Some of our key projects
Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST)
iCAST is a unique collaboration set to deliver agile innovation in green, sustainable technologies. Bringing together experts across all the innovation stages, it focuses on bringing together industry and academia to translate discoveries into commercial applications.
Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC)
IDRIC is the focal point of the green transformation in the UK’s industrial heartlands. Powered by research and innovation and funded by UKRI, IDRIC develops innovative decarbonisation solutions at speed and scale in the places where it matters most.
Dynamic Reaction Monitoring Facility (DReaM) Facility
The Dynamic Reaction Monitoring (DReaM) Facility is part of the Material and Chemical Characterisation (MC2) Facility. The set-up was designed to monitor chemical changes in homogeneous reactions as they are taking place, using a variety of analytical techniques.
UK Catalysis Hub
The UK Catalysis Hub is Consortia of universities involved in catalysis research. The Hub focuses on developing catalytic processes for more effective use of water and energy, waste minimisation, material reuse and reduction in gaseous emissions.
Visit the UK Catalysis Hub website
SynHiSel
SynHiSel is set up to build upon key advances made in developing membranes with stable performance over time. For example, membranes for polymer-based gas separation, where ageing is minimised; 3D printed membranes for liquid separations with reduced fouling; and self-healing ceramic membranes which do not suffer from structural failure.
Biodegradable Bioplastics - Assessing Environmental Risk (BIO-PLASTIC-RISK)
Biodegradable bioplastics (BBPs) are a category of materials that offer considerable potential to reduce the global environmental challenge resulting from the accumulation of end-of-life plastic. They are widely used in applications with substantive pathways to the natural environment, yet our understanding of their fate in the natural environment is poor. This project will aim to establish the fate of BBPs in the environment, their effect on organisms and ecosystem function and develop environmental risk assessments.
STIMULUS
STIMULUS is a European Training Network working on reducing healthcare-associated infections. STIMULUS trains early-stage researchers for a career in biomaterials by researching smart wound dressings that can detect and treat bacterial infections without opening the wound.
GREENER - Integrated systems for effective environmental remediation
GREENER proposes the development of green, sustainable, efficient, and low-cost solutions for soil/sediment and water bioremediation, by integrating several remediation strategies with innovative bio-electrochemical technologies. The project will effectively accelerate the remediation time of a range of organic and inorganic pollutants of high concern, while producing useful end-products, such as bioelectricity and/or harmless metabolites of industrial interest.
PAthways of Chemicals Into Freshwaters and their ecological ImpaCts (PACIFIC)
The PACIFIC project will investigate how human-made chemicals make their way into freshwater ecosystems and what impacts they have, with a particular focus on freshwater microbes, which are essential to wider freshwater ecosystem health.
Made Smarter Innovation: Centre for People-Led Digitalisation
The Centre for People-Led Digitalisation aims to achieve the highest level of manufacturing productivity by increasing the digital knowledge and awareness of manufacturers.
Visit the Centre for People-Led Digitalisation website
Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST)
The Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation (CAST) is a global hub for understanding the systemic and society-wide transformations that are required to address climate change. It researches and develops the social transformations needed to produce a low-carbon and sustainable society, and at the core of its work is a fundamental question: How can we, as a society, live differently – and better – in ways that meet the urgent need for rapid and far-reaching emission reductions?
Moments of Change for pro-environmental behaviour shifts (MoCHA)
Responding to climate change requires alterations to individual and collective behaviours. This research explores how understanding moments of change, and adapting to them, can lead to positive environmental impacts.
Towards net-zero carbon buildings: tackling uncertainty when predicting the carbon footprint of construction products and buildings
This project sets to significantly improve the treatment of uncertainty when predicting the embodied and operational carbon (whole-life carbon) of construction products and whole buildings, working with project partners across the supply-chain of low-carbon buildings.
Manufacturing in Hospital: BioMed 4.0
Inspired by the response of organisms to environmental conditions, this project develops a novel responsive additive technology for 3D printing capable of responding autonomously to feedstock and product requirements, while also addressing each of the challenges present in modern 3D printing technologies.
A Radical Approach to C-H Alkylation
The field of C-H functionalisation aims to find ways of selectively replacing one or more of these C-H bonds with other chemical groups, allowing chemists to build up molecules in a much more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable fashion. This project aims to develop a conceptually-distinct approach to the catalytic alkylation of C(sp3)-H bonds - to install simple alkyl groups - that does not require organometallic catalysis.
CPLAS — New perspectives in photocatalysis and near-surface chemistry: catalysis meets plasmonics
CPLAS is a £10 million programme grant funded by EPSRC and industry project partners for a six-year study to investigate light-driven energy conversion at the nanoscale for stimulating chemical transformations.
C-THRU: Carbon clarity in the global petrochemical supply chain
The petrochemical sector is accountable for a third of industrial energy use and almost a fifth of global industrial CO2 emissions. Demand for chemicals is expected to double by 2050, which will place even further strain on the environment. C-THRU is an international research project which aims to deliver carbon clarity for the global petrochemical sector, exploring options for reducing the sector’s pressure on the environment.
UK FIRES: Locating Resource Efficiency at the Heart of Future Industrial Strategy in the UK
UK FIRES is a research programme aiming to reveal and stimulate industrial growth in the UK compatible with a rapid transition to zero emissions; including designing new material processing techniques, new decision-making tools and new approaches to design, while revealing opportunities for entrepreneurship, finance and policy to accelerate our move to zero emissions.