Primary funder name: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Closing date: 23 Jul 21

Full text:  The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invites letters of intent for its call on decarbonising heating and cooling. This supports proposals to address decarbonising heating, decarbonising cooling or decarbonising both heating and cooling. Examples to do this include: •new technologies of heating or cooling; •significant developments of existing technologies in terms of cost or efficiency; •reduction of demand for heating or cooling; •new methods or significant developments for heat storage or cold storage; •whole system or multi-vector heating or cooling solutions; •modelling of heating and/or cooling solutions and interactions with the energy network; •retrofit options; •technology choice; •research on hydrogen use for heating or cooling; •smart heat system optimisation. Industry involvement is not mandatory for proposals but it is encouraged to provide potential pathways for the outputs of the research to result in decarbonising heating or cooling. Proposals should include within their research a component of economic or social science research. The challenges of decarbonising heating and cooling are multidisciplinary in nature and the aim of this economic and social science component should be to ensure that the research will achieve impact, for instance through policy or by exploring alternative business model or enabling adoption of solutions through understanding practices in various settings. It is essential that proposals explain how the proposed research fits into the existing energy research landscape, specifically how the proposed research differs or is complementary to existing similar work. The principal investigator must be resident in the UK and an academic employee at the lecturer or equivalent level at an eligible organisation, which may be a HEI, a research institute funded by a research council or an independent research organisation. The total budget is worth approximately £12 million at 80 per cent full economic costs. Grants are worth between £500,000 and £1.5m between 36 and 48 months.

Website: https://beta.ukri.org/opportunity/decarbonising-heating-and-cooling-2/

Disciplines: Smart Materials; Electrical & Electronic Engineering; Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning