Two projects supported by Lancaster University’s Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (CGE) that bring together science professionals in industry and university researchers to work on ways to combat climate change have won awards.

The Eco-Innovation Cheshire and Warrington project recently won the Research Project of the Year at the Educate North Awards. While a team of student engineers from the University of Benin (UNIBEN) supported by CGE’s RECIRCULATE and ACTUATE teams won the LEAP AFRICA’s Youth Leadership Programme (YLP2020) Change Project Competition.

Eco-Innovation Cheshire and Warrington is a collaboration between the University of Chester, Lancaster University and small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the Cheshire and Warrington area. This EU-funded initiative has established low-carbon solutions to improve the production processes of companies and develop new products which reduce carbon emissions. Research projects across the Eco-Innovation partnership have involved a total of thirteen PhD and 27 Master’s by research students.

The Educate North Awards is a prestigious awards event which celebrates, recognises and shares best practice and excellence in the education sector in the North.

Graham Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Chester; the project’s lead partner said: “This award of Research Project of the Year is a real triumph for the Eco-Innovation team and shows the strength of the Faculty’s approach to Research and Development.”

The LEAP AFRICA’s Youth Leadership Programme, (YLP2020) is one of Africa’s largest youth-focused programmes and aims to empower young Africans with the leadership and problem-solving skills that will enable them to develop and implement change projects in the local communities in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The competition required all participants to implement individual community change projects that would address key issues in their various communities.

The UNIBEN team called their competition project “Greenergy”, and with help from members of CGE’s RECIRCULATE and ACTUATE teams, Greenergy designed and constructed a continuous loading mini biodigester capable of converting food and agricultural wastes to methane gas for cooking. As the competition’s winners, the Greenergy team received seed funding from LEAP AFRICA to put their project in to practice. Project leader Steve Oshiokhai Eshiemogie explained, “The seed fund that we won was used to purchase materials for the construction of the biodigester and also to organise a “renewable energy and climate change awareness outreach” in Oluku rural community of Edo state.”

Both projects emerge from the collaborative approach championed by Lancaster University’s Centre for Global Eco-Innovation. Andy Pickard Centre Manager said, “We started the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation to open the research base of universities to deliver innovation for a better environment. At its heart has been a commitment to work with local businesses, communities and institutional partners. ‘The art of collaboration’ has always been our strapline which underpins ‘the science of our research’. The success of both of these eco-innovation projects demonstrate the value of partnerships when developing low carbon solutions."