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The academic community in Wales contains a number of world-class research consortia, and these are strongly linked to the Sustainable Technologies theme.

Swansea University

Swansea University is a key partner in Technium Sustainable Technologies, with a strong Engineering School, which includes:

  • Mechanical
  • Electrical
  • Materials
  • Civil
  • Chemical & Biological
  • Process Engineering
  • The School of Engineering is rated (by the RAE*) as the best in Wales and second best in Britain, in research and teaching.  As would be expected from an Engineering School of this high standing, it produces high calibre graduates and performs research for some of the Worlds leading organisations.  The environmental orientation is already high with the founding of the Master of Research courses in environmental management and recycling, graduates of which have already taken prominent roles in waste management or independent consultancy.

    Centres of Excellence

    The Centre for Complex Fluids Processing
    The Civil and Computational Engineering Centre

    Other centres

    Welsh Energy Research Centre

  • The University has World Class computing, experimental and testing facilities which are available to Technium companies at normal commercial rates.
  • Funding under the Knowledge Transfer Partnership Scheme of up to £10,000 is available to cover 50% of the collaboration costs when companies and the University work together. 
  • Note: *Research Assessment Exercise, UK Funding Council

    Cardiff University

    The Geo-environmental Research Centre at Cardiff (GRC) is based in the Cardiff School of Engineering at Cardiff University.  It has created a Geo-environmental Research Park targeting Baglan Bay as its base for the demonstration of expertise in sustainable land management, clean-up technologies and reprocessing and reuse of alternative materials. 

    The GRC is intimately associated with the Land Regeneration Network, a network of over 1,200 Welsh companies in the broad field of regeneration, remediation and similar operations. It provides its members with up to date information on legislation, practices and opportunities and facilitates information exchange meetings.

    Centres of Excellence

    The Centre for Research in Energy, Waste and Environment

    The Manufacturing Engineering Centre

    National Centre for Product-design and Development Research

    Other centres

    The Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environmental

    University of Glamorgan

    The University of Glamorgan is undertaking innovative energy research in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells. The team is multi-disciplinary and covers synthetic and biological aspects of fuel generation. The group is part of the Sustainable Environment Research Centre (SERC), which has a remit beyond energy. 

    The University of Glamorgan has established a reputation as a centre for the production of products in reclaimed materials, notably for use in the construction and building trade. A recent project under the Sustainable Technologies Initiative culminated in the manufacture of the WSA concrete block from paper sludge ash. The department is populated by researchers with a strong interest in environmental solutions. 

    There is also a strong competence in the use of remote sensing and tracking applications. This is a knowledge based activity arising from the School of Computing, and has an international reputation. It concentrates on techniques employing GPS and enhanced location systems and intelligent sensors to evaluate position-sensitive tracking of waste and resources. 

    Centre of excellence:

     

    The Centre for Engineering, Research and Environmental Application

     

    Other centres:

     

    The Waste Treatment Technologies Network

    The Sustainable Environment Research Centre

     

    University of Wales Bangor

    University of Wales Bangor is well known for its Bio-composites centre. This unit was established as a semi-commercial organisation, strongly tied to the outputs of bio-material research at the university, with the objective of being at least financially self-supporting. The centre now has a national and international reputation for its pioneering work in the field of conventional material replacement and thanks to a concerted drive to engage with companies in Wales to move developments into the market over the last two years, there has been particularly strong uptake from local companies.