The potential for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to make a significant contribution to mitigating the risk of dangerous climate change has been recognised by a number of international bodies including the G8, International Energy Agency and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A range of commercial-scale demonstration projects are being proposed with the aim of CCS being available for widespread deployment from around 2020. A significant effort is required to train scientists and engineers (and others) to be able to design, construct and successfully operate these and future projects. It is also crucial to use lessons from these projects to inform CCS R&D, as well as drawing on insights from other fields that could be crucial for rapid development of CCS. Recognising these needs, the Research Councils have made a significant investment in UK CCS R&D capacity including through the E.On/EPSRC partnership and a programme of collaborative work with China.The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Community network (UKCCSC) has been established to support the UK academic community during a period (2009-2013) when significant changes in the CCS landscape are expected. The impacts of the Network will include better co-ordination within the UK CCS R&D community and more effective communication of accurate and impartial information, including key research results, to a wide range of stakeholders in a timely manner. The UKCCSC network will be the main mechanism to enable inter-communication between Research Council-funded projects on CCS. It will also contribute to maximising the efficiency of UK intellectual leverage, including within the international community. UKCCSC is deliberately not sponsored by any commercial entity so that it is able to maintain independence.UKCCSC aims to provide a 'one stop shop' for access to the UK CCS academic community. It intends to encourage collaborations that can support high quality work that will advance fundamental understanding of CCS technology, and the non-technical impacts of its use, and contribute to building world class capacity in this area. Any UK-based researcher is eligible to participate in UKCCSC core activities. These include two face-to-face meetings each year for academic researchers to share ongoing work, as well as updating key stakeholders. Between meetings, the UKCCSC website will provide relevant resources. A regular newsletter will also be circulated to UKCCSC members and registered stakeholders.Additional UKCCSC activities will support the development of a dynamic and stimulating environment for research and innovation on CCS in the UK. These include a programme of activities for early career researchers and specialist workshops or seminars organised in response to proposals from UKCCSC members. Support for exchange visits and other activities to develop strategic alliances within the UK or with international collaborators will also be available to UKCCSC members. In addition, it is expected that UKCCSC will help its membership to contribute to shaping future priorities for funding of CCS R&D in the UK.The UKCCSC secretariat will be responsible for running the network on a day-to-day basis. The full-time network manager supports and promotes academic CCS activities in the UK including by organising events. They are supported by a part-time early careers co-ordinator, webmaster and secretary. The secretariat is jointly hosted by Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh and managed by Dr Jon Gibbins and Prof Stuart Haszeldine. A project advisory committee will be established to guide the development of UKCCSC as it responds to the rapidly evolving challenges and requirements for CCS R&D. An international reference user group, formed of invited members from representative organisations in other countries, will ensure that strong links are maintained between UK researchers and the international CCS community.

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Meeting the Paris climate change commitments will be extraordinarily challenging, and even if they are met, may require extensive global deployment of greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies resulting in net negative emissions. If certain major emitters do not meet their Paris commitments and/or wider international cooperation is reduced then the trajectory needed to reduce emissions to Paris levels after a delay will be even more severe, potentially leading to the need for even greater reliance on such net negative emissions technologies. At present, the technical feasibility, economics, implementation mechanisms and wider social and environmental implications of GGR technologies remain relatively poorly understood. It is highly uncertain that GGR technologies can be implemented at the scales likely to be required to avoid dangerous climate change and without causing significant co-disbenefits or unintended consequences. Our GGR proposal presents a unique combination of a multi-scale assessment of the technical performance of GGR technologies with an analysis of their political economy and social license to operate, with a particular focus on how these elements vary around the world and how such considerations impact region-specific GGR technology portfolios. Currently, some portray GGR technologies as a panacea and virtually the only way of meeting aggressive climate targets - an essential backstop technology or a 'bridge' to a low-carbon future. One part of our project is to work with the models of the global economy (integrated assessment models) and better reflect these technologies within those models but also to use models at different scales (global, regional, national, laboratory scales) to understand the technologies better. We also seek to better understand how deployment of these technologies interact with the climate system and the carbon cycle and what the implications are for the timings of wide-scale rollout. By contrast, sceptics have expressed concerns over moral hazard, the idea that pursuing these options may divert public and political attention from options. Some critics have even invoked terms such 'unicorns', or 'magical thinking' to describe the view that many GGR technologies may be illusory. We will seek to understand these divergent framings and explicitly capture what could emerge as important social and political constraints on wide-scale deployment. As with nuclear power, will many environmentalists come to view GGR technologies as an unacceptable option? Understanding the potential scaling up of GGR technologies requires an understanding of social and political concerns as well as technical and resource constraints and incorporating them in engineering, economic and climate models. This aspect of our proposal necessarily brings together social science, engineering and environmental sciences. What is the biggest challenge to scaling up BECCS for example? Is it the creation of the sustainable biomass supply chain, the deployment of CO2 capture technology or the transport and storage infrastructure that is rate limiting? Or is it more likely the social acceptability of this technology? Further, we will provide insight into the value of international and inter-regional cooperation in coordinating GGR efforts. For e.g., would it make more sense for the UK to import biomass, convert it to electricity and sequester the CO2, or would it be preferable pay for this to happen elsewhere? Conversely, how might the UK benefit from utilising our relatively well characterised and extensive CO2 storage infrastructure in the North Sea to store CO2 on behalf of both the UK and others? More generally, we will explore how stakeholders in key regions view the suite of GGR technologies. Finally, we will quantify the option value of GGR - what is the value in early deployment of GGR technologies? How does it provide flexibility in meeting our near term carbon targets?

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems Led by the University of Nottingham, with Sheffield and Cardiff SUMMARY This Centre is designed to support the UK energy sector at a time of fundamental change. The UK needs a knowledgeable but flexible workforce to deliver against this uncertain future. Our vision is to develop a world-leading CDT, delivering research leaders with broad economic, societal and contextual awareness, having excellent technical skills and capable of operating in multi-disciplinary teams covering a range of roles. The Centre builds on a heritage of two successful predecessor CDTs but adds significant new capabilities to meet research needs which are now fundamentally different. Over 80% of our graduates to date have entered high-quality jobs in energy-related industry or academe, showing a demand for the highly trained yet flexible graduates we produce. National Need for a Centre The need for a Centre is demonstrated by both industry pull and by government strategic thinking. More than forty industrial and government organisations have been consulted in the shaping and preparation of this proposal. The bid is strongly aligned with EPSRC's Priority Area 5 (Energy Resilience through Security, Integration, Demand Management and Decarbonisation) and government policy. Working with our partners, we have identified the following priority research themes. They have a unifying vision of re-purposing and re-using existing energy infrastructure to deliver rapid and cost-effective decarbonisation. 1. Allowing the re-use and development of existing processes to generate energy and co-products from low-carbon biomass and waste fuels, and to maximise the social, environmental and economic benefits for the UK from this transition 2. Decreasing CO2 emissions from industrial processes by implementation of CCUS, integrating with heat networks where appropriate. 3. Assessing options for the decarbonisation of natural gas users (as fuel or feedstock) in the power generation, industry and domestic heating system through a combination of hydrogen enhancement and/or CO2 capture. Also critical in this theme is the development of technologies that enable the sustainable supply of carbon-lean H2 and the adoption of H2 or H2 enriched fuel/feedstock in various applications. 4. Automating existing electricity, gas and other vector infrastructure (including existing and new methods of energy storage) based on advanced control technologies, data-mining and development of novel instrumentation, ensuring a smarter, more flexible energy system at lower cost. Training Our current Centre operates a training programme branded 'exemplary' by our external examiner and our intention is to use this as solid basis for further improvements which will include a new technical core module, a module on risk management and enhanced training in inclusivity and responsible research. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Our current statistics on gender balance and disability are better than the EPSRC mean. We will seek to further improve this record. We are also keen to demonstrate ED&I within the Centre staff and our team also reflects a diversity in gender, ethnicity and experience. Management and Governance Our PI has joined us after a career conducting and managing energy research for a major energy company and led development of technologies from benchtop to full-scale implementation. He sharpens our industrial focus and enhances an already excellent team with a track record of research delivery. One Co-I chairs the UoN Ethics Committee, ensuring that Responsible Innovation remains a priority. Value for Money Because most of the Centre infrastructure and organisation is already in place, start-up costs for the new centre will be minimal giving the benefit of giving a new, highly refreshed technical capability but with a very low organisational on-cost.