Reassurance over research vital to the Humber’s role as a world leader in decarbonisation of heavy industry is being sought by University of Hull’s new vice chancellor.
Prof Dave Petley addressed the launch of The Waterline Summit, the event the ‘ideas factory’ he joined seven weeks ago partners with Marketing Humber to deliver. He was a panellist for the opening hosted by Louise Minchin, and was addressing barriers to overcome on the journey to Net Zero.
Since Brexit there have been question marks on how research, development and innovation will be funded as the UK withdraws from pan-European set-ups, with the current cost-of-living crisis and strain on government financing causing a further dual issue for the academic sector.
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Prof Petley said: “The UK is the world-leading science base and we have invested heavily with real significant results around that. We are going to require that investment in the science base and transitional research to obtain the aims we have. There is a real lack of clarity with the future funding of research.
“We’ve made some of our best steps through European Research Partnerships, Horizon Europe, and at the moment there is no clarity about participation in these schemes. They are based on outputs, really good and involve trans-national collaboration. We are seeing a real erosion of the ability to undertake research and innovation to drive this change.”
Having arrived from the University of Sheffield, where he was vice president for innovation, he succeeded Prof Susan Lea in Hull.
And he has outlined how the university’s remit can stretch much further than the technical requirement - with an ability to focus on the legal, political and socio-economic areas climate change demands attention from.
Prof Petley said: “We are an ideas factory, and there is complexity to this challenge. We are very well involved in the development of technologies that we are going to need to solve the problem. CCS and sustainable aviation fuels are some of the most difficult challenges we face.There has been a lot of work around implementation, and it is not just a technology problem but also a political problem and a legal problem, and we can manage a solution.
“The final element is social justice, as there are winners and losers in this. We have a big politics department and a big law department, and we can act.”
And it is talking the talk while walking the walk too, underlining the commitments to carbon neutrality made, and earning praise from the panel.
“We have made the boldest commitment of any university in the country, possibly the world, we are aiming to have a Net Zero campus by 2027, the university’s centenary. Our aim is to get to Net Zero in that time, becoming a showcase for doing that. We want to demonstrate commitment to Net Zero and bring partners along to share the experience, access the data, as we go through that transition because we know it is a bumpy road.
“2027 is coming very fast, most universities are looking at 2030 to 2035, we’re doing it much faster than others. I’m only seven week into the role, it has been a wonderful seven weeks, I love the region and the university, and I want to place partnerships with every type of organisation at the heart of our academic endeavour.”
Universities’ roles were underlined by Chris Huhne, fellow panellist and former Secretary of State for Energy. Following on from his claims of recent government backsliding on the green agenda, the Liberal Democrat couldn’t resist a further poke at his former coalition partners, with Michael Gove’s analysis of experts brought into the firing line. He said: “Experts do know something. They are worth having on tap if not on top. We need expert advice, we need to have ideas factories and universities feed into this whole process and we shouldn’t forget that.”
He underlined how solutions were still needed for steel cement and fertiliser production, “absolutely fundamental” industries for daily life.
Ahead of the launch event, Diana Taylor, managing director of Marketing Humber had welcomed a strong turnout to Aura Innovation Centre. She said: “Four years ago Marketing Humber and the University of Hull together launched The Waterline campaign to bring academia, industry and communities together to build awareness of the challenges and opportunities that climate change brings. We wanted to build momentum to act and create a sustainable future, we wanted to put the Humber on the global stage to lead in the transition to a net zero future.
“Now in 2022 it feels as though The Waterline is close to coming of age - this week we are celebrating being selected as the CBI’s demonstrator cluster and we will see the launch of the Humber 2030 Vision sharing transformational projects of scale both in environmental impact, jobs and investment.”
Outlining further highlights in flood resilience, innovation and adaptation, the role of SMEs in the supply chains and student engagement, she added: “This year in particular, The Waterline, which continues to bring academia and businesses of all sizes and sectors together, is firmly in the hands of us all. We are moving into action and implementation, together we are putting the Humber on the global stage, and leading the way.”
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