News

To mark the 51st year of the MacRobert Award, the most prestigious prize for UK engineering innovation, the Royal Academy of Engineering assembled an expert panel to discuss how British engineers can apply their creativity to decarbonise our homes, travel and workplaces while creating jobs and a better environment for all over the next 30 years.Cha…

 5 February 2020 - University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) on behalf of the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas), organised the Second Cambridge CirPlas Forum: Relative impact of materials: connecting business, policy and research to deliver solutions. The event explored and showcased work being under…

 The UK has become the first major economy in the world to pass a net-zero emissions law, setting an ambitious target to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. The development and adoption of more energy-efficient materials is an important enabler for the UK to achieve this goal.In September 2019, the Henry Royce Institute submitte…

We are delighted to be able to share the recent news of the following promotions from 1 October 2020 for University of Cambridge academic staff and members of Energy Transitions@Cambridge:Professorship Nikos Nikiforakis, Department of PhysicsNikos leads the Laboratory for Scientific Computing group. His research interests are on the development and…

University of Cambridge researchers are working towards eliminating plastic waste and making best use of one of the most successful materials ever invented.Plastic has become a malevolent symbol of our wasteful society. It’s also cheap, durable, flexible, waterproof, versatile, lightweight, protective and hygienic.During the coronavirus pandemic, p…

Listen to the latest podcast Cambridge Zero Climate Talks. Guests for the 22 May 2020 podcast include Professor Erwin Reisner [at 33.55mins], who works on artificial photosynthesis, solar fuels and PI of the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas).Click here.

Researchers find long-term, climate-friendly stimulus policies are often superior in overall economic impact – not just in slowing global warming.An analysis of possible COVID-19 economic recovery packages shows the potential for strong alignment between the economy and the environment. The direction of these measures over the next six months will …

The University of Cambridge start-up Porotech is set to commercialise porous Gallim Nitride (GaN), which opens the door to high performance optoelectronic devices with unexpected properties. While silicon has been at heart of computer chips and microelectronics for decades, they are reaching the limit of performance, and thus an alternative like Ga…

Congratulations to Professor Manish Chhowalla, Director of Henry Royce Energy-Efficient ICT-Cambridge and Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science (Dept of Materials Science and Metallurgy), who has been awarded the IOM3 Griffith Medal and Prize and shares the Charles Hatchett Award with the co-authors of the winning paper.His awards recognise hi…

Lithium-ion batteries last longer and recharge faster. Commonly used for mobile telephones, laptops and electric vehicles, the demand has been growing since the 1990s and manufacturers are constantly testing ways to improve these batteries with new chemical combinations.Dr Michael Volder’s (Dept of Engineering) is leading the research in the field …

During the week of 2nd to 6th of March the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge hosted the third Venture School: ‘People, Plastics and Our Planet’. Participants from various Universities, CirPlas members, entrepreneurs and professionals joined a journey that set off with an analysis of the role of plastics in the environment from their use and end…

Four researchers at the University of Cambridge have won advanced grants from the European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premier research funding body.One hundred and eighty-five senior scientists from across Europe were awarded grants in today’s announcement, representing a total of €450 million in research funding. The UK has the second-most o…

Researchers have designed a machine learning method that can predict battery health with 10x higher accuracy than current industry standard, which could aid in the development of safer and more reliable batteries for electric vehicles and consumer electronics.The novel method monitors way to monitor batteries by sending electrical pulses into them …

Fears that electric cars could actually increase carbon emissions are unfounded in almost all parts of the world, new research shows.Reports have questioned whether electric cars really are ‘greener’ once emissions from production and generating their electricity are taken into account.But a new study by the universities of Exeter, Nijmegen and Cam…

A technique based on the principles of MRI and NMR has allowed researchers to observe not only how next-generation batteries for large-scale energy storage work, but also how they fail, which will assist in the development of strategies to extend battery lifetimes in support of the transition to a zero-carbon future.The new tools, developed at the …