On Thursday 26 May Oxford University’s brand new£3.25m Zero-carbon Energy Research Oxford(ZERO)Institute and Energy Systems Accelerator pilot(Mini-TESA)opened their doors to showcase the range and depth of ambition in Oxford to drive forward the energy systems transition for the UK and globally.Attending the event were 200 stakeholders from across policy,energy and academic sectors including Barbara Hammond MBE(CEO of the Low Carbon Hub),Andrew Roper(Director of Distribution System Operations,SSEN),Councillor Liz Leffman(Leader of Oxfordshire County Council)and Nigel Tipple(Chief Executive,OxLEP,Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership).Mini-TESA,based at Osney Mead near Oxford train station,is aprogressive co-working space which began operating at the start of the year.It houses the University’s MSc in Energy Systems,hosts up to 100 workstations for Oxford University and external staff and is home to an ideas-exchange hub where different disciplines and organisations can develop radical thinking.By facilitating industry and academic collaboration across all energy vectors(electricity,heat and mobility),new approaches to an equitable energy transition can be accelerated and deployed at scale.This will drive innovation in low carbon technologies and services nationally and internationally,helping to ensure the UK meets its legally-binding carbon targets.Professor Nick Eyre,Director of the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions and Co-Director of ZERO Institute,said:‘To stop climate change,we need to move away from fossil fuels by mid-century.This will require transformation in the ways we capture,convert,store and use energy.It’s an unprecedented challenge.’Professor Malcolm McCulloch,Head of Energy and Power Group,founder of YASA motors and Co-Director of ZERO Institute,said:‘This launch of both the ZERO Institute and of mini-TESA is an exciting milestone to realising the ambition of Oxford University to play its role in helping the global transition to azero-carbon energy future.The institute convenes an exceptional group of minds to address the problem and mini-TESA provides aplace to accelerate the translation to real world innovation.’Dr Andy Gilchrist,Low Carbon Energy Partnerships,University of Oxford,said:‘To deliver azero-carbon world,the way our energy system moves energy to and between all consumers will need to change radically.And to make this challenge even harder,our energy system must evolve extremely rapidly and without interrupting supply.It’s undoubtedly humanity’s biggest ever challenge.’Now operational,mini-TESA houses two University research groups,the Low Carbon Hub(a social enterprise),and ateam from Scottish and Southern Energy Networks(the local electricity distributor).It also has hot-desking spaces and is hosting large-scale‘SPRINTS’,where stakeholders can come together to focus minds,with the aim of identifying pathways to smooth the energy transition in an equitable manner.These SPRINTS will be aregular feature of ZERO Institute and mini-TESA,as importance of this deep and rapid approach to problem-solving has only intensified with the cost-of-living crisis amid the global instability caused by the war in Ukraine and the associated sanctions.Once the pilot has proved to be successful and further funding is secured,the full TESA will incorporate a10,000m2 international facility where up to 800 practitioners,stakeholders and academics can work and interact,maximising creativity.The full TESA is set to be net-carbon negative and located in the new Innovation District,that is regenerating the West End of Oxford.The ZERO Institute will build on the University’s extensive energy research activities,which span more than 20 departments and 200 researchers.It aims to establish Oxford as acentre of research excellence and thought leadership on aglobal and equitable zero-carbon transition and has secured a£3.25m investment from the University’s Strategic Research Fund(SRF). 查看详细>>

One Oxford undergraduate in four is set to be from the UK’s most under-represented backgrounds by 2023,thanks to two ambitious access schemes unveiled by the University today.The two new programmes–Opportunity Oxford and Foundation Oxford–aim to increase significantly the number of most promising students from groups who are currently under-represented in Oxford.Opportunity Oxford is aimed at students from the more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.Foundation Oxford will be open to students who have personally experienced particularly severe disadvantage or educational disruption.When fully up and running,these major new programmes will offer transformative paths to outstanding education for up to 250 state school students ayear,representing 10%of Oxford’s UK undergraduate intake.This represents asignificant step change for the University,boosting the proportion of students coming to Oxford from under-represented backgrounds from 15%of the current UK intake to 25%.From the next admissions round,Opportunity Oxford will see the University introduce astudy programme for up to 200 students who have applied to the University in the normal way,are on course to gain the required grades,but need additional support to transition successfully from school to Oxford.These students may have narrowly missed out on aplace in previous years.Opportunity Oxford will comprise structured study at home plus two weeks of residential study at Oxford just before the start of the undergraduate term.The course will introduce students to lectures,tutorials,group and individual work,building their subject knowledge,academic abilities and self-reliance.Students will then begin undergraduate study with greater confidence,new friends and familiarity with life at university. 查看详细>>

The AHRC CDPs offer cultural and heritage institutions the opportunity of hosting doctoral researchers based at UK higher education institutions.The scheme was opened up to university museums and collections in 2015,and since then Oxford University’s four museums–the Pitt Rivers Museum,Ashmolean Museum,Oxford Museum of Natural History,and History of Science Museum–have hosted nine doctoral students in partnership with universities including Leeds,UCL,Warwick,Birmingham,Birkbeck and Leicester.This new award expands the Oxford consortium to include Bodleian Libraries and Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum,offering new opportunities for collaborative research across the arts and humanities.Oxford GLAM is one of 14 successful consortia that will host 152 AHRC-funded doctoral students at some of the UK’s world-leading cultural and heritage organisations,including Imperial War Museums,the National Archives,the British Museum,Tate,and Museum of London Archaeology(MOLA).Since it began in 2012,the CDP programme has awarded more than 500 PhD studentships across the UK,allowing doctoral students to develop new research skills in an environment beyond higher education. 查看详细>>