-methane show great promise but as yet have no significant share of the market. Faced with these pressures, the modernisation of energy networks technology, processes and governance is a necessity if they are to be fit for the future. Good progress has been made in de-carbonisation in some areas but this has not been fast enough, widespread enough across vectors or sectors and not enough of the innovation is being deployed at scale. Effort is required to accelerate the development, scale up the deployment and increase the impact delivered
GRN: UKRI-98
Period: 01/07/2024 to 01/07/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
Communities are built around shared resource of commodities. Today, no commodity is more important than energy. Energy access, clean energy and energy cost link multiple Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action, health and gender equality. Communities with clean, cost-effective and reliable energy sources can thrive, supporting education, healthcare and equal gender opportunities. Conversely, communities without clean energy access must rely on labour intensive, dirty fuels for lighting, cooking and heating. These have detrimental impacts on well-being for hundreds of millions of people globally. Energy systems are often designed with linear goals (e.g. number of households connected to a grid) without consideration of just, effective, energy transitions. This marginalises communities: linear goals do not align with community needs, working directly against the Ayrton theme of Inclusive Energy and Leave No One Behind. This proposed research addresses this Ayrton theme, creating a transdisciplinary well-being design framework that considers socio-economic, environmental, health and technological conditions, to improve inclusion and sustainability of energy access interventions. Focussing on The Gambia and Ghana, this research will answer the question: To what extent does the utilisation of a well-being framework act as a driver for sustainable energy system design and enable an inclusive energy transition? Local research institutions MRC Unit The Gambia, University of The Gambia, Mbolo Association, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana are proposal co-creators and will direct this into relevant Africa-centric research. The following objectives are proposed: Understand success, failure and the well-being impacts of energy interventions by reviewing and mapping previous energy access initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. Create a holistic well-being framework, utilising transdisciplinary methodologies to transform energy system design (SHINE framework). Pilot the SHINE framework on small-scale energy interventions in energy vulnerable communities in The Gambia and Ghana. Evaluate the usability and outcome of the SHINE framework on overall energy system design. Capacity building and knowledge transfer to local, national, and international stakeholders, to secure scalable, sustainable impact of the SHINE framework. Using a case control methodology, we will pilot the SHINE framework through energy interventions with off-grid communities. Analysis themes of gender and social inclusion; climate; health; policy and economic; and technology will impart the SHINE framework on energy system design. Monitoring, through quantitative and qualitative data collection, will highlight the intervention’s efficacy, scale and performance. The anticipated outcomes of this programme are: Creation of an interdisciplinary well-being framework that drives energy system design for inclusive energy transitions (SDG7.1 7.A). Open datasets (socio-economic, gender and social inclusion variables), reporting energy situations of off-grid communities and the well-being impact of energy interventions (SDG7.1, 7.2, 7.3 7.A). A policy brief, highlighting opportunities of a well-being framework to create an environment for effective, impactful energy interventions (SDG7.B 13.2; 13.B). A technology/knowledge transfer programme to build skills, capacity and capability of stakeholders, local communities and women entrepreneurs (SDG7.A, 13.3, 13.B) SHINE’s impact will enable designers and implementers to incorporate, increase and measure inclusivity, health, sustainability and other multi-dimensional wellbeing impacts. This will provide a clear pathway for just energy transition in The Gambia and Ghana. SHINE will work towards all SDG7 targets, providing a framework for energy service providers to follow, whilst contributing to SDG13 targets for climate action and climate education for adaptation, resilience and reduced impact of changes (13.1,13.3)
GRN: EP/Z533300/1
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Challenge. Achieving a Just Transition to Net Zero is one of the defining challenges of modern times. While many technological solutions exist for decarbonisation, the human challenges facing a fair and inclusive transition are substantial. In the 2023 book ‘When Nothing Works’, Calafati et al describe the state of ‘broken Britain’, noting the failure of the ‘palpable economy’ and the poor state of infrastructure, public services, and growing social marginalisation. This echoes calls for new ideas and interventions that empower people and create liveable vibrant places. Achieving our Net Zero aims will need to address both the question of emissions reduction and the creation of co-benefits that improve societal welfare – reducing fuel poverty, improving homes, supporting better health and wellbeing and improving local economies. While many examples exist of promising local initiatives addressing these 'wicked problems' they are often niche or limited in scale and can be constrained by conflicting systems of planning, finance, infrastructure and regulation. To achieve Net Zero at scale we will need new approaches that address these constraints and meet the needs for a human-centred transition that is fair, inclusive and regenerative. Aims and Objectives. JUST-Systems will develop a suite of integrated systems approaches that position people at the centre of the transition to Net Zero and accelerate action on decarbonisation, local economies and social justice. By understanding the interactions between people, policies and technologies and having them co-create the research we can design better and more inclusive interventions. Systems approaches can support the identification of synergies and trade-offs between climate strategies and priorities like health or social inclusion, focus on the blocks and points of leverage for change, and bring to light what interventions deliver the most benefits. Just-Systems has four objectives: Co-creating multiple societal models for achieving Just Transitions from the perspective of diverse communities, stakeholders, organisations and places. Co-creating a Net Zero Systems Platform that aligns energy and carbon modelling with wider societal demands and co-benefits including health and wellbeing, local economic development, and place-based resilience. Integrating systems thinking with the Just Transition to characterise and design governance interventions that deliver decarbonisation with co-benefits. Building capacity between communities, civil society, business and government to co-design systems approaches that build resilience, local economies and accelerate action towards the 2030 UK climate targets. Applications and Benefits. In JUST-Systems, we want to reduce emissions and enact transformative change. The project will facilitate partnerships across five diverse UK case studies where we can understand the challenges of transitions in multiple lived contexts and co-develop pathways for action and investment. Building on this place-based approach, we will develop a co-designed Net Zero Systems Platform that will support evaluation of Just Transition scenarios across a range of carbon, technological, social, and economic drivers and objectives. This will inform stakeholders of how change can be achieved, what steps need to be taken, what trade-offs are required and how we can empower and build capacity for change. Through our collective case studies across the UK, we will develop governance solutions that can be trialled, shared, and scaled to inform other places and sectors. We will work closely with our partners in Government, business and civil society to inform, collaborate and build new and robust partnerships that deliver a people-centred transition to Net Zero
GRN: UKRI-258
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/03/2028
Funding Source: EPSRC
The information and communication technologies (ICT) sector has become an inextricable part of our modern world, from supporting basic day-to-day tasks to performing complex simulations and calculations that are essential to scientific research, engineering, security, control and other fields. High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems that are capable of solving hugely complex and demanding problems with high computational power, are critical in the development of leading-edge global scientific and engineering projects currently underway in the commercial, academic and government spaces, spurring discoveries and innovations. With the rise of artificial intelligence and big data, it is inevitable that the percentage of global power consumption from HPC systems will grow rapidly and is going to be a major challenge in the future. As such, there is growing interest in how the expansion of HPC systems can be delivered in a manner that is environmentally sustainable and in line with the government's pledge for a net zero society. This project will investigate how to exploit configurable and customisable processing technologies to design more sustainable HPC systems. The team of investigators will use a co-design approach, tuning processing hardware and software in collaboration to optimise HPC systems for both performance and energy efficiency. The proposed approach will be used to look at how to improve the performance and sustainability of wind energy systems, which in turn can be used to power HPC systems, further reducing the environmental impact of these systems. This is our primary research objective. For this exercise, we will dramatically reduce the environmental impact of Xcompact3d, an open-source software designed to study numerically fluid flows. It is currently among the most used softwares on ARCHER2, the UK supercomputing service. We will focus on Xcompact3d's wind farm simulator, a tool which can faithfully replicate virtually realistic scenarios encounter by modern wind farms. It will be re-designed with a hardware-software co-design approach. We will focus on three hardware architectures; 1) Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), 2) Coarse Grained Reconfigurable Architectures (CGRAs), 3) RISC-V. With FPGAs we are able to undertake the design of low-level bespoke memory access designs or algorithm level concurrency, with CGRAs to explore different approaches for mapping algorithms to the hardware and communication, and RISC-V to experiment with different CPU and accelerator designs and their configurations. With support from the vendors, all these experiments will result in actionable results that will be use to further direct the research, but also for the vendors to understand how to best enhance their products for the HPC community. The team of investigators will also gain insights into sustainability efforts in HPC with an in-depth study focusing on possible sustainability and net zero strategies. One of the overarching goals of the project is to provide a road-map for a more sustainable HPC landscape, and transfer the outcomes of the project to policy-making for a wide range of academic, government and industry stakeholders. The project team is composed of experts from a variety of fields, including high performance computing, computer science, programming, computational fluid dynamics, innovation and sustainability, and policy-making. This interdisciplinary team will be able to bring a wide range of expertise to bear on the challenges of developing and utilising more energy and resource efficient HPC systems
GRN: UKRI-412
Period: 01/01/2025 to 30/06/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
Abstract: Aqueous organic Redox flow batteries (AORFBs) have the potential to emerge as a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFBs). The decoupling of energy and power density, makes them unique, which is critical for energy distribution. The tunability of redox properties due to their structural diversity and designability makes them suitable for desired energy storage systems. Various redox mediators such as quinone, anthraquinone, viologens, alloxazine and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) have been studied for gaining insights to their redox chemistry. Phenazine based derivatives have recently emerged as promising redox mediators due to high solubility. Phenazine based 7,8-dihydroxyphenazine-2-sulfonic acid (DHPS) and isomeric analogues of dihydroxy phenazines (1,4-DHP and 1-6 DHP) as anolytes has showed excellent volumetric capacity and stable cycling, with very low capacity fade. Despite of these benefits, understanding of their redox chemistry is limited and unclear due to poor resolution, sensitivity and sparse sampling based on ex-situ 1D 1H NMR. The proposed research will use a multi-scale approach to fully understand the reaction chemistry of three phenazine based, DHPS and 1,4-DHP and 1,6-DHP, anolytes. Real-time Ultrafast (UF) 2D NMR in combination with 1D 1H NMR will be performed sequentially by pumping the anolyte from externally placed RFB through NMR probe. UF experiments will be performed ex-situ for gaining sensitivity, and resolution for correlation with online data. A miniaturized RFB will be designed and used for operando measurements by placing the cell inside NMR probe to perform localized 1D and 2D NMR to study redox mechanisms near the electrode. In summary, this proposed research will provide an exclusive understanding of the redox chemistry for improving and designing economic, environmental friendly and sustainable Phenazine based AORFB systems.
GRN: ES/Z504609/1
Period: 13/12/2024 to 12/09/2025
Funding Source: ESRC
UKERC has been at the forefront of whole systems, interdisciplinary research on the energy transition for almost two decades. As the challenges facing the UK and the world have evolved so have UKERC’s research agenda and partners. This proposal, created in consultation with stakeholders, builds on UKERC’s long-standing expertise and trusted status to propose new research themes and activities that address contemporary challenges. The vision for UKERC Phase 5 is to deliver world-leading whole systems research focusing on the challenge of delivering the energy transition. Four core research themes will tackle key challenges: delivering infrastructure at pace; operating a highly renewable and electrified system; geopolitics, security, and resilience; and affordability and justice. Theme 1 on delivering infrastructure will develop methods for strategic spatial energy planning and assess options for decarbonising dispersed industrial sites. Theme 2 focuses on flexibility, transport electrification, and long-duration storage. Theme 3 examines the geopolitics of fossil fuel decline and low emissions transitions. Theme 4 explores distributional impacts of new tariffs, place-based approaches, and deliberating heat transitions. A new Responsive Research theme will rapidly respond to emerging issues, using evidence reviews, modelling, surveys and applied social science methods. The Public Engagement Observatory and Energy Data Centre continue, mapping public views and curating open data. New partners and capabilities will be brought in through a £1.9m fund to enhance and extend the research programme. Three whole system missions will track heat and transport transitions, societal engagement, and future energy markets. UKERC’s successful Whole System Networking Fund will be maintained to provide opportunities to expand participation and for early career development. Summer schools, training and skills development will continue to be a strong focus. The programme will convene across the UK energy research community and build upon existing links to industry and policy stakeholders, it has a strong focus on career development and EDI, and will represent the UK energy community through international engagement. It will synthesize learning on research integration and produce integrative projects. Webinars, podcasts, briefing papers and blogs will continue to provide mechanisms for engagement across the energy sector and with civil society. UKERC’s whole system, interdisciplinary programme responds to global climate negotiation developments, geopolitical factors affecting energy security and prices, and UK policies, politics, and markets. It tackles delivery, flexibility, geopolitics, affordability, and justice challenges. The work is multi-method, interdisciplinary, and policy-oriented. It will engage with stakeholders throughout to co-create rigorous evidence-based outputs that will help accelerate the transition to an affordable, just, and inclusive net zero energy system
GRN: ES/Z504099/1
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/10/2026
Funding Source: ESRC
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a powerful and versatile atomic-scale probe of magnetic, electronic and structural properties of matter. NMR spectroscopy finds applications in a very broad range of scientific research and innovation areas from quantum and condensed matter physics (e.g., quantum magnetism, correlated electron systems and superconductivity) to materials chemistry (e.g., solar cells, catalysis and battery technology). This method allows unique insights into materials by providing a local (being element-specific) and non-invasive probe of electronic and molecular dynamics as well as local structure, including that of dilute dopants. The proposed Ultra-Low-Temperature NMR (ULT-NMR) infrastructure will address a broad range of scientific challenges, from fundamental science discoveries in exotic quantum states of matter to innovative development in advanced functional materials. We will focus on four primary Scientific Challenges in which we can deliver world-leading research. The first is discovery and understanding of new quantum states that occur only at very low temperatures beyond the reach of current NMR systems in the UK. The second is control of quantum states through combined tuning knobs of magnetic field and pressure, with the effect of this tuning monitored by NMR, building a pipeline towards new quantum technologies. The third is atomic-level structural characterisation of energy materials for which the NMR signal has so far been prohibitively weak; the low temperature will boost the signal-to-noise ratio. Finally, the fourth is quantitative analysis of the dynamics in supramolecular systems that is too fast to be studied at room temperature; cryogenic temperatures will slow these dynamics to allow precise study. Our primary aim is to integrate ULT-NMR into a globally competitive and inclusive environment for research on Quantum Matter Physics and Materials Chemistry that is centred at the University of Birmingham (UoB). We will also proactively support, and share the infrastructure with, the entire UK materials physics and chemistry communities to help them deliver their world-leading results across these fields. To deliver these aims, our objectives are: i) to implement a fully functioning ULT-NMR, ii) to develop and put into practice experimental methods relevant to our four Scientific Challenges, iii) to implement a transparent and fair access management model, iv) to develop a user support and training programme, along with Project Partners with complementary capabilities and expertise, v) to support career and professional development of our staff and vi) to expand the user base and train the next generation of scientists. We will maximise effective use of national resources to help the UK maintain its global leadership across the fields of quantum and functional materials through alliance with complementary national facilities (ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and Diamond Light Source) and Strategic Infrastructure (Midlands Mag-Lab and Tri-Beam Focused Ion Beam at UoB). ULT-NMR will also partner with the national NMR facility at UoB to benefit from its two decades of experience supporting engagement of the UK scientific community with cutting-edge NMR capabilities. The fundamental research enabled by the proposed infrastructure will find applications in energy harvesting and storage, low-energy electronics and quantum technologies including sensing and computing
GRN: ES/X008142/2
Period: 02/09/2024 to 31/03/2027
Funding Source: ESRC
Silicon Carbide is the true “wonder” material for power electronics. Its exceptional field strength (10x that of Silicon) and high thermal conductivity (3x that of Silicon and 3.5x that of Gallium Nitride) make it ideal for high voltage (over 600V) and high power (over 1kW) applications, such as inverters for electric vehicles, wind and photovoltaic converters, and power supplies for AI data centres. Moreover, the CO2 savings enabled by Silicon Carbide are projected to be an order of magnitude higher than those provided by the most advanced Silicon technologies. Furthermore, at 1.2 kV rating and above, Silicon Carbide is superior to other promising wide bandgap materials such as GaN. However, despite its impressive market traction with an annual growth rate exceeding 30%, one major issue remains unsolved: the very poor carrier mobility (e.g. 20 cm2/Vs) in the modulated channel at the oxide/SiC interface. This value is 50x lower than in an equivalent Silicon device, negating to some extent the advantages of MOS-based Silicon Carbide devices and hampering its outstanding potential in power electronics. It is the aim of this project to study in greater depth this interface using innovative techniques based on electron microscopy, propose novel techniques to enhance the mobility by 5x at the oxide/SiC interface and experimentally demonstrate disruptive device concepts in Silicon Carbide such as high voltage FinFETs which use quantum effects to increase the mobility by a factor of 10x. The proposed Japan-UK consortium is highly complementary and very well equipped to undertake this work
GRN: ES/Z503071/1
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/09/2025
Funding Source: ESRC
The proposal requests seven items of equipment to benefit the EPS research community across the College of Science and Engineering. Items 1-4: A battery test lab comprising a glovebox, potentiostat, battery tester and dynamic climate chamber. Item 5: A Universal Tribometer to carry out a host of mechanical and tribological tests in a single and compact benchtop system. Item 6: A Scanning Probe Microscope incorporating an atomic force microscopy base unit and extensions to facilitate imaging of soft materials, surface conductivities and electric and magnetic fields. Item 7: A Prodigy (N2) BBO-H&F 5mm cryoprobe for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). A nitrogen cooled 5 mm BBO cryoprobe to be installed on an existing 400 MHz NMR spectrometer. This broadband probe is capable of observing the most common NMR active nuclei with much greater sensitivity compared to the current probe. This equipment will expand our current capabilities and capacity in materials characterisation and analysis and complement the extensive capability we have within the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre, Kelvin Nanocharacterisation Centre, Geoanalytical Imaging and Spectroscopy Centre, and College Analytical Suite. The core equipment will underpin a large portfolio of research in fields including materials science and engineering, chemistry, healthcare technologies, communications and sensing. The new equipment will be used by researchers across the College, enabled by our easy access model and training support, particularly for early career researchers and doctoral students. As well as bringing new techniques and methods to our existing research, the equipment will enable new research and initiate new collaborations, and will support multiple EPSRC research grants, CDTs, and collaborative research with industry partners. The equipment will enable us to grow existing userbases and initiate new ones, developing researcher and RTP skills and enabling more University-wide and external access
12/06/2025
18 new projects added
GRN: UKRI-374
Period: 03/01/2025 to 02/07/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
The EPSRC Capital Award for Core Equipment 2024/25 provides essential support for the University of Cambridge’s ambition to establish and maintain world-class laboratories that empower our researchers to conduct cutting-edge research. The University selected the equipment to include in the application via a fair and transparent internal competitive application process, which is described in Q3 Vision and Approach. Five items of equipment were selected meeting the objectives of the award and the strategic priorities of the university. The investment opportunities outlined in this proposal are in addition to planned investments in capital equipment at the institutional level; however, they align with institutional strategic initiatives, such as the West Cambridge Sharing Project (described in Q3 Vision and Approach), and strategic research priorities, such as energy and engineering biology. The equipment selected for inclusion in this award comprises: 1. a Luminex 200 multiplexed cytokine analyser; 2. an ion beam milling tool; 3. a Bruker Avance NEO 300 MHz NMR Spectrometer; 4. a Tuttnauer 85L Front loading 3Ph Autoclave; 5. a GPU server for computational research, with accompanying solid-state drives for research data storage. This selection of equipment meets all three EPSRC call objectives: 1. benefiting multiple users, enhancing sharing, usage, and collaboration; 2. invest to save; 3. supporting early career researchers and doctoral training. The equipment will have a range of benefits. Beneficiaries will include researchers from the Departments of Materials Science and Metallurgy (MSM), Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) and Computer Science and Technology (CST) predominantly within the university, and also the wider community, through collaborative activities. Selected items either add otherwise hitherto missing capabilities or renew/refresh existing capabilities, some of which are at end of life. The equipment will be widely accessible, benefitting researchers from a variety of disciplines and all career stages. Application areas include engineering biology research, identified as strategically important for the UK, alongside many areas essential to the energy transition: energy storage, renewable energy, batteries, carbon capture, and catalysis. The equipment will be integrated into well-established facilities and laboratories with expert support to enhance its lifespan and ensure long term sustainability. The university is committed to supporting the career development of research technical professionals and to improving the environmental sustainability of our infrastructure, and the equipment will therefore fall within this highly supportive research environment
GRN: UKRI-1249
Period: 16/04/2025 to 15/04/2030
Funding Source: EPSRC
Our vision is to research and develop a new generation of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors and ultra-low-energy semiconductor devices. Our research proposal addresses one of the most urgent, important and costly problems facing the UK: the huge energy required to power the data centres needed to train and run AI-enabled computing. John Pettigrew, CEO National Grid, warned at the Oxford Aurora Forum (March 2024): “The electricity demand from UK data centres is predicted to rise sixfold over the next 10 years.” The main reason data centres consume so much energy is that they contain millions of silicon devices such as transistors which are energy inefficient (our laptops get hot because of the energy-hungry silicon devices they contain). If we are to reduce the energy consumption of data centres, we must replace silicon devices with low-energy-consumption devices made from new materials. The front-runner materials for this are the atomically thin new class of materials called 2D materials. The first 2D material was graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, the thinnest material in the world. Graphene is the best electrical conductor in the world. This is because the conduction electrons move along the surfaces of graphene, whereas in silicon they move through the bulk. Think of skating on ice: you can skate on the surface much faster than trying to travel through the ice. This results in high-speed graphene devices. IBM, Intel, and Samsung invested over $5 billion to manufacture graphene electronics; however, although graphene devices could be assembled by hand using the tiny graphene flakes then available, graphene could not be scaled up for high-volume manufacturing. This major technological drawback was removed when the Programme Lead's group, then at Cambridge University, invented a new way to scale up and made device-quality, large-area graphene. They then made a graphene sensor to measure magnetic fields and electric currents. A company, Paragraf, was set-up to manufacture graphene devices. Importantly, the power consumption of Paragraf’s sensors is 1000 times less than that of silicon sensors. This raises our expectations that other devices made from 2D materials will also have a very low power consumption, because the conduction electrons move along their surfaces. Our proposed next-generation, ultra-low-energy semiconductor devices aim to reduce the electricity consumption of data centres by 100 times. The power demand of UK data centres would then drop to a much more manageable value, which would save many £billions in electricity costs. Our research team from the universities of QMUL, Glasgow and Nottingham, supported by 23 partner industries contributing over £2 million to the project, will build upon our world lead in wafer-scale graphene electronic devices to produce more complex prototype devices using other 2D semiconductors (e.g., hBN, gallium selenide) at wafer-scale and integrate them, layer by layer with graphene. We will translate our unique scientific knowledge and expertise of 2D graphene electronic devices into new prototype semiconductor devices, ranging from simple diodes to nanometre-scale novel transistors, such as Dirac-source transistors suitable for integrated circuits for use in data centres. Our research will be revolutionary and give the UK a world lead in low-energy, high-speed electronics beyond silicon, enabling the UK to build a new electronics industry in 2D semiconductor devices.
GRN: UKRI-873
Period: 14/04/2025 to 13/04/2027
Funding Source: EPSRC
Water is indispensable for life, health, and human activities. As such, sustaining water resources and addressing their scarcity is an urgent global challenge. Latin American countries on the DAC list, like Brazil, are under enormous pressure to manage water resources sustainably. Over 100 million Brazilians lack access to safe sanitation, and more than 200 million rely mostly on hydropower for electricity (OECD, 2022), highlighting the urgent need for innovative solutions. Addressing these issues requires leveraging financial instruments that can drive sustainable environmental projects effectively. With a specific focus on Brazil, our proposed research aims to integrate an environmental risk approach into analysing the impacts of green bond investments, specifically on water resources. Green bonds are financial instruments designed to fund sustainable environmental projects, such as infrastructure, to address water-related challenges. However, their actual environmental effectiveness and transparency remain underexplored (Ehlers et al., 2020, Jia, 2023, Fatica and Panzica, 2021). Collaboration is at the heart of our approach. The UK is the global leader in water bonds, while Brazil leads in Latin America. By bringing together UK and Brazilian researchers, we aim to foster the exchange of world-class knowledge and innovative ideas and develop networks with local stakeholders; crucial in driving forward our research and ensuring its practical relevance. This partnership will enhance our collective ability to tackle the environmental challenges associated with sustainable finance. Our objectives are clear: to foster new collaborations, establish fresh partnerships and networks, and develop innovative research projects scalable for further funding applications. These goals will be achieved through a structured approach involving stakeholders via interviews, a workshop, dissemination of findings, and development of further research proposals. Ultimately, by addressing the complexities of environmental risk in green finance, our research will contribute significantly to global sustainable development and environmental stewardship. The timing of this research is pertinent due to the global push towards sustainable water infrastructure and the urgency to limit the rise in global temperature. Our project aligns with Sustainable Development Goals SDG6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG17 (partnerships for the goals). Moreover, the upcoming COP 30 in Brazil in 2025 places the Amazon at the centre of global sustainability and climate change discussions. COP 30 presents a crucial opportunity for the Amazon region to address innovative financial instruments like green bonds, offering a unique platform for our research to contribute to global solutions for water scarcity and climate resilience. Our project brings together researchers from the UK and Brazil, blending expertise in sustainability and finance to tackle complex sustainable finance challenges. Dr Beltran leads the UK team, specialising in sustainability transitions, with Dr Park contributing green finance knowledge and Dr Robins focusing on stakeholder engagement. In Brazil, Dr. Lima dos Santos brings expertise in sustainability and integrated reporting, supported by Dr. Dias in environmental accounting. Professors Tjahjono, Pereira, and Dr. Torres provide insights into sustainable operations, financial risk management, and environmental governance. Team members also participate in the RELES network (Latin American Sustainability Studies) (https://reles.dcya.cl). In conclusion, this project is not only timely but also essential. It will advance our understanding of green finance's impact on critical resources like water, promote innovative solutions to environmental challenges, and support broader goals of climate resilience and sustainable development in Brazil and will have implications far beyond its borders
GRN: UKRI-261
Period: 01/04/2025 to 30/09/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
NMR spectroscopy is a key tool for understanding the atomic-scale structure of solids which is a vital step in the design of functional materials. This proposal will deliver a world-class facility supporting research and training at the cutting edge of solid-state NMR spectroscopy, expanding capacity and enhancing capability. The research enabled will underpin a range of EPSRC objectives and themes, supporting researchers developing new batteries, the hydrogen economy, industrially important catalysts, and porous materials for separations, gas storage, drug delivery and carbon capture. This will contribute to the EPSRC Advanced Materials and Circular Economy thematic areas, with particularly strong input into the physical sciences, energy, engineering and healthcare technology themes, mapping onto several EPSRC and institutional strategic priorities. Currently, the facility (the only laboratory dedicated to solid-state NMR in Scotland) supports over 100 users involved in multidisciplinary transformational research across the institution (e.g., Chemistry, Physics, Earth Sciences, Geography), the EaStCHEM pooling initiative and the wider region. However, the current spectrometer consoles are aging, inefficient and are end-of-life, with repairs no longer supported by the manufacturer. The increasing number of breakdowns significantly affects the capacity and efficiency of this already oversubscribed facility. The current instrumentation is also limited in that it cannot perform many of the more complex experiments demanded by modern science. Replacing the consoles with modern instrumentation capable of interleaved acquisition and the acquisition of new multiple-resonance probeheads will not only provide increased efficiency and enhanced capacity (alleviating the significant overdemand), but will widen the range of experiments that can be performed and the complexity of the materials that can be studied. The facility employs a hybrid usage model. This combines in-person access for specialist, trained users, collaborative projects (with key academic researchers and industrial partners from the UK and across the world), and an NMR service for less experienced users. This ensures access to this vital technique for a wide and diverse user base, irrespective of background and expertise. The facility is supported by a dedicated Facility Manager, providing on-site scientific expertise, specialist training and technical support. As the only solid-state NMR facility in Scotland, the laboratory provides researchers from across the country with access, expertise and support, and enables efficient use to be made of the instrument time available at high field (e.g., at the Scottish High-Field NMR Facility in Edinburgh). The strong and supportive Scottish NMR Community (coordinated through the Scottish NMR Users Group, SNUG), is ideally placed to take advantage of the sharing of equipment and best practice. The flexible access model results in usage by academics from all four nations. In order to both improve day-to-day efficiency and provide a skilled future generation of researchers, the proposal will deliver training for all users including the development of standard operating procedures and specific training in advanced experimental techniques as needed. The proposal will also deliver significantly improved financial and environmental sustainability for the facility. The superconducting magnets require a regular supply of liquid helium, which is a costly and finite natural resource produced as a byproduct of fossil fuel extraction. By installing helium capture capabilities, the facility will be able to connect to the University’s recycling system. This will both sever a link to fossil fuels and provide a major cost reduction. Replacing old, inefficient consoles will also deliver further sustainability benefits
GRN: EP/Z534456/1
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2030
Funding Source: EPSRC
The role of evolving preferences over consumption goods has long been understood as a determinant of the pattern of structural transformation. However, the role that will be played by consumption preferences over particularly 'green' and 'brown' goods during the required climate transition is less well understood. The climate transition is also a 'structural transformation' problem - an issue of evolving sectoral structure -- and there is scope for extension of traditional analysis from development economics and development studies to the emergent problem of realising a just and developmental transition. Among the important socio-economic and political considerations for key stakeholders to ponder in driving forth climate action are the following issues: 1) that consumption preferences are likely to differ depending on where an individual sits in the income distribution; 2) that there may be conflict within firms over the choice of production technique since this influences the energy-intensity and emissions path of production; and 3) that workers and firm-owners, as well as other actors, influence the political process as voters, independent of their respective roles in consumption and production. In short, there are significant behavioural elements to the climate transition that require better empirical and theoretical understanding. Without understanding this behaviour, strategising a just and developmental transition to a greener economy is impossible. The central objective of this research is correspondingly to strategise how to reconcile structural transformation (raising the share of manufacturing production in total output) with the just transition. Given the historic energy intensity of manufacturing, this will be no mean feat, but it is surely one of the central global challenges for environmental activists, trade unions, policymakers -- and academics to strategise today. To do so, we aim to generate new empirical and theoretical insights into how preferences over consumption, production techniques, and voter behaviour impact the climate transition. Specifically, using the Brazilian context as an initial starting point, our research will help better understand preferences and behaviour in developing countries regarding these three crucial dimensions to the just transition. The research will consist of a survey investigating individual behaviour in each of these three dimensions and heterogeneity in behaviour along these dimensions. The objective of the research is to channel knew knowledge about behaviour of the aforementioned key actors to policy-relevant insights that can inform emboldened climate action for trade unionists, environmental activists, central bankers, treasury officials, and presidencies. The potential benefits could not be greater; a policy and political regime geared toward a reconciled vision for economic emancipation and climate action in the parts of the world in greatest need
GRN: UKRI-428
Period: 01/03/2025 to 28/02/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
To avoid catastrophic climate change, scientists now agree that greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels used for home heating, transportation, and so on, must be reduced to "net-zero" by 2050. In the event of global decarbonisation, liquid hydrogen is among the most potential energy carriers for transporting energy from regions with enormous resources, such as Australia, to nations with limited energy supplies, such as the EU. However, liquefaction, transportation, and storage of liquid hydrogen present scientific and economic challenges that must be addressed to deploy it at the scale required to meet the demand. One major limitation is that hydrogen liquefaction is an energy-intensive process. A liquefaction process transforms hydrogen gas at 25 °C to liquid hydrogen at -253 °C at atmospheric pressure using a gas compressor, series of heat exchangers, and Joule–Thompson valve. This transformation requires a huge amount of energy. The current hydrogen liquefiers' energy consumption is between (11.9 and 15.0) kWh/kg, and the liquefaction cost is between (2 and 3) US$/kg. In comparison, liquefied natural gas's (LNG) energy consumption is about 0.33 kWh/Kg and costs less than 0.3 US$/kg. Therefore, significant effort is required to reduce the cost of hydrogen liquefaction to a similar value to LNG. One way to achieve this is using mixed refrigerants (MRs) in hydrogen liquefaction heat exchangers and compressors. Common MRs can content hydrogen, nitrogen, neon, helium, and hydrocarbons ranging from methane to butane. MRs can have evaporation temperatures much closer to the cooling temperatures of the hydrogen gas than the typical refrigerant, such as nitrogen. The reduction in temperature differences between the hydrogen and MRs enhances heat transfer and efficiency. Conceptual liquefaction cycles using process simulation tools have been investigated using MRs, and they found that they can significantly improve efficiency from 13.58 kWh/kg to 5.91 kWh/kg. However, the experimental data, such as density for MRs at temperatures below -173 °C, are very limited. Consequently, the predictions of the existing thermodynamic models in the simulation tools are poor. To improve these models the MR property data with sufficiently high accuracy are needed, so the state-of-the-art experimental techniques should be utilised to obtain them. The most advanced experimental facilities for cryogenic measurements in liquid hydrogen have been developed at the University of Western Australia (UWA). In this context, the objective of this overseas travel grant is to access the experimental facilities at UWA to perform an experimental program to measure the phase behaviour and speed of sound of (hydrogen + helium + neon + nitrogen) mixtures at temperatures between ( -173 and -253) °C and pressures up to 100 bar to improve the accuracy of the thermodynamic models for the development hydrogen liquefaction process. Furthermore, this grant will allow me to establish a new international collaboration between Northumbria University and UWA as well as to expand my research knowledge in liquid hydrogen and my expertise in extremely low-temperature setups that I would be able to transfer to Northumbria University after my visit. The new collaboration will contribute to the UK hydrogen strategy by providing technological expertise, knowledge, and data to support the development of liquid hydrogen technology in the UK, particularly in the North East. In the future, this research line will allow North East companies to engage in hydrogen technology
GRN: UKRI-753
Period: 01/05/2025 to 31/07/2025
Funding Source: EPSRC
The unique ambition of the Centre for Joined-Up Sustainability Transformations (JUST) is born from evidence that the context for research on low carbon living (LCL) has changed in recent years: there is an urgent need to translate insights from the wealth of technical and behavioural research into win-win pathways that respond more effectively and sensitively to social and political barriers to meeting the UK's net zero agenda. JUST will respond to this challenge by working with communities in five 'left-behind' regions of the North of England (NofE) and non-academic practice partners to co-produce joined-up strategies for meeting net zero ambitions while simultaneously redressing problems caused by socio-economic inequality. The overall aims of JUST's programme of research are to investigate: (i) What works, when, where and for whom - and what could work - to facilitate the development and implementation of joined-up interventions for a just transition to LCL? (ii) How, where and with whose participation can sustainability transformations be accelerated in ways that combine sustainability with justice for citizens in places that benefit least from dominant economic and political systems? (iii) What lessons for just sustainability transformations can governments, businesses, and communities learn from place-based, co-produced action research? Our objectives are to: conduct, commission and scale research into what works where in LCL approaches, generating context-specific evidence and insight for overcoming complex challenges; develop novel methodologies for generating evidence about what works where, why and for whom; develop, trial and evaluate tools for informing decision-making and meeting place-based needs, working collaboratively in five areas in the NofE and matched places elsewhere in the UK; build capacity needed for sustainability transformations within communities, organisations and sectors; inform and influence public debate on the net zero transition, moving it beyond current tensions and resistances towards the productive joining-up of decarbonisation and social justice. Our interdisciplinary team will use an innovative mix of data science and participatory action research methodologies to undertake studies that observe and map existing LCL initiatives as well as studies that intervene and co-produce new initiatives with practice partners in communities. Both types of study will be analysed through an intellectual framework of six interlocking themes that build on team members' expertise: principles of justice; policy, governance and change; built and social infrastructure; social and solidarity economies; democratic innovations; and methodological innovation. JUST's twin focus on justice and LCL puts impact, social inclusion and reciprocity at the heart of all research and engagement activities. We are a team from five universities with extensive experience of researching at the intersections of sustainability and social justice. We have existing research relationships with communities and organisations in the study regions on which the Centre's work will build. Our impact lead, from the Institute for Community Studies, will coordinate collaboration with eight other core project partners (Institute for Government, Local Government Association, Welsh LGA, Sustainable Scotland Network, British Chambers of Commerce, NHS Confederation, Citizens UK and the Runnymede Trust) to maximise benefits to all participants. We will support capacity building and decision-making towards LCL by producing a JUST toolkit of seven tools to identify and meet the socio-economic-related LCL needs of any location in the UK. Open-access digital resources, training workshops, and an executive education course will ensure the relevance and application of the research across the UK and internationally
GRN: EP/Y037294/1
Period: 01/03/2025 to 31/08/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
The European aviation industry has committed to achieving net-zero aircraft propulsion by 2050 by introducing innovative technologies such as hybrid-electric propulsion and hydrogen fuelled gas turbines. Industry expects the introduction of hydrogen to make the greatest contribution to decarbonisation by 2050 with intra-EU routes being powered by hydrogen from 2035 . This Programme Grant (PG) would focus on solving the considerable scientific challenges encountered when cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) is used to fuel gas turbine cycles. The technology for drop in SAF fuelled engines already exists but the economics and society's appetite for scaling up SAF production, which would remove land from food production and reduce biodiversity, imply that SAF will only form part of the zero carbon solution. We note that SAF combustion also adds CO2 to the atmosphere whereas hydrogen emits only water and can be produced carbon-free. Oxford, Imperial College, Loughborough and King's College are all currently working on some of the technology required to introduce liquid hydrogen fuelled gas turbines but this PG would rapidly accelerate UK progress and focus work on the fundamental science that will drive innovation in this field. The partnership between world class universities and industry will ensure that the UK leads the world in hydrogen powered aero-engines. Our discussions and workshops with Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Reaction Engines, ESA and the ATI have confirmed that there is a pressing need to tackle the intractable problem of engineering the cryogenic fuel system and combustor with a focus on the dynamic interaction between these. The key challenges we will address will enable aircraft engines to safely, efficiently and predictably heat and pressurise liquid hydrogen fuel from the cryogenic conditions that is stored at in the aircraft tank to temperatures suitable for injection in the combustor. Automotive technology on the market (for example, in the Toyota Mirai) relies on storing the hydrogen as a compressed gas where the hydrogen temperature changes and thermal challenges are comparatively modest, but the energy density (accounting for the weight of the tanks) is much less than the cryogenic solution required for commercial flight. For completeness, we note that battery energy storage, which leads zero carbon car technology, is almost two orders of magnitude too heavy for aircraft. This proposal addresses the pressing need for fundamental research, including experimental data, for LH2 fuelled turbofans. Our overall aim is to make mid-range commercial flight zero carbon by 2035. We envisage commercial airliners propelled by turbofans but with the kerosene currently burnt in the combustor replaced by green, zero carbon hydrogen. The vision of the PG is to provide the underpinning engineering science to enable the aero industry to replace existing aviation fuel with hydrogen. Our approach is to combine experiments in fluid dynamics and heat transfer together with physical investigations of the effects of cryogenic LH2 on component mechanical properties with bespoke numerical models to make rapid progress in this challenging zero carbon technology. The PG application has been offered support from many industrial partners and world leading academics which will enable the research team to focus on the conditions relevant to decarbonising flight. Our partnership with industry will ensure our research is rapidly disseminated to the colleagues responsible for the future engines and airframes that will deliver zero carbon aviation
GRN: EP/U537068/1
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2029
Funding Source: EPSRC
The WINDHY project focuses on the novel production phase of offshore wind-powered green hydrogen as a new energy solution, where the main tasks include obtaining electricity from offshore wind turbines, utilizing electrolysis to derive hydrogen from water, transferring hydrogen to a certain energy carrier, and injecting the hydrogen carrier into a designated transportation mechanism. Many new technologies are under consideration and development for this process, and each of them has own advantages and limitations, as well as varying risks to operators, communities, and the environment. The WINDHY project aims to utilize cross-industry knowledge worldwide and global evidence to understand the risky issues that threaten the stability, safety, and sustainability of offshore wind-powered hydrogen production, and integrate multi-disciplinary expertise to control and mitigate risks of the new process and value chain of offshore wind-powered hydrogen production. The WINDHY project builds a multidisciplinary consortium, with five MS/AC partners, and eight TC partners from 13 countries in all continents. It designs a staff exchange programme with 263 person-months for secondments realized in six work-packages. Through the secondments, and diverse networking activities, the project is expected to conduct a global survey in all participating countries to understand public perceptions and concerns on risky issues, interconnect knowledge about accidents in isolated databases in multiple sectors and regions, evaluates different aspects of social-, economic-, and environmental sustainability of new technologies, and develop a risk management framework with digital supporting tool for the new production equipment and process. The project follows the open science policy with a dedicated data management plan, and aims to develop skills of participating researchers, and improve R&I potential of Europe in offshore renewable energy
GRN: UKRI-834
Period: 05/02/2025 to 04/02/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
Envision a future where the next-generation batteries derive their materials from trees and crustaceans instead of relying on synthetic organic solvents. Picture nonflammable solid electrolytes replacing the conventional flammable liquid electrolyte in cutting-edge battery technology. Now, consider achieving these advancements without compromising the battery's performance, especially in terms of capacity and cycle life. The potential savings in terms of money, time, and environmental impact are immense. With the backing of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), we are poised to embark on the initial phase of realising this vision. I will be collaborating with Professor Alice Mija from Côte d'Azur University to pioneer the development of a new solid-state electrolyte. This electrolyte aims to exhibit high ionic conductivities and wide electrochemical windows, ensuring stable cycling performance and enhanced energy density for Li-sulphur batteries. The overseas travel grant will act as a catalyst, fostering collaboration between UK and French teams. This collaboration aims to merge expertise, combining Professor Mija's extensive experience in polymer chemistry with the UK team's experience in electrochemistry and battery design. Together, we form an ideal team equipped to address various challenges associated with polymer electrolytes. Undoubtedly, an undertaking of such ambition and innovation necessitates several years to achieve its goals. To secure long-term support for this endeavour, we plan to apply for a larger grant from the European Research Council (ERC Synergy Grants). However, preliminary assessments and collaborative groundwork are crucial before developing a long-term project. To this end, I have set up a practical program, including three 1-week visits to the partner lab in France. These visits aim to frame future collaboration, expand the project team, and ensure a solid foundation for the larger grant application. The success of this proposal extends beyond the laboratory, with the potential to revolutionise energy storage systems. Such advancements would facilitate the widespread adoption of renewable energy, impacting society, industry, and academia on a national and global scale. This project holds the promise of advancing UK global competitiveness, economic prosperity, and overall quality of life. Direct beneficiaries include companies involved in hand-held electronics and electric vehicles experiencing improved battery technology. Moreover, UK power grids and electric utility companies stand to benefit from the proposed energy storage device, potentially addressing transmission congestion relief and demand charge management applications. The project's outcomes may also find application in empowering spacecraft, satellite batteries, or other aerospace technologies. Ultimately, this project aims to facilitate valuable knowledge transfer to the combined industrial and scientific research community. By doing so, it seeks to redirect efforts toward the development of new, renewable, and eco-friendly energy sources.
GRN: UKRI-945
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2032
Funding Source: EPSRC
Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) account for over 90% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalent, making them driving factors for global warming and consequently for shaping current environmental policies. To meet environmental targets, society needs to concurrently emit less and capture more greenhouse gases. Dry reforming of methane (DRM), where CO2 and CH4 are converted into H2 and CO (syngas), is a commercially attractive way to produce syngas from abundant feedstock including industrial and agricultural waste while capturing harmful greenhouse gases. However, in the case of DRM, conventional methods relying on thermally driven catalysis suffer from high energy requirements which render the reaction costly and environmentally unsustainable. Here, we propose to use a sunlight-assisted approach to drive the reaction at substantially lower temperatures. Mg has been recently discovered as a sustainable plasmonic metal with the best match to the solar spectrum. Our recent work pioneered catalytically active plasmonic nanoparticles based on cheap and earth-abundant Mg and demonstrated their excellent light-enhanced catalytic performance, making Mg an ideal candidate for application in sunlight-assisted low-temperature DRM. The objective of this proposal is to explore the pathway from ground-breaking research on Mg-based catalytically active plasmonic nanoparticles towards commercially viable innovation in low temperature gas-phase transformation of stable molecules, using DRM as the model reaction. To achieve this ambitious goal, this project will advance the technical understanding and capabilities that will underpin the target market, develop our business strategy, and forge links with industrial partners. The outcomes will set the path towards commercial scale, sustainable, low-cost and low-emission conversion of greenhouse gases into high value-added chemical building blocks
GRN: UKRI-378
Period: 03/01/2025 to 02/07/2026
Funding Source: EPSRC
Mission: Smart ENergy data ServicE (SENSE) will be the national service for smart energy systems data. It will unlock and demonstrate the value of smart data (e.g., consumption, networks, consumer behaviour, electric vehicles) to enable high-impact cutting-edge transdisciplinary research, innovation and joined-up policy solutions to the biggest sustainability, health and wellbeing and Net Zero policy challenges. SENSE is led by Energy Systems Catapult, which, as a key independent convenor of UK energy systems stakeholders across industry, academia, government, the third sector and the public, is uniquely placed to serve the whole UK community. Context/Challenge: SENSE addresses key challenges around core themes: Achieving Net-Zero: through smart live energy data to inform policies, infrastructure, technologies, adaptations, and behaviours. Whole Systems Approaches: combining diverse and varied data to optimise interfaces between buildings and energy supplies. Ensuring Health Co-Benefits: using contextual population health data to target support to vulnerable people who cannot afford to stay warm and well at home, improving health, reducing use of health services, and saving the NHS money and resources. SENSE will be strongly positioned to support sustainability and Net-Zero objectives of the Net-Zero Strategy, British Energy Security Strategy, Ten-Point Plan, and Powering up Britain; to ensure the health co-benefits of these are experienced by all; and to meet key sector priorities (National Grid ESO, UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy) for data sharing infrastructure, connectivity, resilience, and engagement.
GRN: ES/Z504592/1
Period: 03/01/2025 to 30/09/2025
Funding Source: ESRC
This proposal is focused on a nuclear robotics and artificial intelligence cluster (RAI), linking Cumbria and Oxfordshire, to accelerate the decommissioning of the country's nuclear legacy and remove people from harm. This will ultimately deliver £billion savings to the UK taxpayer, and help establish the UK as the international lead in nuclear innovation, a US$1 trillion industry (1). Our collaboration will enable regional growth, job retention and creation, £multi-million investment and cross-sector opportunities in fields such as space, agriculture, and mining. The estimated cost for decommissioning the UK's legacy fission sites is £178 billion, with timescales stretching over 100 years, and current spending exceeding £3.5 billion/year. By far the most significant decommissioning challenges are on the Sellafield site, West Cumbria, which accounts for almost 75% of the estimated decommissioning costs. In Oxfordshire, the Joint European Torus (JET) ceased operations in December 2023 and its decommissioning and repurposing will now progress until at least 2040 at an estimated cost of £1 billion. There are significant commonalities between fission and fusion decommissioning, especially with remote handling operations, and hence the pronounced linkage between the Cumbria and Oxfordshire Nuclear RAI Cluster. RAI is one of the few identified approaches recognised to have significant impact on nuclear decommissioning activities. Recent studies have suggested that RAI has the potential to reduce the cost of decommissioning by £billions, reduce decommissioning timescales by decades and improve worker safety. At the Sellafield site alone, the National Nuclear Laboratory have estimated that RAI has the potential to reduce costs by £11 billion (2). However, commercial RAI solutions are not yet available for most of the nuclear decommissioning challenges that exist. The Nuclear RAI Cluster will address this, bringing innovative technologies from academia to market. Whilst nuclear decommissioning might be the immediate concern, to achieve net zero goals, the UK plans to invest in new nuclear power plants and offshore windfarms, both of which require new commercial RAI technology to enable them to operate efficiently with minimal risk. Nuclear fusion reactors and space exploration are areas in which the UK has significant ambitions, but neither is possible without advances in commercial RAI tools. The technologies developed in the Nuclear RAI Cluster are directly transferable to these other markets, offering the potential for additional investment streams to be brought to Cumbria and Oxfordshire. The UK Atomic Energy Authority, acting in its role as a national laboratory will lead this PBIAA, enabling access to its extensive networks that connect academia with the supply chain. Research support is provided by two of the UK's leading RAI universities: Oxford and Manchester. Through this programme the University of Cumbria will develop further research capabilities and establish themselves as regional RAI technology transfer lead in Cumbria. Extensive support has been received from both civic bodies (Councils, LEPs) and supply chain representing SMEs and large industry. The objectives of this Nuclear RAI Cluster will be achieved via three overlapping and re-enforcing themes of Collaboration, Creation, and Culture. Activities supported will include secondments, networking, strategic partnerships, competition analyses, technology translation and market reviews amongst others. Impact will include: > 5,000 people engaged with Cluster-driven events > 200 business opportunities > 10 spin-out companies created > 25 licensing deals > 200 jobs created > £22.5M leveraged fundin
GRN: ES/Z504579/1
Period: 25/01/2025 to 30/09/2025
Funding Source: ESRC
To meet Net Zero obligations the UK is rapidly transitioning its energy system to clean technology. These innovative technologies introduce new and emerging risks that will require identifying, understanding, and control through proportionate management, standards and regulation. Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) is one technology that will form part of the net zero delivery, receiving £21.7bn of UK government funding in 2024. CCUS will involve repurposing of existing oil and gas pipelines for the transportation of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and presents a complex engineering and safety management challenge, using a wide range of technical data, information and knowledge across multiple technical disciplines. Net Zero as a fundamental change to the energy system is occurring at a time when there is considerable flux in the skills and operating environment of the businesses with the responsibility to deliver, operate and maintain their assets safely. For example, significant expansion of the workforce is required to deliver Net Zero, and experienced people are retiring and new competences are needed. At the same time AI is revolutionising many fields, including engineering. AI in engineering helps organisations analyse the behaviour of complex systems, however its application introduces both risk and opportunity. AI systems use, or integration, in high-hazard industries, specifically in association with safety management systems is a potential key risk area. AI is entering the engineering supply chain in the form of Large Language Models (LLMs), machine learning and generative design. It has the potential to be used in direct or associated safety critical activities during delivery of CCUS technology. This introduces potential unknown systemic safety risks to society and employees operating the technology. The specific risks of interest are at the system level where AI systems are combined with high hazard industries (CCUS) technical and safety management systems. As an example, this could be where a LLM is used in the preparation of technical safety studies; decision support in design, construction, commissioning or operation; asset maintenance technicians, and operators are using LLMs to inform task preparation; or where regulators are seeking to regulate safety systems where AI has been an input. The overarching aim of this project is to identify potential risks and possible control and mitigation opportunities for use of AI in a system that spans AI, high hazard technical and safety management systems. With a use case selected to support delivery of the energy system transition. The project will use a structured approach, a commonly used qualitative risk analysis technique, specifically a Hazard Identification (HAZID) study, to identify potential hazards and their associated risks. This feasibility study is applying CCUS as the use case, where CCUS serves as a proxy to explore a wider need to mitigate similar risks in other innovative energy technologies with similar safety management needs - e.g. gaseous hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, ammonia, and liquid hydrogen. Beyond identifying risks, this project also intends to identify opportunities to leverage AI in support of high levels of safety performance and support efficient regulation of safety management systems
GRN: ES/Z504130/1
Period: 03/02/2025 to 02/02/2030
Funding Source: ESRC
SEMiTaSS aims to research how electric vehicle (EV) sharing can become a successful sustainable mobility option in English towns and villages. Research shows that the potential of transport electrification to be sustainable, inclusive, and transformative is augmented if EVs are shared – and even more so in smaller settlements. Remote working and online shopping replace some trips, but do not necessarily reduce total car trips or mileage. Local public transport services have declined in frequency and reliability across rural areas, shrinking access for those unable to drive and enforcing car dependency on residents who are, on average, 10 years older than their urban counterparts. Shared electric mobility (SEM) services are concentrated in cities, so there is limited understanding of their possible success factors outside urban neighbourhoods. SEM could reduce car dependency, isolation, and transport carbon emissions in towns and villages, but there is little specific research into how to do this. SEMiTaSS proposes to analyse car clubs, bike loans and peer-to-peer SEM in English towns and villages to distinguish them and their use from city SEM, and assess their benefits, viability, and success within the community. SEMiTaSS will also investigate in-depth 3-4 rural SEM examples at different stages of development in the English counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Oxfordshire to understand how they can become widely used over time. The two main research objectives are as follows: Analyse SEM services in English towns and villages with populations of up to ~40,000; distinguish their adoption into everyday practices and the materials, skills and meanings of SEM policy, operation and use in these communities, benchmarking them against their urban counterparts. Understand how SEM practices emerge, evolve and become embedded at community level through in-depth engagement with those involved in existing and emerging SEM services and at least one co-produced, year-long trial. SEMiTaSS will apply social practice theories (SPT) to both identify quantitative indicators of viability and impact specific to smaller settlements, such as changes to multiple car ownership, and to qualitatively analyse established, recently introduced and future SEM examples in English towns and villages, where SEM users may also be local policymakers and providers of SEM. Using SPT builds on prior research into shared mobility, which will be subject to a scoping review. This and other academic outputs will benefit an international audience of transport and transition researchers by enriching the diverse and rapidly evolving knowledge base of changing environmental practices, norms, and success factors in relation to SEM and filling an identified gap in rural mobility research. SEMiTaSS will also bring together local government policymakers, SEM operators, and users, involving them directly in the research into how SEM becomes integrated into their communities and co-producing at least one SEM trial, and providing them with and helping them disseminate outputs to demonstrate the viability and success factors of SEM in town and village communities. This knowledge will benefit local authorities who have declared climate emergencies, shared mobility operators who can expand into new markets, and rural residents who want more sustainable and community-focused transport options and assets. The outputs will also be designed so that the direct beneficiaries can engage with the EV industry (building on the ZEV mandate), property developers and rural employers who can help them invest and scale the sharing service ecosystem in these rural communities
GRN: ES/Z504671/1
Period: 01/03/2025 to 30/11/2027
Funding Source: ESRC
Context Energy markets have been under intense scrutiny in recent years. The energy crisis precipitated by the war in Ukraine has seen consumers’ energy bills soar, with profound consequences for the cost-of-living. At the same time, the push for Net Zero will require significant new investments from households and businesses as part of a sweeping clean energy transition. Historically energy markets have been dominated by large vertically integrated incumbent firms. This has led to persistent concerns about weak competition and a lack of choice for consumers. But in the last few years there has been a shakeup of the companies operating in many energy markets. In the UK, five of the six largest energy companies have broken up their businesses and new firms have entered, often introducing new business models and consumer products. Key Challenges Given this turbulent period, it is striking that there remains a lack of consensus on several important questions regarding energy market design and the structure of energy companies. Does energy tariff choice meaningfully benefit consumers? Does retail competition send the right price signals to consumers looking to make low-carbon investments? What are the implications of different energy tariffs for energy poverty? How should the risks to consumers from companies going bankrupt be managed? Is there a case for companies owning their own power plants to mitigate these risks, and if so, at what cost? This project will use new data and advanced economic methods to undertake novel research that can address these gaps in our understanding. Objectives and Contribution to Knowledge This research project will study the UK energy markets to address a series of key research questions: How have the business models and organisational structures of energy companies changed in the past decade? How does the breakup and restructuring of large incumbent energy companies affect competition, insolvency risks and consumer prices? How does energy tariff choice affect energy poverty and consumer investments in low-carbon technologies? In tackling these questions, this research project will advance current understanding and generate new knowledge both within and outside the field of energy and environmental economics. Research Impact The proposed work is incredibly timely given the recent energy crisis, wider concerns about the cost-of-living and regional disparities, as well as the risks posed by climate change to society, the economy and the environment. This research will therefore provide highly relevant insights for key UK policy priorities on Net Zero, Cost-Of-Living and Levelling Up. Findings will be disseminated through a combination of published academic papers, blog posts and conference presentations. There will also be extensive direct engagement with policy stakeholders, including Ofgem who is one of the project partners
GRN: UKRI-603
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2028
Funding Source: ESRC
The UK Catalysis Hub III is a highly effective and productive partnership between 46 universities, 15 companies, and 4 UK National facilities. Our vision is to deliver high-impact research across the many branches of catalysis focused on ensuring society achieves a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and low-pollution future. We will co-create and deliver multi-disciplinary catalysis research, work with industry and business partners to produce new technologies and support proof-of-concept high risk/reward research. Our objectives are: Co-create and deliver, across the UK, multidisciplinary catalysis research and Support proof of concept, high impact research and partnerships in catalysis Train, support and mentor UK early career researchers with an inclusive hub Enable advanced catalyst characterization by strategic national facility collaborations Integrate computational, digital and data science techniques Provide strategic leadership, partnership and advocacy for catalysis Deliver long-term economic, environmental and societal impact Build international networks, partnerships and collaborations The project addresses the critical challenge of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and a sustainable chemical industry. Advances in catalysis are essential to reach its sustainability targets across various sectors, including consumer products, energy generation/storage, agriculture, healthcare, construction, and retail. Currently our sector is heavily reliant on fossil carbon-based chemicals; our research prioritises innovative science and engineering to diversify the sector, limit emissions and tackle other sustainability challenges. Our research integrates heterogeneous, homogeneous, biocatalysis, photo-, electrocatalysis, engineering and computational approaches to activate renewable resources, reduce energy demand and develop efficient processes to make basic chemicals, energy vectors, synthetic fuels, specialty chemicals, polymers/materials and pharmaceuticals. Our research will integrate advances in catalysis with renewable energy, innovating in reactor and process engineering design. We are strongly integrated with advanced specialist characterization at UK central facilities including those associated with synchrotron radiation (Diamond), neutron/muons (ISIS), lasers/spectroscopy (CLF) and computation/data (STFC Scientific Computing) and with key community initiatives, e.g. manufacturing and AI Hubs. The UK Catalysis Hub III fosters extensive partnership working through its collaborative, multi-disciplinary research themes and projects. Our 15 business partners include chemical producers and end-users and spanning major multinationals through to high growth SMEs. Our international partners include major catalysis teams based in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, India, South Korea, South Africa and Australia. Our national facility collaborations, accessible to the UK community, include expert scientific and engineering support, prioritised access to beamlines through block allocation grants, laboratories and infrastructure at the Harwell campus. The Catalysis Hub III will also provide a comprehensive series of events including specialist training opportunities, one day symposia convening different communities, networking with partners and an annual scientific conference. All our events will be free and accessible to the UK community. We are committed to inspiring, training and mentoring the next generation to achieve their career objectives and strengthen the UK workforce. We have established a series of strategic partnerships with other UKRI investments, hubs and centres for doctoral training and we will seek to capitalise upon and expand these partnerships over the hub lifetime
GRN: UKRI-613
Period: 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2028
Funding Source: ESRC
The award will deliver new research equipment to be used by a wide range of scientists and engineers at the University of Leeds (as well as external academia/industry). The instruments will provide new or improved capabilities and will be housed in dedicated facilities with full support and training from dedicated research and technical professionals. Access to the instruments will be open to researchers at all career stages, with a special focus on supporting the training and development of those undertaking doctoral degrees. Sustainability of the equipment, its operation and the userbase has been built into the decision making process for the items selected. Overall the equipment encompasses both core work-horse instruments that support a large number of users for one aspect of their work, through to more bespoke instrumentation that supports a smaller number of multiple users (many early career) across multiple departments more comprehensively, building on specific areas of strength in Leeds and aligning with both University and EPSRC strategic priorities. The five specific items of equipment are: 1) Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis system representing core equipment benefitting multiple users for the general morphological, microstructural and elemental characterisation of materials which is a key component of research within the Bragg Centre for Materials Research at Leeds comprising over 400 researchers, and across the wider campus. 2) High resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) system representing core equipment for the routine mass measurement of proteins, nucleic acids, peptides and small molecules which is critical for research within the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology and the Faculties of Biological Sciences (FBS), Engineering and Physical Sciences and Medicine and Health. 3) Tensile Stage for operando Small/Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS) that will be a new add-on capability to existing EPSRC-funded X-ray scattering facilities enabling users across Leeds to study nanostructure deformations under tensile strain/stress and at variable temperatures. This can be applied to a wide range of systems from elastomers and rubbers, to antimicrobial coatings, electrospun nanofibres, protein-based food systems and advanced nonwoven textiles. 4) Spinal Disc Simulator representing a bespoke biomechanical test simulator enabling loads or motions to be applied to sections of the spine and associated implants and measured in six degrees of freedom under extended cyclic loading. It can also be used for testing other musculoskeletal joints and implants including the wrist and ankle and complements an existing range of equipment at Leeds which houses the largest academic facility worldwide for the simulation of joint replacement implants. 5) Thermal Conductivity Measurement Equipment for testing the thermal behaviour of structural and geological materials and targeting the Engineering Net Zero priority area, and the Energy and Decarbonisation theme. The equipment will support many research areas across multiple Faculties at Leeds including: ground engineering, materials engineering, built environment, structural engineering, water engineering, energy storage and carbon capture and storage. It will replace existing delicate equipment and provide much more efficient testing of samples. The research discoveries enabled by this investment in equipment will be disseminated through publication in appropriate open-access journals as well as numerous outreach activities. The facilities will also support the growth of collaborative work between the University and business, from SMEs (including spin-outs of the University) to major international companies, improving their products and processes and ultimately returning benefit to the UK taxpayer
09/04/2025
31 new projects added
GRN: NIA_UKPN0104
Period: 01/10/2024 to 28/02/2026
Funding Source: Ofgem
AI for Visibility and Forecasting of Renewable Generation aims to improve metered and behind the meter solar and wind generation forecasts to procure flexibility and reduce curtailment more efficiently, and better inform network investment. This will consist of the development of a machine learning algorithm that takes timeseries data from commercial customers and satellite imagery, weather forecasts and other open data to provide a live forecast service. This forecast will improve on the spatial and temporal granularity of existing forecasting, supporting the more efficient procurement of flexibility services and curtailment of generation, ultimately leading to financial savings for the DSO and customers, as well as CO2 savings.
GRN: NIA_WWU_2_64
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/03/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The UK Hydrogen Strategy emphasises the pivotal role of low carbon hydrogen in achieving net-zero targets, especially in challenging sectors like heavy industry, transportation, and power. Ambitious government targets aim to deliver 2GW of low carbon hydrogen by 2025 and 10GW by 2030.The only mature technology for producing green hydrogen (no carbon emissions) is water electrolysis, which uses renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This technology is not only incredibly energy intensive, but also has difficulty using intermittent power such as from wind/solar.The project addresses both of these challenges through innovative biomass electrolysis technology, which uses liquid waste biomass to produce green hydrogen and green chemicals. Overall this could reduce costs of future upgrades by aiding decision making through evidence-based analysis of gas user requirements and energy flows across the network.
GRN: NIA2_INFU0344
Period: 01/01/2025 to 30/11/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
This paper proposes the development of a functional prototype of an accessible CO alarm with integrated IoT features, tailored to the needs of vulnerable and disabled individuals. The driver for this paper is the identified gap in accessible CO safety technology for disabled communities, as highlighted in Phase 1.With increased government and industry focus on inclusivity, now is an opportune moment to advance this project. The expected outcomes are a fully developed and tested prototype, stakeholder engagement to support future phases, and a potential innovation fund for ongoing development. This is an innovation project focused on safety and inclusivity, with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) currently at TRL 3 (proof of concept).
GRN: NIA_UKPN0106
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/03/2026
Funding Source: Ofgem
CommsConnect aims to improve Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) visibility of the resilience of public mobile networks to understand the interdependence between these two systems. The project consists of two technical methods of data gathering to better understand the resilience and power autonomy of public mobile networks:1. A software upgrade to existing mobile routers to use idle time to monitor surrounding mobile network availability. Mobile routers deployed across DNO operating regions would create a wide-area sensor network to detect and report any mobile outages.2. Direct engagement with mobile network operators to obtain the physical location of each mast, and if possible the associated installed power autonomy available at each site.
GRN: NPG_NIA_54
Period: 01/02/2025 to 31/03/2026
Funding Source: Ofgem
The current, static nature of DUoS charges fails to address the increasing variability of when periods of peak demand occur e.g. instances ofprice herding around periods of negative wholesale prices that can fall outside of thetraditional peak demand periods. While explicitly contracted flexibility services can seek to address this through demand turn down/generation turn up services, procuring such services adds cost &complexity to mitigating network constraints. Additionally the totality of the network is not usually considered, with a focus often on either an HV or LV solution. Dynamic network pricing will take the form of a multi-voltage level network price as well as differentiation within the same voltage level, enabling specific assets, such as individual low voltage feeder cables to be priced uniquely based on prevailing conditions. This network level approach will co-ordinate price signals to efficiently mitigate system wide constraints&avoid possible conflicting actions
GRN: NIA2_NGET0070
Period: 01/09/2024 to 30/09/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The project aims to use a 3D printer to print substation foundations using low carbon concrete (Geo polymer mix) to reduce the construction driven carbon emissions. The supplier (Hyperion) has 3D printing mortar capable of resisting high forces with 50 years of design life. The project will optimize the design and will reduce the current material use by 50%. The foundations will be twice light as compared to the typical foundations. They will be transportable and can be precast near the site. The aim is to achieve the carbon emission reduction, concrete material reduction, weight reduction, labour reduction, and swiftness of the process. This project at first will explore the printability of lighting column foundation which is simple approach as compared to other foundations.
GRN: NGET/Eye_in_the_Sky/SIFDataDig
Period: 01/08/2022 to 01/02/2023
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project brings forward 3 of 12 asset monitoring use cases studiedduring the Discovery phase, which at maturity would collectively deliver anestimated 22 million GBP (NPV over 10 years) value to Networks and customersthrough a combination of cost savings by replacing manual ground and aerialmonitoring, and cost avoidance through increased risk awareness. A switch awayfrom manual monitoring will also lower emissions associated with Operation &Maintenance activities. This is closely aligned with the Data and Digitalisationchallenges aims to improve asset visibility and increase monitoring, efficiency,reliability, security, and resiliency of networks.The project will investigate the development of aremote, automated nationwide land and asset motion solution based on the use ofSAR satellite imagery and different InSAR analysis techniques. The project willinvestigate how the accuracy and concentration of land and asset motion datapoints can be improved and integrated into NGETs asset monitoring systems. Theproject will also investigate the development of a remote, automated, nationwidenetwork monitoring solution based on the use of sub meter resolution opticalimagery. The solution will look at risk and change issues in general andspecifically unauthorized construction and storage of building materials. Theproject will advance understanding of the defects/changes experienced by thenetwork, their size, frequency, and risk priority and test EO detection likelihood,with a view to integration into NGETs asset monitoring systems.
GRN: NIA2_NGET0079
Period: 01/01/2025 to 31/08/2026
Funding Source: Ofgem
The energy network transition will require more agile, flexible and interconnected networks underpinned by reliable communications networks in particular where services for protection and control are concerned. Operational fibre optic networks are reaching an age where some of the equipment is starting to fail whilst other parts of the network are intact and may be able to provide significant further service life. This project will examine enhanced optical sensing methods to detect and track the ageing process of fibre optic cables and associated fittings with the aim of providing accurate health information and the capability to forecast failures. The research will include new optical sensing methods as well as new algorithms to interpret the data and correlate to other data sources.?
GRN: NIA2_SGN0060
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/01/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project is a safety-critical H100 Fife Distribution Network Project to train H100 Fife personnel and demonstrate safe interference damage management in gas mains up to 250mm Polyethylene (PE) in diameter for the H100 Fife Distribution network building on previous work developed under the Hypurge project. The Hypurge project focused on planned commissioning and decommissioning purging operations and recommended direct purging for airtight systems up to 90mm in diameter. However, approximately 40% of the H100 distribution Network has pipe diameters above 90mm, and the conclusions of Hypurge cannot be applied to systems where airtightness has been lost, and oxygen ingression is predominant, as experienced during pipeline interference damage without further research.
GRN: NIA2_SGN0051
Period: 01/07/2024 to 31/12/2024
Funding Source: Ofgem
The IGEM/SR/25 hydrogen supplement reveals significant differences in the dispersion distances between Natural Gas and hydrogen, potentially extending hazardous areas beyond current site perimeters following a conversion to hydrogen. The Hazardous Area Impact Mitigation (HAIM) Phase 1 project (NIA2_SGN0041) revealed discrepancies between the calculated values in the hydrogen supplement and small scale empirical test results, necessitating a follow-on phase. Phase 2 will look to engage wider stakeholders, refine experiments to incorporate the impact of wind on releases, map additional vent types like angled vents, and conduct larger scale tests to validate Phase 1 findings across all pressure tiers. Additional work will also be carried out by DNV using industry standard packages to provide further comparison from modelling with the data tables from the IGEM/SR/25 hydrogen supplement.
GRN: NIA2_SGN0071
Period: 01/10/2024 to 28/02/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The objective of this Project is to help inform (i) GDNs views on the investability of the heat networks business model proposed by DESNZ and Ofgem, in particular on the appropriateness of the proposed use of zoning and adaptations or alternatives to zoning which might be more appropriate; and (ii) GDNs understanding of the prospects for repurposing selected assets on its gas networks to form part of heat networks.
GRN: NIA_NGN_454
Period: 01/09/2024 to 28/02/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
GDNs have committed to replace allat risk iron pipes with polyethylene (PE) by 2032. This initiative has and will continue to be a significant investment of customer money. To avoid the stranding of these assets and further investment of customer money, GDNs are seeking alternative ways to operate and evolve their current gas networks to suit future requirements. It is considered that a PE network could be suited for use in heat networks such as district heating, leading to benefits for existing customers.The output from this project will be a feasibility study that produces a report and dissemination piece. This study will inform GDNs, heat network providers, councils and local area planners about regulatory requirements, commercial viability, any technical or operational challenges.
GRN: NGN_9021_SIF_R2_Discovery (UKR
Period: 01/04/2023 to 01/06/2023
Funding Source: Ofgem
Renewable hydrogen and energy storage options are widely regarded as critical toachieving the UKs 2050 net-zero target. For project developers planning offshore-wind/hydrogen production facilities, an abundance of design choices andconfigurations exist, each of which has advantages and disadvantages, andquestions remain about how to integrate electrolysers/energy storage devices intothe existing energy system. These include (i) where best to locate these systems,(ii) what enabling technologies are required to deploy them efficiently, (iii) how tovalidate/demonstrate novel enabling technologies, and (iv) how to efficiently incorporate the resultant hydrogen into the existing gas network while minimising the costs of a secure, resilient, multi-vector energy system.Answering these questions requires a whole system approach, which the projectseeks to take via three primary work streams:1) Defining the optimal methods of exporting energy from an offshore-wind farm inthe context of value for money for customers.2) Defining the energy carrying characteristics of electricity vs hydrogen toestablish the cost drivers and identify opportunities for cost reduction.3) Understanding the impact on the gas/electricity networks of the imminentincrease in renewable generation into the network and how strategic deploymentof electrolysers, energy storage devices, and novel enabling technologies canreduce energy network investment requirements.The projects longer-term aim is to support Kinewell to build on their expertise andexisting IP to develop a novel, technology-agnostic planning tool to helpdevelopers establish the optimal configuration and additional technologyrequirements on a case-by-case basis. This will significantly reduce costsassociated with offshore-wind/hydrogen production and its integration into the gas network, strengthening the UKs energy system robustness to support efficient roll out of new infrastructure (Theme 2) and accelerating the net-zerotransition.Discovery phase success will enhance the teams understanding of how green hydrogen can effectively deliver net-zero at the lowest cost to consumers, which will provide focus for subsequent phases that will develop and demonstrate the planning tool and demonstrate/validate novel enabling technologies to maximise the tools impact.HyCoRe brings together eight partners with expertise encompassing gas/electricity network distribution operation, offshore-wind technology development/commercialisation, offshore-wind design optimisation, green hydrogen project development, cost modelling and business case development, infrastructure mapping, and supply chain development. The team possess keyskills required to deliver HyCoRe, and to deploy the tool, and any enabling technologies identified, for the benefit of the UK energy system, and ultimately the consumer.
GRN: NIA_WWU_02_67
Period: 01/12/2024 to 31/05/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The development of large-scale storage of hydrogen is widely accepted to be a critical element of the transition to a future net zero energy system. Most focus at present is on the development of depleted gas fields as hydrogen stores. This project will advance the alternative of development of aquifer structures for hydrogen storage. As a lower cost option, this clearly offers a lower cost integrated energy system to the benefit of all system participants. Aquifers are also significantly more accessible than depleted gas fields, with some regions not having access close to them: e.g. South Wales or the Southwest of England.The objective of this project is to extend the earlier concept work undertaken for the Hydrogen Storage in Aquifers SIF Round 3 Discovery (SIF_WWU_3_1) project into a pre-feasibility study relating to a small number of specific structures.
GRN: NIA2_SGN0056
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/03/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project will look to continue and improve upon the work of NIA2_SGN0025 Interventions for Hydrogen by Asset Group (Asset Interventions) by undertaking additional assessments of the new evidence from Hydrogen Heating Programme (HHP) projects completed since the end of phase 2c and by incorporating any relevant international evidence. The format of the database will also be enhanced to enable easier access to the key points and to review the scoring using a new weighted average method, which will improve accuracy. Summaries of the evidence within the database will also be produced against the HSE Demonstration (D) points and the Evidence Management System (EMS) level 2 sub-requirements to provide an overview to DESNZ on the completeness of the NSI D points.
GRN: NIA_WWU_02_62
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/08/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The industry has undertaken many projects to look at the potential implications of an energy transition whereby the gas distribution networks transport hydrogen rather than natural gas. Wales & West Utilities (WWU), together with Northern Gas Networks (NGN) and WSP, have previously undertaken a project to examine past energy transitions made by the gas industry, with a particular focus on the conversion program where the British Gas Industry transitioned from Town Gas to natural gas, and the important decisions that led to this (NIA_WWU_2_17).The Lessons Learnt: Phase Two project will build on the findings of the previous project involving research and reporting on industrial and commercial conversions, network conversions, previous decommissions, and timelines for all aspects, by developing on the findings of the first project in greater depth and detail.
GRN: NIA_WWU_02_65
Period: 01/10/2024 to 30/06/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project will identify locations within WWUs network for hydrogen storage in lined rock caverns that are feasible to support the early hydrogen sector and enable hydrogen producers to provide electricity network services.Highlight services that lined rock caverns can cost effectively provide to the hydrogen sector, and compare these costs to alternative available storage options, identifying the timelines that these services are likely to be required.Highlight the network planning implications for the need to connect hydrogen producers and demand to lined rock caverns.
GRN: NIA_WWU_02_61
Period: 01/08/2024 to 31/07/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The UK Government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. All future energy modelling identifies a key role for hydrogen in providing decarbonised energy for heat, industry and power generation. Green hydrogen production requires carbon-free electricity, purified water and relatively expensive membranes made from rare metals giving considerable barriers to efficient and cost-effective production.This project will focus on how treatment of industrial manufacturing process wastewater containing elevated levels of contaminants (heavy metals/fibres) and microplastics, can expand water types available for electrolysis, increasing opportunities for co-location of electrolysis citing at industrial clusters and reducing risk of fast passivation of electrodes to reduce ongoing maintenance costs. The resultant water will be used in the process of electrolysis to produce green hydrogen, reducing cost and increasing availability of green hydrogen production.
GRN: NIA_WWU_02_63
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/03/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The Climate Change Committee predicts well need at least 100GW of offshore wind by 2050 to meet our Net Zero targets and the ambition is that 1GW will come from Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW). The integration of green hydrogen production and FLOW requires significant investment; there is a need to truly articulate both the financial and wider benefits.In complement to the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC), HyLine Cymru, and previous work under the Milford Haven Energy Kingdom programme, we are now preparing for the delivery of a package of work under the newly formed, Launchpad-funded Milford Haven Hydrogen Kingdom (MHHK) programme.OptiFLOW will answer the crucial question of how it is best to connect offshore hydrogen production to the onshore HyLine pipeline to fuel industrial processes in the SWIC region. OptiFLOW will investigate the options to bring hydrogen onshore from multiple assets cost effectively, whilst bringing wider economic benefits to the UK and the region.
GRN: NPG_NIA_053
Period: 01/02/2025 to 31/07/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The rising costs of energy, coupled with high poverty rates, disproportionately impact vulnerable households, especially those with disabilities and/or caring responsibilities. Statistics reveal that the proportion of working age disabled people living in poverty is 27%, and their energy bills can be significantly higher than average (Scope, 2022). These costs are forcing many of these families to go without heating or essential medical equipment. As electric vehicle (EV) adoption grows, particularly within the Motability scheme, there is an urgent need to address the energy demands of these vulnerable populations by making the most of emerging technology and maximising the benefits of flexible EV Charging.
GRN: NIA_WWU_02_66
Period: 01/11/2024 to 30/04/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
As the UK attempts to decarbonise residential heat to meet net zero by 2050, electric heat pumps along with heat networks are expected to play a key role. However, it is generally accepted that no one technology will be able to meet the needs of all households. If we are to deliver affordable low- carbon heating in the residential sector, we shall need as wide a range of technology options as possible to overcome the economic and technical challenges facing every customer.Project GaIN (Gathering Insights) will explore alternatives to heat pumps and heat networks which can utilise the robust gas network and benefit from its current upgrade programme, supporting the aims of DESNZs decarbonisation of heat roadmap. The project will discover and assess additional technology options where alternative solutions might be more costly or difficult to deliver; this will include LAEP system benefits as well as localised CAPEX and OPEX costs.
GRN: NIA2_SGN0046
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/05/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project aims to develop an integrated solution for the processes of characterising, settling, and billing gas in a multi-gas energy system ahead of the introduction of green gases such as hydrogen and unpropanated biomethane to help decarbonise the UKs gas grid.Beginning with market research, existing methodologies used in global networks with varying calorific values will be assessed. Using this information as a baseline, a tailored modelling solution will be created to meet UK industry requirements. Afterwards, a comprehensive feasibility study will identify the most optimal modelled solutions which will be consolidated into a new flexible settlement and billing approach. A roadmap will outline necessary implementation changes. Lastly, the requirements for a 12-month demonstration will be assessed to inform the programmes next phases.
GRN: NPG_NIA_051
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/12/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
GRN: NGET/SCADENT/SIFWholeSystem/Rd
Period: 01/08/2022 to 01/02/2023
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project addresses two key aims set out in the SIF Innovation Challenge:*Improve coordination between networks and other system participants: theproject achieves this through innovative technology to enable future gridreinforcement needs for heat, power, and transport while reducing the carbonimpact of electricity system.*Reduce duplication and excessive variation of products, processes orservices: the project achieves this through evaluating the costs and opportunitiesof repurposing existing infrastructure and/or assets -- such as existing cableroutes, tunnels and substations, leading to lower costs for upgradinginfrastructure.The network innovation involved is the innovative deployment of HighTemperature Superconductor (HTS) cable technology to increase networkcapacity on the GB electricity network. Full achievement of the projects aims willrequire technology innovation to drive down cost, deployment innovation to reduceEngineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) risk, and operation andmaintenance (O&M) innovation to allow continued support of the novel cabletechnology. We build on international innovative experience drawn from a numberof HTS projects are in operation worldwide. We aim to extend the experience athigher voltages (only four projects are at voltages higher than 80kV) and withlonger lengths of cable (the longest AC installation is 1200m long).The project has evolved during the discovery phase as follows:*The partners have a shared understanding of the maturity of HTS technology, therequirements for future development and the needed cost and risk reductionsteps.*A plan to mature the technical and commercial viability of HTS technologythrough demonstration a realistic field test environment has been established.*The challenges of developing HTS systems for the GB grid are better understoodand the Alpha phase plan has been adjusted to deal with them, including testingand modelling and additional expertise to reinforce some experience gaps withinthe project team.*An outline cost and benefit model has been produced, identifying the areas forlargest potential cost reductions.The project has engaged a range of key partners with the knowledge andexpertise to deliver the project and implement outcomes. These partners are:1.Transmission and distribution network owners: (NGET, WPD, SPEN, UKPN)driving the requirements for the technology and identifying operating conditionsand future use cases.2.HTS Technology providers: Nexans and AMSC, experts in superconductingcable systems, technology expertise on current costs and technology readinesslevel (TRL).3.Academic partners: Universities of Manchester and Strathclyde research andexpertise in power system technologies, modelling and simulation of solution.4.Project Management & Benefits Assessment: Frazer-Nash Consultancy,programme management, technology lifecycle development, and cost/benefitanalyses.5.*Generation Licence Holder:*rsted generation licence holder supporting thisproject.The partners combine knowledge and capabilities and a strong interest inadvancing HTS technology. NGET, SPEN, WPD, UKPN can deploy the solutionon the respective networks,rsted can develop understanding of the potentialuses of HTS technology in generation contexts, Nexans and AMSC can designand produce innovative HTS solutions to suit GB grid requirements, TheUniversities of Strathclyde and Manchester can expand their research in thearea of superconductor technology and its impacts on the grid, and Frazer-Nashensure the capabilities of the supporting consultancy ecosystem.The proposed solution addresses the challenges held by its potential users: NGETand other network operators (TOs and DNOs). These users benefit from a widerrange of options to enable future grid reinforcement, including the replacement ofexisting assets reaching the end of life. Consumers benefit from faster progresstowards a net-zero electricity system, experience reduced disruption in upgradingnetwork assets and will be supplied by a more resilient and sustainable network.
GRN: NGET/SCOHL/SIFIESRR/Rd2_Discov
Period: 01/04/2023 to 01/07/2023
Funding Source: Ofgem
This project aims to assess the potential for implementing novel high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology on National Grids overhead line (OHL) assets. Meeting Net Zero goals requires21.7 billion for 94 onshore network reinforcement projects by 2030, with additional build-out by 2050 (NOA 2021/22 Refresh). However, the required pace of network expansion is unprecedented and regulatory processes and public resistance can slow deployment, especially for new OHL routes which have high visual impact.Overhead superconducting technology could improve system robustness by increasing the power transfer capability of existing transmission corridors, reducing network constraints and allowing for significantly increased flexibility in our energy mix and ability to meet demand from all available generation sources. The ability to rebuild or add lines within existing corridors and transmit more power in smaller corridors shortens the time to construct and energize new transmission capacity. Expediting the upgrading and expansion of the network in this way offers greater certainty about connection timeframes and development costs and quickens our ability to cut carbon emissions through the ability to connect more renewable generation and limit its curtailment due to network constraints. The resulting guarantee of the unconstrained availability of generated power significantly increases network resilience and robustness.SCOHLs are currently at TRL 4 as the novel cryogenic cooling system with superconducting conductors have been operated as a raised overhead system in a lab environment and detailed simulation models of the system and its components have been verified. A SIF-funded project provides an opportunity to increase this TRL; in the discovery phase, an appropriate methodology for increasing the TRL will be developed through scanning for potential applications on NGETs assets, investigating technical limitations and financial benefits and identifying an adoption into BAU roadmap. The alpha and beta phases will subsequently progress towards to use of prototype demonstrators at live testing sites.Project partners:*National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) as a transmission network owner and transmission licensee with access to required testing facilities and OHL assets*VEIR as the developers of the cooling technology that will enable SCOHL rollout*University of Strathclyde as experts in power system analysisHTS-enabled SCOHLs could be used by TNOs and DNOs across GB and potentially beyond. This project will identify the specific benefits and abilities of SCOHLs, where they can be used successfully, and their operational limitations so that users can be guided on the optimal route for adoption into BAU.
GRN: NIA_WWU_2_71
Period: 01/12/2024 to 30/09/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
GRN: NIA_ENWL_040
Period: 01/11/2024 to 31/08/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
Until recently, voltage regulation technology was not mature for pole mounted distribution transformers meaning that customers connected to them could not take advantage of the benefits of Conservative Voltage Reduction (CVR) as proven on ground mounted transformers as part of the Second Tier project, Smart Street.Pole mounted voltage regulation technology has now matured and this project will conduct desktop analysis to determine whether the application of CVR is cost beneficial for overhead networks including an assessment of the available voltage regulation equipment. If benefits can be realised, Smart Street Rural will scope a testing methodology for a small-scale network trial to be carried out in a potential future project.
GRN: NIA2_NGET0069
Period: 01/09/2024 to 31/03/2026
Funding Source: Ofgem
National Grid (NG) manages many oil containing assets and oil storage is susceptible to leakages. The use of alternative insulating fluids in transformers has been studied by NG and synthetic esters are now considered where enhanced fire safety and a more environmentally friendly solution is required. NG currently uses Bund Water Control Units (BWCU) and oil separators to capture oil, both of which require maintenance and are less effective to ester and emulsified mixtures. However, the existing oil capturing techniques used for mineral oil are not 100% effective with newer alternatives. This project looks at alternative oil capturing and bioremediation techniques with or without existing oil interceptors, with respect to the potential environmental implications based on typical pollution scenarios at NG sites.
GRN: NIA2_NGET0085
Period: 01/03/2024 to 31/03/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
Track to Zero aims to assess the impact of 100% railway electrification on the transmission network across England and Wales, identifying existing and future congestion points. A key focus is exploring a novel battery storage solution to support railway electrification, potentially deferring or reducing the need for traditional railway feeder stations. By integrating energy storage, the project will evaluate grid flexibility, cost implications and network efficiency. A comparative cost analysis will be conducted, examining electrification costs before and after battery deployment. Findings will provide insights into grid constraints, cost savings and decarbonisation pathways, supporting efficient railway electrification while minimizing network stress. The learnings will inform all Network Licensees across GB as well as Network Rail on optimal investment strategies for a sustainable rail network.
GRN: NIA2_NGET0066
Period: 01/08/2024 to 31/05/2025
Funding Source: Ofgem
The current energy transition will require the electrification of many energy demand sources, along with a corresponding increase in low-carbon electricity generation. Estimates indicate that by 2030 the UK needs to build 5x as much new electricity transmission infrastructure as has been built in the past 30 years. High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) technology is not currently being used in HV networks across the UK. This project will seek to evaluate the feasibility of HTS technology by defining short-term and long-term use cases for overhead line (OHL) and cable systems as well as delivering a detailed plan for route to business as usual for HTS deployment.
GRN: NIA2_NGET0080
Period: 01/12/2024 to 31/03/2026
Funding Source: Ofgem
VICAP 3 bar by bar will build on the success of VICAP 2. In VICAP 2, a refined artificial intelligence (AI) model was able to assess images of steel tower and automatically grade the level of corrosion of the steelwork. As part of the asset management practice, climbing surveys are carried out to getbar by bar (BB) assessments of corrosion on steelwork towers and to measure the extent of wear on fittings amongst other things. The aim of VICAP 3 is to develop algorithms and data collection methods which enable BB assessments and fittings wear measurements to be done using drone collected images. The expected benefits will be in assessment cost reduction and efficiencies.
