Training the Energy Researchers of the Future

A new £3m venture will help the next generation of scientists and engineers meet the biggest challenges of the 21st century. The Midlands Energy Graduate School (MEGS) - a collaboration between the Universities of Nottingham, Loughborough and Birmingham - will produce highly-trained postgraduates in renewable energy, power generation and carbon capture, hydrogen and fuel cells, sustainable building, energy efficiency and many other areas crucial to the low carbon economy of the future. Responding to unprecedented climate change and the need for more secure energy supply, MEGS will train significant numbers of postgraduate researchers to help satisfy the increasing national demand for leading academics and industrialists in the low-carbon energy sector. Its graduates will make a major contribution to addressing the skills gap, combining specialist knowledge of energy technologies with highly-developed engineering skills to put solutions into practice. The School had its official launch at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, on October 6. MEGS will be run by the Midlands Energy Consortium, a flagship collaboration between the three universities formed in 2007 to bring together the cutting-edge energy research of more than 200 academics taking place at Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham. Professor Colin Snape of The University of Nottingham, Director of MEGS, said: "The school will provide an unrivalled concentration of energy-related research and development within the UK, and will significantly increase the number of postgraduates in low-carbon technologies to match the clear market demand.