Strathclyde to host COP26 UK Universities Network's Climate Innovation Showcase
More than 80 universities and research institutes from across the UK have joined together to showcase their research addressing climate change.
The Showcase will run during COP26 and will feature a taster of the excellent research and innovation from across the sector and draw on links with collaborators and practitioners.
The COP26 Universities Network is an informal association of academics in the UK, active on subjects related to climate change, who wanted to work together in support of the aims of COP26.
Through an exhibition and a series of events, the Climate Innovation Showcase will highlight the creativity and hard work of researchers to develop new ways to reduce greenhouse emissions, adapt life to the changing climate, help us to better understand the nature of the climate and its impacts, and inform action.
The exhibition of Images of Climate Innovation and a programme of events will be held on the University of Strathclyde campus in the Ramshorn Theatre in the centre of Glasgow. The exhibition will be on display and open to the public to visit, 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday from 1 to 12 November. The exhibition can also be seen on the Innovation Showcase website. The website also includes full information about the programme of events.
The exhibition and events are organised around six themes – sustainable world; living on land and sea; fuel for thought; adapt and advance; behind the science and telling the story.
Professor Keith Bell, an energy system researcher at the University of Strathclyde who chaired the group that organised the Showcase and is a member of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, says, ‘COP26 is a unique opportunity to focus attention in the UK on action to tackle climate change. Regardless of what the world’s leaders agree in Glasgow, the work won’t stop there. It’s where it starts, and the work that university researchers are doing will be invaluable in helping us see what’s possible.’
Claire Spooner, part of the COP26 programme at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a major funder of university research, adds, ‘The Climate Innovation Showcase will demonstrate the innovative ways in which research at UK universities is being applied to tackle climate change, build a more sustainable world and supporting our journey to a better future.’
Alyssa Gilbert, Chair of the COP26 Universities Network, notes, ‘The Showcase is the culmination of an engaged and focused year of activities for all the institutions involved and we look forward to welcoming visitors, both online and in Glasgow, to the Innovation Showcase.’
The work represented at the Showcase is not all that UK researchers are doing related to climate change. There is lots more information available which can be found on the websites of universities right across the country and on the pages of funding bodies such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
