last updated 17th August 05
By 4ecotips

New courses and funding lead the way

UK universities are at the forefront of postgraduate training and new funding for degree courses relating to reducing the effects of climate change on the planet. Some of the courses can be carried out on a distance-learning basis and there are other learning systems, such as part time, that are worth serious investigation. Here a just a few options that are available to students staring in the new academic calendar.

HERIOT-WATT’S MSc IN RENEWABLE ENERGY

Heriot-Watt's Institute of Island Technology in Stromness, Orkney, has launched a new postgraduate degree in renewable energy.

The new course helps address the challenge for the UK and Europe in recruiting the skilled workforce needed to develop required sustainable programmes.

At least £19 billion and an additional 35,000 people will be required for the UK to meet its 2020 targets. In Europe investment in wind energy alone is anticipated to be around $42 billion in the next five years.

The new course, which is offered part-time by distance learning and full-time from Stromness, has been developed by Heriot-Watt staff whose research and teaching has encompassed many aspects of renewable energy and marine renewables development. Support for the course development included the European Social Fund and the Orkney Islands Council, and the new initiative has been widely welcomed by developers and government agencies.

It is a broad-based degree, which will produce graduates well versed in the economic, technological and environmental drivers, which are dictating the current path of development in the renewable sector.

Professor Side says: “There are few universities that can boast the track record of Heriot-Watt in the energy and marine industries fields, in both research and teaching. The new course will exploit the existing synergies between this ongoing work and the new imperative of renewables development, putting its graduates at the forefront of new employment opportunities in the renewables sector.” Further info: www.icit.org.uk

NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY’S £1.3M FUNDING FOR GREENHOUSE GAS SOLUTIONS

Research at The University of Nottingham into new energy-saving technologies has received funding from a major national investment programme aimed at drastically cutting emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The G8 Summit has put global climate change firmly on the political agenda and raised public awareness of the issue. In the UK, significant work is already underway to tackle the main cause of climate change — carbon dioxide emissions

The four-year TARBASE (Technology Assessment for Radically Improving the Built Asset Base) project, involving experts in the University's School for the Built Environment, has been awarded £1.3 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Carbon Trust. It comes as part of the trust's ambitious drive to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 — a substantial step towards the Government's overall target of a 60 per cent reduction by 2050.

More energy efficient building materials and energy-saving devices are gradually being introduced into new buildings that are being constructed but TARBASE is focusing on ways to reduce the emissions of most of current UK buildings that will still be standing in 2030.

The project, which also involves academics at Heriot-Watt, Ulster and Surrey universities, is focusing on the greater use of combined heat and power (CHP) in buildings, the use of building fabric materials with improved insulating properties and the use of building-integrated renewable energy technologies.

Looking at different types of buildings, it will assess the effectiveness of a range of technologies in terms of cost, ease of installation, social acceptability and carbon performance. More info email li.shao@nottingham.ac.uk or emma.thorne@nottingham.ac.uk

OXFORD UNIVERSITY’S COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Oxford University has launched a unique collaborative research centre putting it at the forefront of research to find solutions to the most pressing problems facing the world in the 21st century. The James Martin 21st Century School, funded by a multi-million pound endowment by British-born computing pioneer James Martin, will stimulate research on issues such as climate change, an increasingly ageing society, extreme inequalities in wealth across countries and continents, the risk of infectious disease epidemics like AIDS and SARS, and the effects of rapid technological change.

The new benefaction – worth more than £3m a year in perpetuity – will provide funding for University academics to focus specifically on the ideas, methods, policies and practices which will begin to solve some of the major challenges which threaten humanity and the planet.

Dr Martin says: “Mankind faces huge challenges as the 21st century unfolds. It is essential that our leading thinkers commit time, energy and resources now to finding solutions to these risks and problems which could threaten the future of humanity itself.

“New technology also offers revolutionary new opportunities. One of the most important activities for a leading university today should be the multi-disciplinary academic thinking needed to find solutions to humanity's biggest problems and address our future opportunities. The 21st Century School at Oxford University will be unique in doing this, with the goal of ensuring a worthy future for new civilizations.”

Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute works towards cross-sectoral solutions to environmental risks that include climate change, land and ecosystem degradation through analysis and design of policies for lower carbon futures, sustainable development and nature conservation. As part of the 21st Century School, the Institute will seek to innovate in two urgent and related topics: the prevention of dangerous climate change through policies such as carbon trading, adaptation, and energy alternatives and evaluating new approaches to Environmental Governance that involve changing the scale of management (to both more local and more global levels), new collaborations between government, business and environmental groups, and the privatisation and pricing of environmental services. More info: www.eci.ox.ac.uk

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LOOKS TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ECONOMY

Just one month after its launch, the Electricity Policy Research Group, based at the University of Cambridge, was awarded funding in excess of £2.1 million over five years from the joint Research Council initiative ‘Towards a Sustainable Energy Economy.’

The Group’s research will address three themes: delivering secure, reliable and diverse energy in a liberalized market; energy, emissions and technology in the European and global contexts; public attitudes and processes of governance. The core expertise of the Electricity Policy Research Group is interdisciplinary analysis of the electricity supply industry, a sector that accounts for around 30% of UK greenhouse gas emissions.

Tackling these issues is critical if the UK is to access a secure, safe, diverse and reliable energy supply at competitive prices, while meeting the challenge of global warming.

Professor David Newbery, Research Director says: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to contribute to a major initiative that supports progress towards a sustainable energy sector. We have the proven capacity to conduct world-class analysis of the electricity sector, focused on economics, but integrating management and political sciences, technology policy and engineering. We are grateful to the Cambridge-MIT Institute for funding recent research that has helped us to build this capacity.”
More info: www.cambridge-mit.org

NOTTINGHAM TRENT BUILDING ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATIONS

Nottingham Trent University is introducing a new BArch (Hons) in Architecture degree. The three-year course is due to start in October next year.

The degree has been designed to respond to the requirements of the architecture profession, architectural education and the construction industry. It will be delivered by experts in Interior Architecture and Design, Architectural Technology, Building Surveying, Design, Development and Regeneration and both Civil and Structural Engineering.

Architect and senior lecturer, Alina Hughes, says: “What a fantastic way for us to celebrate Architecture Week. We’ve been able to design a course that directly responds to contemporary architectural issues, such as environmental and social viability, cultural awareness and entrepreneurship. In particular, we want to develop professionals who are able to exercise cultural sensitivity and who view sustainability as integral to the design process in ecological, social and cultural terms.” More info: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk

LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENT SECURES SUSTAINABLE ENRGY SCHOLARSHIP

A student at Loughborough University has been awarded a scholarship aimed at educating people from developing countries about renewable energy systems.

Mr Junior Osei-Agyemang from Ghana has been given an e7 Sustainable Energy Development Scholarship. The e7 is an organisation of leading electricity companies from the G8 nations that wish to play an active role in protecting the global environment and to promote the efficient generation and use of electricity. Its scholarship programme has been established to support outstanding students in advanced studies of sustainable energy development, and is specifically for people from developing countries and economies in transition.

The scholarship will enable Junior Osei-Agyemang to study for an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Technology at the University’s Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), based in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
More info: http://www.e7.org

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DESIGNS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Design choices influence our everyday world, from buildings and cars to clothes and food. Rather than encouraging consumerism, however, design needs to become more aligned with sustainability and quality of life, says Cranfield University’s Dr Emma Dewberry.

To achieve this, believes Dr Dewberry, a more integrated and strategic view of sustainability and design is needed, recognising whole lifecycle impacts from product conception. She said: "Thinking about a product’s impact is not something that can be added on at the end of the design process, especially as decisions made in the early stage of the design process account for around 80% of the environmental impacts associated with a product."

In response, Cranfield University is launching a new Masters level course. The MSc Design for Sustainability will address the emerging business and social agenda for sustainable development by focusing on design, creativity and innovation.

The course provides a knowledge and understanding of the international agenda in relation to sustainable development. It also deals with the relationship between this agenda and the design and business strategies needed for developing integrated approaches to resource management. More info: www.cranfield.ac.uk/prospectus/course.cfm?id=100