A CEP project has been awarded funding by the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC) in their recent Flexible Funding 2022 call. The project will focus on labour market constraints and the deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) in the UK.
On award of the funding, CEP Director Professor Karen Turner said:
"This flexible funding from UKCCSRC will enable researchers at the Centre for Energy Policy to generate much needed new evidence and analysis on how current constraints in the UK labour market could affect plans to deploy carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) at scale and the impacts for the wider UK economy."
"This research will provide new insights on how policy can enable Net Zero projects such as CCUS, all competing for limited resources, to support the preservation and creation of jobs, deliver decarbonisation targets and serve regional levelling-up ambitions."
A total of £368,792 was awarded to the projects, which all support the UK Government’s net-zero objectives and will last between 3-9 months. For the first time, early career researchers (ECRs) were eligible to apply, with £100,000 ring-fenced for ECR applicants. Five of the successful proposals are led by ECRs.
Ruqaiyah Patel, Joint Head of Energy and Decarbonisation at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) said: “Further research into carbon capture and storage will enable us to capture, store and utilise greenhouse emissions from essential processes that cannot be decarbonised and potentially save the UK tens of billions of pounds over the next two decades.
“Building on the significant impact and success delivered by UKCCSRC across technology and policy development, this call was essential in supporting a broad range of CCS research projects that can support and help the UK achieve its net zero target by 2050.”
Image: Carbon capture plant, credit TERC.