First Research Director of New UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), on behalf of the Research Councils was given the task of setting up the new UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). As Chris Franklin (cfr@nerc.ac.uk) Head of Earth Science and Technology, Science Programmes Directorate at NERC reports, the first Research Director has now taken up his post. For more information about UKERC see http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/programmes/sustenergy.
The intention to establish a UK energy research centre was announced by the Government in its Energy White Paper in February 2003, and is part of the UK Research Councils’ sustainable energy initiative. The initiative as a whole has a budget of £28m for 2003-6, including £8-12m for the research centre. The Government recognise that climate change poses a real and serious challenge, and that it is vital that every avenue is explored to find the means to generate both clean and renewable energy. The UK Energy Research Centre is a key part of the Government’s commitment to this policy.
Professor Jim Skea, an expert in energy and environmental research, took up the role of Research Director Designate for the centre on 1 April 2004. Professor Skea’s new role will be to co-ordinate research into the development of reliable, diverse, affordable and safe ways to supply energy while minimising carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. Over the coming months Professor Skea will liaise with researchers taking part in the Research Councils’ sustainable energy initiative and other experts to establish the centre’s research programme, aiming to have first funding awards in place by the end of the year and gearing up to full potential by spring 2005.
Professor Skea was previously Director of the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in London and has a wealth of experience in setting up this type of initiative. Over the past two years he has successfully established the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, bringing together government departments, automotive and fuel companies, NGOs and the research base. This year (2004) he was awarded the OBE for services to UK sustainable transport.
Key to the vision for the centre is generating enthusiasm in the UK’s scientific community for energy research. The centre will provide a hub to which international experts will be drawn and it will encourage scientific understanding by the public. It will operate initially from PSI until the location of all the centre’s facilities is established.
Several academic consortia bid to run the project, but it was decided that the best way forward was to invite a new single bid drawing on the strengths of each. Professor Skea has now been appointed as the facilitator to draw this together.
Strong support is anticipated from those universities and organisations that submitted proposals for the centre, including Imperial College London, University of Oxford, and members of the Kelvin consortium led by the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) based in Blyth, Northumberland.
As well as bringing a systematic approach to energy research, including environmental, social, economic and technological aspects, the centre will provide opportunities for networking and training, and facilitating the exploitation of new technologies. It will work with the government and inform energy policy, helping the UK to meet its targets and aspirations in renewable energy deployment and carbon dioxide emissions reductions.
The Research Councils will be recruiting an Executive Director to work with Professor Skea. This new appointment will help to develop both the research programme and the management structure for the Energy Research Centre.