The government-funded Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) has given out roughly £6 million to help the biggest industrial clusters in the UK reduce their carbon emissions. The government-commissioned Net Zero Review has reaffirmed the need to decarbonise these clusters as a necessary step towards the UK’s net zero emissions target.
Funding will go towards 20 projects that cover scopes including technological, environmental, economic, skills and social aspects of decarbonisation. Within those projects, priority topics to be addressed include low carbon technologies (carbon capture, usage and storage; hydrogen; greenhouse gas removal); systems and scale up; policy frameworks; workforce skills development; and equality, diversity and inclusion.
The winning bids provided evidence of how they planned to engage in active communication and collaboration with important industrial stakeholders to guarantee that outputs and impacts would be strongly linked to market demands. The winning bids are listed here.
The support will span across Scotland, Northwest England, Teesside, Solent, Black Country, Humber, and South Wales.
“The announcement of this funding continues to build upon IDRIC’s whole system approach to decarbonising industry, enabling the UK to remain at the forefront of a global low-carbon future,” said Bryony Livesey, Challenge Director, Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, UKRI.
“These successful Wave 2 projects will build evidence on a range of areas from economics and emissions to skilled jobs and wider net zero policy, supporting UK’s green growth and net zero ambitions.”
