The motivation for this proposal is that the global reliance on fossil fuels is set to increase with the rapid growth of Asian economies and major discoveries of shale gas in developed nations. The strategic vision of the IDC is to develop a world-leading Centre for Industrial Doctoral Training focussed on delivering research leaders and next-generation innovators with broad economic, societal and contextual awareness, having strong technical skills and capable of operating in multi-disciplinary teams covering a range of knowledge transfer, deployment and policy roles. They will be able to analyse the overall economic context of projects and be aware of their social and ethical implications. These skills will enable them to contribute to stimulating UK-based industry to develop next-generation technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and ultimately improve the UK's position globally through increased jobs and exports. The Centre will involve over 50 recognised academics in carbon capture & storage (CCS) and cleaner fossil energy to provide comprehensive supervisory capacity across the theme for 70 doctoral students. It will provide an innovative training programme co-created in collaboration with our industrial partners to meet their advanced skills needs. The industrial letters of support demonstrate a strong need for the proposed Centre in terms of research to be conducted and PhDs that will be produced, with 10 new companies willing to join the proposed Centre including EDF Energy, Siemens, BOC Linde and Caterpillar, together with software companies, such as ANSYS, involved with power plant and CCS simulation. We maintain strong support from our current partners that include Doosan Babcock, Alstom Power, Air Products, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), Tata Steel, SSE, RWE npower, Johnson Matthey, E.ON, CPL Industries, Clean Coal Ltd and Innospec, together with the Biomass & Fossil Fuels Research Alliance (BF2RA), a grouping of companies across the power sector. Further, we have engaged SMEs, including CMCL Innovation, 2Co Energy, PSE and C-Capture, that have recently received Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)/Technology Strategy Board (TSB)/ETI/EC support for CCS projects. The active involvement companies have in the research projects, make an IDC the most effective form of CDT to directly contribute to the UK maintaining a strong R&D base across the fossil energy power and allied sectors and to meet the aims of the DECC CCS Roadmap in enabling industry to define projects fitting their R&D priorities. The major technical challenges over the next 10-20 years identified by our industrial partners are: (i) implementing new, more flexible and efficient fossil fuel power plant to meet peak demand as recognised by electricity market reform incentives in the Energy Bill, with efficiency improvements involving materials challenges and maximising biomass use in coal-fired plant; (ii) deploying CCS at commercial scale for near-zero emission power plant and developing cost reduction technologies which involves improving first-generation solvent-based capture processes, developing next-generation capture processes, and understanding the impact of impurities on CO2 transport and storage; (iimaximising the potential of unconventional gas, including shale gas, 'tight' gas and syngas produced from underground coal gasification; and (iii) developing technologies for vastly reduced CO2 emissions in other industrial sectors: iron and steel making, cement, refineries, domestic fuels and small-scale diesel power generatort and These challenges match closely those defined in EPSRC's Priority Area of 'CCS and cleaner fossil energy'. Further, they cover biomass firing in conventional plant defined in the Bioenergy Priority Area, where specific issues concern erosion, corrosion, slagging, fouling and overall supply chain economics.

Hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels have an essential role in the net zero transition by providing connectivity and flexibility across the energy system. Despite advancements in the field of hydrogen research both in the physical sciences and engineering, significant barriers remain to the scalable adoption of hydrogen and alternative liquid fuel technologies, and energy services, into the UK's local and national whole system infrastructure policy. These are technical barriers, organisational barriers, regulatory and societal barriers, and financial barriers. The vision as Co-ordinator of the Centre for Systems Integration of Hydrogen and Alternative Fuels (CSI-HALF) is to deliver a fundamental shift in critical analysis of the role of hydrogen in the context of the overall energy landscape, through the creation of robust tools which are investment-oriented in their analysis. A Whole Systems and Energy Systems Integration approach is needed here, in order to better understand the interconnected and interdependent nature of complex energy systems from a technical, social, environmental and economic perspective. This 6-month proposal is to deliver key stakeholder engagement, to develop a comprehensive, co-created research programme for the Centre. The Centre is led by Prof Sara Walker, currently Director of the EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration, supported by Prof David Flynn of Heriot Watt University and Prof Jianzhong Wu of Cardiff University. The team have extensive experience of large energy research projects and strong networks of stakeholders across England, Wales and Scotland. They bring to the Centre major hydrogen demonstrators through support from partners involved in InTEGReL in Gateshead, ReFLEX in Orkney, and FLEXIS Demonstration in South Wales for example. This 6-month phase is an engagement exercise. It is our responsibility to engage with the community in a manner which respects and supports their motivations. Our philosophy in undertaking this engagement work is based around principles of inclusion, authenticity and tailoring. We will de-risk the integration of HALF into the UK energy system, through full representation of the hydrogen spectrum with open and integrated analysis of top-down and ground-up perspectives, including representation of the immediate and wider stakeholder group e.g. financial markets. We shall engage with this broad section of stakeholders with the support of experts in citizen and community engagement. These expert partners will enable us to produce the highest possible quality of engagement in the 6-month period. Our initial approaches to key stakeholders have been extremely positive. We have already engaged with, and have support from representatives of: pink, green and blue hydrogen production; hydrogen transportation stakeholders; hydrogen end users; policy makers and community groups; financial and consultation organisations; and key academics. We shall engage to create a vibrant, diverse, and open community that has a deeper understanding of whole systems approaches and the role of hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels (HALF) within that. We shall do so in a way which embeds EDI in the approach. We shall do so in a way which is a hybrid of virtual and in-person field work consultation, and develop appropriate digital tools for engagement. This builds on accredited practices and inclusive key performance indicators. The network created as a result of the engagement activity will be consulted on with respect to key research questions for the Centre, to co-create a research programme. Through relationship building, webinars and focus groups, we shall deliver an expertise map for hydrogen integration, an information pack containing the state of the art "commons", and a full proposal with comprehensive research programme which has extensive community buy-in.

The goal of the proposed EngD Centre is to produce research leaders to tackle the major national and international challenges over the next 15 years in implementing new power plant to generate electricity more efficiently using fossil energy with near zero emissions, involving the successful demonstration of CO2 capture, and also in reducing CO2 emissions generally from coal utilisation, including iron making. These leaders will be part of the new breed of engineers that will be thoroughly versed in cutting edge energy research and capable of operating in multi-disciplinary teams, covering a range of knowledge transfer, deployment and policy roles and with the skills to analyse the overall economic context of their projects and to be aware of the social and ethical implications. This proposal has involved wide consultation with the power generation sector which has indicated that the number of doctoral researchers required in the UK for the major developments in large-scale fossil energy power generation involving efficiency improvements and CO2 capture can be estimated conservatively as 150-200 over the next ten years. The Centre will play a vital role in meeting this demand by providing training in highly relevant technological areas to the companies concerned, as well as the broader portfolio of skills required for future research leaders. Further, Doosan Babcock, Alstom, E.ON, Rolls Royce, EDF, RWE, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), Welsh Power and Drax Power all support this bid and are willing to participate in the proposed Centre from 2009 onwards. Further, in terms of reducing CO2 emissions generally from coal utilisation, including iron making and smokeless fuel, this has drawn in other industrial partners, Corus and CPL. The innovative training programme involves a number of unique elements based around the social sciences and activities with China and is designed to ensure that the research engineers are not only thoroughly versed in cutting edge energy research but capable of operating in multi-disciplinary teams covering a range of knowledge transfer, deployment and policy roles and the ability to analyse the overall economic context of projects and to be aware of the social and ethical implications. The academic team draws upon the internationally leading fossil energy programme at Nottingham but also on colleagues at Birmingham and Loughborough for their complementary research in high temperature materials, plant life monitoring and energy economics. Given that virtually all of the research projects will benefit from using pilot-scale equipment in industry linked to the advanced analytical capabilities in the MEC and our overseas partners, together with the Group activities undertaken by the yearly cohorts, the training programme is considered to offer considerable added value over DTA project and CASE awards, as testified by the extremely high level of industrial interest in the proposed Centre across the power generation section, together with other industries involved in reducing CO2 emissions from coal utilisation.

There are major challenges inherent in meeting the goals of the UK national energy policy, including, climate change mitigation and adaption, security of supply, asset renewal, supply infrastructure etc. Additionally, there is a recognized shortage of high quality scientists and engineers with energy-related training to tackle these challenges, and to support the UK's future research and development and innovation performance as evidenced by several recent reports;Doosan Babcock (Energy Brief, Issue 3, June 2007, Doosan Babcock); UK Energy Institute (conducted by Deloitte/Norman Broadbent, 'Skills Needs in the Energy Industry' 2008); The Institution of Engineering and Technology, (evidence to the House of Commons, Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Fifth Report (19th June 2008); The Energy Research Partnership (Investigation into High-level Skills Shortages in the Energy Sector, March 2007). Here we present a proposal to host a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) focusing on the development of technologies for a low carbon future, providing a challenging, exciting and inspiring research environment for the development of tomorrow's research leaders. This DTC will bring together a cohort of postgraduate research students and their supervisors to develop innovative technologies for a low carbon future based around the key interlinking themes: [1] Low Carbon Enabling Technologies; [2] Transport & Energy; [3] Carbon Storage, underpinned by [4] Climate Change & Energy Systems Research. Thereby each student will develop high level expertise in a particular topic but with excitement of working in a multidisciplinary environment. The DTC will be integrated within a campus wide Interdisciplinary Institute which coordinates energy research to tackle the 'Grand Challenge' of developing technologies for a low carbon future, our DTC students therefore working in a transformational research environment. The DTC will be housed in a NEW 14.8M Energy Research Building and administered by the established (2005) cross campus Earth, Energy & Environment (EEE) University Interdisciplinary Institute

The international offshore energy industry is undergoing as revolution, adopting aggressive net-zero objectives and shifting rapidly towards large scale offshore wind energy production. This revolution cannot be done using 'business as usual' approaches in a competitive market with low margins. Further, the offshore workforce is ageing as new generations of suitable graduates prefer not to work in hazardous places offshore. Operators therefore seek more cost effective, safe methods and business models for inspection, repair and maintenance of their topside and marine offshore infrastructure. Robotics and artificial intelligence are seen as key enablers in this regard as fewer staff offshore reduces cost, increases safety and workplace appeal. The long-term industry vision is thus for a digitised offshore energy field, operated, inspected and maintained from the shore using robots, digital architectures and cloud based processes to realise this vision. In the last 3 years, we has made significant advances to bring robots closer to widespread adoption in the offshore domain, developing close ties with industrial actors across the sector. The recent pandemic has highlighted a widespread need for remote operations in many other industrial sectors. The ORCA Hub extension is a one year project from 5 UK leading universities with over 20 industry partners (>£2.6M investment) which aims at translating the research done into the first phase of the Hub into industry led use cases. Led by the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics (HWU/UoE), in collaboration with Imperial College, Oxford and Liverpool Universities, this multi-disciplinary consortium brings its unique expertise in: Subsea (HWU), Ground (UoE, Oxf) and Aerial robotics (ICL); as well as human-machine interaction (HWU, UoE), innovative sensors for Non Destructive Evaluation and low-cost sensor networks (ICL, UoE); and asset management and certification (HWU, UoE, LIV). The Hub will provide remote solutions using robotics and AI that are applicable across a wide range of industrial sectors and that can operate and interact safely in autonomous or semi-autonomous modes in complex and cluttered environments. We will develop robotics solutions enabling accurate mapping , navigation around and interaction with assets in the marine, aerial and ground environments that support the deployment of sensors for asset monitoring. This will be demonstrated using 4 industry led use cases developed in close collaboration with our industry partners and feeding directly into their technology roadmaps: Offshore Renewable Energy Subsea Inspection in collaboration with EDF, Wood, Fugro, OREC, Seebyte Ltd and Rovco; Aerial Inspection of Large Infrastructures in Challenging Conditions in collaboration with Barrnon, BP, Flyability, SLAMCore, Voliro and Helvetis; Robust Inspection and Manipulation in Hazardous Environments in collaboration with ARUP, Babcock, Chevron, EMR, Lafarge, Createc, Ross Robotics; Symbiotic Systems for Resilient Autonomous Missions in collaboration with TLB, Total Wood and the Lloyds Register. This will see the Hub breach into new sectors and demonstrate the potential of our technology on a wider scale.