News

From growing up in South Wales to his current role enabling sustainable energy storage through his work as a PhD researcher on the Faraday Institution Science of Battery Safety (SafeBatt) project, James Simon's journey is a compelling tale.James's pathway, which was featured recently in the Faraday Institution's Faraday Pathways series, underscores…

"Half the technologies we are going to need if we are to meet our net-zero goals are still in the lab," says Chris Gibbs, Investment Director at Cambridge Enterprise."As part of the University's net-zero commitments, we have invested over £7 million in new companies that will get those ideas out of our labs and into the real world."The result is a …

Responsible for 8% of world carbon emissions, can trucking clean up its act?They represent as much as 8% of total world carbon emissions. But despite best efforts, global emissions from road haulage are increasing along with our increased consumption – because virtually everything that we purchase arrives on a truck, even if its road trip is just p…

Cambridge researchers are working to solve one of technology’s biggest puzzles: how to build next-generation batteries that could power a green revolution.  A better battery could make all the difference. So what’s holding up progress?The key to making electronics portable was the commercialisation of lithium-ion batteries - batteries which are rec…

Professor Sir Richard Friend FRS, Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory, has been awarded the 2024 Institute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal and Lecture, the most prestigious award of the IOP which recognises groundbreaking physicists.The award honours Sir Richard for his pioneering and enduring work on the fundamental electronic propertie…

Applications for Exchange Awards are open as of 1 October 2025, and will close on Friday 12 December 2025The Winton Cambridge-Berkeley Exchange Programme is a partnership between the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability, and the Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (ENSI) at the University of California, Berkeley to support research wit…

Global aviation could be on a flight path to net zero if industry and governments reach just four goals by 2030, according to a new report from the University of Cambridge.An ambitious five-year plan created by the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA), a project led by the University of Cambridge and hosted by the University’s Whittle Laboratory and t…

Nyobolt, a University of Cambridge spin-out company, has demonstrated its ultra-fast charging batteries in an electric sportscar prototype, going from 10% to 80% charge in under five minutes, twice the speed of the fastest-charging vehicles currently on the road.In addition to ultra-fast charging times, the batteries developed by Nyobolt – which wa…

Cambridge spinout, Echion Technologies has raised £29 million in investment capital to help it increase the production of its fast-charging, long-life battery material based on niobium.Echion, a Cambridge University spinout headquartered just outside the city, has invented and patented a niobium-based anode material, XNO®, for use with re-chargeabl…

“It's been eye-opening to see the world from so many different angles. Cambridge creates a dynamic learning environment where everyone has something valuable to contribute,” says Mastercard Foundation Scholar Itumeleng Sebata.Itumeleng is one of six Scholars from Africa currently undertaking an engineering-related Master’s degree at Cambridge. Itum…

Professor Dame Clare Grey has been elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences.The NAS announced the election of 120 members and 24 international members this year in recognition of their distinguished and ongoing achievements in original research.The Grey group investigates materials with applications in supercapacitors,…

How do we change the world for the better? Now more than ever we need people with vision and, importantly, the necessary skills to tackle the complex challenges we face.The Gates Cambridge Scholarship brings together people from across the world and across disciplines with a focus on improving the lives of others. Every year around 75 new scholars …

A number of Cambridge engineers have secured funding for various research projects focused on decarbonisation and low carbon energy.Original Department of Engineering articleWe at the Energy Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC), with Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF), were pleased to support the latest round of Small Grants for impact a…

The Civil Engineering Division has been successful in its bid for a Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT) – building on the strength of its two CDT predecessors FIBE and FIBE2.The EPSRC-funded CDT will focus on meeting the user needs of the infrastructure and built environment se…

Cambridge engineers will join a new £6 million project exploring the extent to which the circular economy could meet the UK’s building needs – using zero new material extractions, with zero emissions and zero waste.BuildZero, led by the University of Sheffield, and funded by the EPSRC, will be carried out in partnership with the Universities of Cam…