Capacity Building in the UK CCS Research Centre

Abstract

Abstract A number of commercial-scale projects are currently progressing towards final investment decisions and several studies continue to report that substantial, global deployment of CCS can be expected by the 2050. As CCS technology moves towards widespread commercial-scale deployment, developing ‘fit for purpose’ research capacity that is able to effectively support the development of CCS technology and policy is a significant challenge. A number of exciting opportunities are available to help meet this challenge though. For example, national centres such as the UK CCS Research Centre (UKCCSRC) aim to effectively accelerate capacity building and also ensure that there are excellent opportunities for CCS researchers and practitioners to share their learnings and identify next steps for CCS development. The UKCCSRC was established in spring 2012 with initial core funding provided by £10 M from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the Research Councils UK Energy Programme and £2.5 M in match funding from Centre partners. This is complemented by £3.3 M in additional funding from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to establish new capital facilities that will support innovative research. The Centre is ‘virtual’ providing strong links between around 250 academic researchers based at over 40 UK universities and research institutes and also linking them with over 100 industry and other stakeholder Associate members. In addition there are over 200 Early Career Researchers (ECRs). The UKCCSRC also operates the CCS Community Network, which is a collective of over 500 engineering, technological, natural, environmental, social and economic members with CCS interests. The Network facilitates knowledge exchange on all aspects of CCS R&D and aims to be accessible to anyone interested in contributing to research and innovation in CCS. The UKCCSRC has developed approaches that will allow it to meet the key strategic challenge of understanding ‘real world’ CCS deployment issues, so that the future impact of ongoing research and human and infrastructure capacity development in CCS can be maximised, as much as possible in advance of full-chain CCS deployment and certainly following on rapidly afterwards.