The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) has announced funding for five projects under its Whole Systems Networking Fund.

Funded by EPSRC, this scheme aims to improve the diversity, communications and collaboration between people working on whole energy systems and those engaged in more disciplinary-focused areas of research, including academics, policy-makers and industry.

UKERC said its first call, in November last year, received a large number of high quality applications from a range of institutions. The winners are:

• Loughborough University & Oxford Policy Management, for a networking project between researchers, policy-makers and practitioners working on energy resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and the UK.
• Green Alliance, for networking and skills-building events for women in the energy sector, with a particular focus on connecting researchers with policy-makers.
• Newcastle University, for a project to identify women working in energy and whole systems energy research, and to run a series of online and offline networking events to highlight the capacity of women in the energy sector.
• Queen Mary University London, University of Aberdeen & University of St Andrews, for a joint project between several global institutions to further the role of law in delivering the low-carbon economy whilst exploring/improving definitions of ‘justice’ and the idea of a ‘just transition’.
•  Environmental Defense Fund Europe, for a series of workshops to coproduce recommendations that incorporate diverse perspectives from stakeholders across the energy sector in relation to a specific Bill being put to the House of Lords.