Research highlights and Blogs

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Pathways for meeting England's housing needs

A home for all within planetary boundaries: Pathways for meeting England's housing needs without transgressing national climate and biodiversity goals

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Competition with China a ‘driving force’ for clean energy funding in the 21st century

Analysis of energy RD&D investment in major economies also found that commitments at COP21 yielded some positives. Ultimately, however, trends over this century are not consistent with the ‘cleantech’ funding levels needed to meet climate goals, say researchers.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - New approach to ‘cosmic magnet’ manufacturing could reduce reliance on rare earths in low-carbon technologies

Researchers have discovered a potential new method for making the high-performance magnets used in wind turbines and electric cars without the need for rare earth elements, which are almost exclusively sourced in China.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Offshore carbon storage deployment and research needs to scale up for UK to deliver net zero pledge,

The UK will need to step up research and deployment of new offshore carbon storage wells if it is to achieve the capacity required to deliver its net zero emissions plans, a new report says.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Watching lithium in real time could improve performance of EV battery materials

Researchers have found that the irregular movement of lithium ions in next-generation battery materials could be reducing their capacity and hindering their performance. The team, led by the University of Cambridge, tracked the movement of lithium ions inside a promising new battery material in real time.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Machine learning algorithm predicts how to get the most out of electric vehicle batteries

Researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that could help reduce charging times and prolong battery life in electric vehicles by predicting how different driving patterns affect battery performance, improving safety and reliability. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, say their algorithm could...

Sustainable cities and how women use energy and space

Women and men balance their different responsibilities in different ways, something the pandemic has brought into sharp relief. But that isn’t always considered by those designing buildings. In fact, buildings designed without considering gender often benefit men and disadvantage women by default.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Decomposing biophotovoltaic current density profiles using the Hilbert–Huang

This work demonstrated how the Hilbert Huang Transform may be applied to analyse bioelectrochemical signals. Electrons from cyanobacteria photosynthetic and respiratory systems are implicated in current generated in biophotovoltaic (BPV) devices.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT: Earth-abundant pixels produce hydrogen for weeks

A collaboration between researchers from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London demonstrated that artificial leaves made of readily available oxide and carbon-based materials can produce hydrogen from water over several weeks.