Imperial College London and Germany’s Technical University of Munich will collaborate to accelerate future technologies for sustainability and zero emissions.
Image Credit: Imperial College London
The two world-class universities have established a new fund to bring together the top scientists from London and Munich to develop game-changing ideas that could revolutionize pollution control.
The Imperial-TUM Zero Pollution Advanced Fund seeks to establish collaborations and support with German and UK industries while supporting a number of innovative projects between the two universities.
Universities are looking for the most innovative ideas and technology with disruptive potential.
The institutions might provide up to £150,000 [about €170,000] in seed money for each initiative, which would fund small-scale tests, prototype development, workshops, and PhD students.
The institutions intend to collaborate with industry to shorten the time it takes for the innovative ideas that underpin clean technology to be developed and commercialized. For instance, researchers at Imperial and TUM are already developing electric vehicle powertrain technologies to boost output and lower carbon emissions in the industry. The universities are also working together to research driverless vehicles, batteries, and renewable fuels.
Imperial and TUM are two of Europe’s science powerhouses. This Fund will supercharge the best ideas and technologies in the race to achieve zero pollution and a more sustainable society.
Hugh Brady, President, Imperial College London
TUM’s President Thomas F. Hofmann said: “As leading universities, we are obliged to do our best to save our planet. I am convinced that the solutions to many of the global problems we face will come from the talents that study and research at our institutions. The Zero Pollution Advanced Fund will surely facilitate their endeavors.”
In light of the UK’s membership in Horizon Europe, an agreement between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) to foster research and innovation collaboration, and a new innovation partnership between the UK and Bavaria, the announcement signals the beginning of a new phase in the strategic partnership between Imperial and TUM.
Transition to Zero Pollution
Established last year to bring together scientists, industry, governments, and other partners to discover and translate solutions to some of the biggest sustainability challenges and combined threats of global pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change, the new Advanced Fund is the flagship fund of the Imperial–TUM Zero Pollution Network.
By developing technological interventions within a comprehensively sustainable framework, the Network seeks to empower society to transition to a zero-pollution economy, where the negative effects of global pollution on the environment and human health are reduced at the source.
Leaders from academia and business convened by the Network to discuss decarbonizing transportation, including Dr Mark Bentall, Head of Research and Technology at Airbus, in conjunction with the launch of the Advanced Fund.
Imperial began its Transition to Zero Pollution effort in 2020 with the goal of enacting significant changes in the production of food and energy, the exploitation of resources, and the way air pollution affects human health.
Imperial and TUM
With TUM, Imperial has had a long history of close cooperation. A 90% rise in co-authored research papers over the last five years has been achieved by professors from the two universities.
There are additionally fourteen High-Impact Collaborative PhD projects and sixty-three Joint Research Projects between Imperial and TUM. Working together involves conducting research on solar energy, wind turbines, and clean energy-related industrial processes.
A strategic relationship in education, research, and innovation was established between Imperial and TUM in 2018, and it has been extended for a further five years.
According to Times Higher Education rankings, Imperial is the third-best university in the United Kingdom and TUM is the finest university in Germany.