Research themes
The University of Bath across the range of its academic interests possesses high-level interdisciplinary research expertise in relation to energy, sustainability and the environment. This is reflected in the involvement of Bath researchers in many of the major environment and energy research council programmes resulting in a considerable portfolio of research expertise and current projects spread across the University.
The mission of I-SEE is to focus, integrate and enhance fundamental and applied research on sustainable energy and the environment. It will seek to enhance both the University's effectiveness at meeting this agenda, and its national and international reputation as a research institute focussed on major real-world issues. I-SEE engages with 13 Departments/Schools and 7 research centres across the University bringing together experts from the fields of engineering, technology, physical sciences, social sciences and economics.
I-SEE has been organised into 10 interdisciplinary themes to provide a holistic approach to energy, the environment and sustainability.
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Climate change and its mitigation Mitigating the effects of climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing science today due to its complex nature. |
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Energy efficiency improvement and demand reduction Increasing the efficiency in which we generate, distribute, transmit energy in conjunction with improvements in the efficiency of energy using products has a vital role to play in ensuring sustainability. |
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Future energy sources and energy storage An important challenge in addressing the demands of climate change and meeting the 60% emissions targets set by the UK Government is to find more sustainable ‘clean’ sources of energy and methods for storing energy when it cannot be immediately used. |
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Energy generation, transmission and distribution The generation, transmission and distribution of energy result in a significant carbon footprint; to reduce it, there needs to be an increase in energy derived from renewable sources entering the grid. |
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Technology assessment of energy systems Understanding the impacts of different energy sources and supply mixes, as well as demand reduction measures, in selecting routes to sustainability and meeting UK Government climate change and renewable energy targets. |
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Low carbon transportation and advanced / alternative fuels Potential solutions for reducing the environmental impact of transport include increased engine efficiency, the development of hybrid, electric, hydrogen and biofuel powered vehicles. |
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Environmental sustainability Environmental sustainability is the core ethos behind the development of I-SEE at the University of Bath. The University is conducting world leading research addressing each of the three pillars of sustainability. |
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Effective policy & practice around sustainable behaviour Technological and engineering advances towards addressing sustainability require underpinning at the macro level by effective policy, regulation and social acceptability in order to maximise their impact. |
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Well-being, capability and resilience in communities Understanding the impacts of climate change on the wellbeing of society is key in supporting its mitigation. Well-being can be considered to describe what is non-instrumentally or ultimately good for a person. |
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The economics and ethics of sustainability The adoption of a more sustainable ethos by society will be dependent not only on the availability of technology and willingness of society to adopt change but also on the economics of the change. |
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Next generation The University of Bath has a unique blend of high quality research and teaching, plus a range of knowledge exchange/ technology transfer opportunities. Bath offers a number of under- and postgraduate courses in the energy field. |
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Enabling research and technology transfer The energy research undertaken at the University is supported by dedicated research development, knowledge transfer and commercial development teams. |