Paul Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said the new centre involves the single biggest UK public investment in bioenergy research. “The centre is a great example of the UK investing in innovative areas which have the benefits of creating new green collar jobs as well as helping us to meet the global challenges of climate change and reducing carbon emissions.”
The Sustainable Bioenergy Centre is focused on six research hubs of academic and industrial partners, one based at each of the universities of Cambridge, Dundee and York, one at Rothamsted Research, and two at Nottingham University. Another seven universities and institutes are involved and 15 industrial partners are contributing around £7 million of the funding.
The centre's research activities will encompass many different stages of bioenergy production, from widening the range of materials that can be the starting point for bioenergy, to improving the crops used by making them grow more efficiently, to changing plant cell walls. The centre will also analyse the complete economic and environmental life cycle of potential sources of bioenergy.
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