Third Phase of Low Carbon Manufacturing Projects Initiated

UK and China Academics are collaborating on four new research projects exploring methods of low carbon manufacturing in response to a call issued in April 2018.

• Academics at The University of Manchester will work with colleagues at Huazhong University of Science and Technology on a new low carbon laser-based manufacturing process.
• The University of Bradford will partner with Sichuan University to explore polymer recycling.
• Queen Mary University of London will cooperate with the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences to create materials for solar cells and batteries from waste.
• The University of Manchester will cooperate with Shenzhen University on a project that will concentrate on carbon fibre composite recycling.

The projects are being funded with £3.2 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and ¥12 million from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

In 2014 EPSRC and NSFC committed to a three-year, £20 million joint research programme entitled 'UK-China Joint Programme in Low Carbon Innovation 'Memorandum of Understanding', with aims to reduce worldwide CO2 production, ensure energy affordability and security for each country and to build lasting best-with-best academic relationships between China and the UK in an area vital to both countries.

The first thematic call under this programme was in low-carbon cities research in 2016. The second activity in offshore renewable energy systems was completed in 2017. This, the third and final activity, is in low-carbon manufacturing technologies, with grants available since January 1, 2019.