Multi-million pound boost to help improve energy technology

A newly announced research centre will see Durham University join forces with two of the regions' other universities to help improve energy technology at an atomic level. The North East Centre for Energy Materials (NECEM) is a new partnership between Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria universities with £2.25m funding from the UK Government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Interdisciplinary expertise The new centre will bring together engineers, chemists, biologists and physicists to develop high performance materials to improve efficiency in energy generation, storage and transmission whilst further enhancing the region's expertise in tackling the energy challenge. The Durham Energy Institute , part of Durham University, will contribute particularly in the areas of solar energy, simulation, and the advanced analytical tools needed to observe how materials behave at a molecular level. Professor Jon Gluyas , Executive Director of the Durham Energy Institute said: "The new research centre is an exciting opportunity to examine how, at the micro level, materials and interfaces can be designed to address the bigger energy challenges facing our world. "The Durham Energy Institute is excited to be a part of the NECEM and to bring our multidisciplinary expertise together in partnership with others from across the North East of England to help address a fundamental global challenge." As well as Durham's expertise, the new centre brings together skills in tidal and wave energy, solar, batteries, energy storage, biomass and 'smart grids' that are able to manage power simultaneously from these different sources.