Imperial hosts Labour science and energy team

A group of Labour peers from the House of Lords visited the Imperial campus this week to discuss the work of Imperial experts in energy innovation. Hosted by Professor Mary Ryan, Vice Provost (Research and Enterprise), members of Labour's Shadow Energy Security & Net Zero and Science, Innovation and Technology teams visited the Hitachi-Imperial Digital Energy Demonstrator in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Professors Peter Childs, Co-Director of the Energy Futures Lab , Tim Green, College Academic Leader for Sustainability, and Dr Philip Clemow showed how the future electricty grid will need to become larger and more dynamic to meet the UK's future energy demand. The Labour team consisted of Baroness Maggie Jones, Lord Steve Bassam and Lord Wilf Stevenson from the shadow Science, Innovation and Technology team, as well as Baroness Judith Blake and Lord Chis Lennie from the shadow Energy Security and Net Zero team. Following the tour, the peers discussed the challenges and opportunities for the UK energy sector in the transition to a zero-carbon system with Imperial experts. They were particularly interested in the need for skills development in key industries and how universities and other institutions can play a role in delivering the engineers, technicians and other jobs needed in the future. Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute and Professor Ramana Nanda, Director of the Institute for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship , discussed the current obstacles that innovators and young businesses face in terms of raising early-stage capital and deploying products to the market in the UK.