The UK's energy research funding – a work in progress
June 1st 2008

In past decades the UK has lagged behind other Western countries in terms of energy research funding. In 2002 the Chancellor sought to reverse this trend, agreeing to spend £500 million over seven years, but there is confusion over how this has been spent says Elaine Coles

Today the Government is making all the right noises about the importance of energy research and development, and there are numerous funding pots available for those who seek to produce innovative energy technologies. But how easy is it for prospective inventors to obtain these funds – and is the money that's available being distributed effectively?

According to EU figures, Britain still spends just 1.8% of its GDP on research, compared with an EU average of 2%.Despite the growing recognition by Government, business and consumers that finding new energy sources is vital, the reality of the current situation – and the ambitious targets the Government has agreed to – means that the UK is simply not moving fast enough in order to find enough solutions to what could become an energy crisis.

Peter Crossley is the director of The Joule Centre, a collaboration between Universities of the North West of England, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), commercial organisations and various stakeholders within the energy industry, created to boost energy research and development through funding and grants.He believes the Government is making the right moves now, but may be too late:"More funding is now being directed into applied demonstration – which is what we need: a shorter term approach to energy research.

Moving away from huge investment in big speculative projects that have ill-defined economic benefit and time scales of 20 years plus, to progress with real benefits on a shorter timescale and research into technologies that can be applied and demonstrated, is a positive move forwards.However this may still be coming too late if we are to meet our ambitious UK and EU targets. I think that new funding strategies – like those offered by The Joule Centre and also the Energy Technologies Institute are our biggest hope for the future. I hope they can live up to expectations."

The newly formed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) represents a step change in attitudes towards energy funding and research. It aims to 'bring a new level of focus, ambition and industrial collaboration to the UK's work in the field of energy, science and engineering and will exploit the UK's potential to be a world leader in energy technologies.'The ETI's budget is £1bn over 10 yrs, with half of that coming from industry membership and the other half from the DTI. With research excellence and innovation at the forefront of the ethos,many hopes for the immediate future of applied energy research are pinned upon the establishment of this fund.

Professor Peter Stansby is an expert in Hydrodynamics and works at Manchester Universities.He was one of the first grantholders to benefit from The Joule Centre funding and is involved with the ongoing invention of wave energy device the Manchester Bobber.He too believes there are high hopes within the industry for new funding schemes like The Joule Centre."The fund and grants system for energy research is very disjointed in the UK. If you look at other European countries – Germany for example, they are really organised compared to us.

Their industry is in a position to invest long-term in renewable energy technologies.They plan ahead and they offer big, substantial grants,not bits and pieces like we have here." "Funding like that offered by The Joule Centre offers an easier route for energy projects to gain the investment they need. On a bigger scale the ETI funding will also set us on the pathway to discovering the new technologies we need to meet our emission targets.At the moment though it isn't really clear how the ETI money is being spent – or how the funding is organised, something which I believe is vital in encouraging people to take on these projects."

According to communications director Alastair Macdonald, the ETI is still in its preliminary stages, but there are two projects underway (focusing on marine and offshore wind respectively) and further details on the funding schemes is due to be released shortly."We see the ETI as playing a central role in bringing the energy funding landscape together, maximising the output of what is available in the UK.We want to bring together both public and private sector organisations and focus on the big energy challenges.

The benefit of our programme lies in our capacity to fund projects 100% rather than the usual 50% or so.This means that if we find the right project with clear potential we will fund it entirely."

At the moment, energy research funding is largely spread so widely – and thinly – across the UK that it is very difficult to monitor it – and for those who seek funding, finding grants that are applicable to their project is a time consuming, not to mention expensive business. SME's in particular have a tough challenge when it comes to applying for grants and funding."The bureaucracy attached to applying for these pots is such that companies have to spend time and money they can ill-afford on jumping through hoops to undertake the 'correct'process and if they don't secure the funding at the end of it they are worse off than when they started. One of our aims at The Joule Centre is to make this process easier and quicker,"explains Crossley. Simplifying procedures for applications will, he believes,make the market more competitive and funding more accessible.

Lack of funding is often bandied around as a reason for the UK lagging behind in energy research.

But is this really the case? Crossley believes this is not the main problem – in fact, he says, if the funding were to double there wouldn't be enough high quality, high return research projects to spend it on."We need to build capacity in the UK before we can achieve our ambitious goals.The Government needs to support universities in attracting engineering students and encourage the study of energy – something that is part of The Joule Centre remit.The UK needs publicity campaigns, incentives for students to study these areas and so on. Even then the capacity will only build up slowly, it will take a several years to build up capacity – do we have that long?"

Professor Stansby has slightly differing views in that he believes the UK would make better progress if the funding landscape was improved – and expanded."One of the issues centres around those in charge of the available money.

Often these are people who do not have extensive knowledge of the energy industry and therefore they are not able to make informed decisions about where the funding is best placed.We need to ensure these decisions are made to the benefit of all – business, industry and the UK as a whole."