Developing groundbreaking research infrastructure

The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) enables universities and partners to tackle today’s biggest research challenges.


UKRPIF supports the development of state-of-the-art, large scale research infrastructures that enable world-leading research. It encourages strategic partnerships between universities and other organisations active in research and stimulates foreign and domestic investment in UK R&D, strengthening its contribution to economic growth.

UKRPIF plays a key role in delivering the UK Government’s R&D priorities, including its target to grow the UK's R&D intensity to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. UKRPIF-funded facilities enable the translation of university research by supporting businesses to innovate and thrive, and have supported the formation of a number of spin-out companies that have gone on to raise significant private investment. The success of the partnerships UKRPIF supports in turn attracts new partners, providing a focal point around which innovative clusters can grow, helping to level-up local regions and contribute to national prosperity.


Facts and figures

Case studies

A scientist inserting liquids into test tubes

Greening university chemistry, and the world chemical industry
Read the case study

Electricity power cables

ESRI: University-industry collaboration creates new energy technology on a massive scale
Read the case study

Greening university chemistry, and the world chemical industry

The University of Nottingham’s Centre for Sustainable Chemistry is pioneering new approaches to training, research and business engagement.

The chemicals industry contributes to over 95 per cent of all products made globally, including everyday items such as medicines, plastics, cosmetics and fertilisers. Indeed, the sector played a critical role in provision of hand sanitiser and raw materials for PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we move on from the pandemic and focus on productivity in a world system that is experiencing shocks in term of economic stability and supply chain resilience, the chemicals industry is driving innovation to help ensure delivery of UK’s Net-Zero by 2050 target. Currently to create the products we as society need, the chemicals industry uses a petrochemicals and other non-renewable inputs, consumes vast quantities of energy, and is historically branded as being responsible for releasing many types of pollutant into our environment. In a zero-carbon world, people will still need food, pharmaceuticals, and the other critical things that chemistry provides but these items must be made from renewable feedstocks via low carbon processes that generate little or no waste.

Pete Licence is at the forefront of research focussed on the delivery of novel sustainable chemistry that will underpin our transition to a resilient, lower-carbon, higher-value industry. At the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Sustainable Chemistry, he leads a multidisciplinary group that includes chemists, life scientists, engineers and social scientists, who share a commitment to reducing the environmental impact of their work. The centrepiece of this activity is the Carbon Neutral Laboratory (CNL), of which Licence is director. The CNL is a beautiful and unique building which houses approximately 120 researchers. Powered by renewable energy, it will generate enough “carbon-credits” over 25 years to offset the energy invested during its construction and operation.

Research England’s UK Research Partnership Investment Fund invested £10.6 million into the Centre and, as a requirement of the award for double-matched co-investment from non-public sources, this contribution was matched by GSK with contributions from the Wolfson Foundation and University of Nottingham, yielding an initial capital investment in excess of £24 million to date.

Licence explains that this investment has allowed the creation of a unique centre where topical research can be developed from concept right through to multi-kilo scale to demonstrate commercial potential. ‘Through close collaboration with industry partners (particularly through EPSRC funded Prosperity Partnerships with GSK & Lubrizol) our experiments define the state of the art in impactful science with a clear pathway to impact within the chemicals industry. Uniquely, we are able to conduct these experiments in the World’s lowest impact chemistry laboratories as a result of our energy and carbon management strategy.'

A scientist inserting liquids into test tubes

The chemical industry faces the challenge of working in a greener way (Photo credit: Getty Images).

The chemical industry faces the challenge of working in a greener way (Photo credit: Getty Images).

Much of the truly creative work developed by our centre is underpinned by highly skilled PhD students, many of whom have benefited from our EPSRC/SFI Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Chemistry which is based in the Centre for Sustainable Chemistry. Our CDT develops transdisciplinary vision and skill-sets, whilst maintaining excellence in molecular sciences, by partnering with over 40 industry partners we ensure that all of our graduates are industrially aware, understand the challenges of net-zero and critically are all active in the delivery of complex multi-stakeholder projects. Here, he says: “We produce scientists who can think about the bigger systems picture, including socioeconomic and environmental impacts.” The principles of Responsible Research and Innovation are built into the Centre’s way of working.

Despite his commitment to carbon neutrality, Licence comments: “Sustainability is not just about carbon, it’s also about protecting the many other resources we have. There are many other elements whose use we are now starting to rethink.” The Centre’s research reflects this mindset, examples include, evaluating the way we conduct experiments, can we move away from bulk reagents to release to potential of electrons or even photons? By developing efficient, continuous photo- or electrochemical methods to make new chemical bonds we could deliver huge savings in energy demand and material efficiency. Can there be cheaper and less polluting ways to get to the same end point?

He stresses that the Centre’s approach develops a positive attitude to innovation in its students. “The need for flexibility within the chemical industry has been demonstrated by the multiple challenges that we have confronted in the last 5 years,” says Licence. “It has shown that businesses, and universities must to be adaptable.”

A key aim of this activity is to feed into chemical industry strategy. While orthodox university-industry links are a vital part of this process, trained people are at least as important as avenues of influence for sustainable chemistry. While some observers of academic life are distressed by the “leaky pipeline” of PhDs quitting university careers, Licence regards it as positive. “I am not at all downhearted when our graduates go into industry,” he says. “indeed, they go into many sectors of industry and manufacturing including energy, chemicals, and food and drink.” Importantly our PhD graduates also move on into other sectors including the civil service, finance, patent law, the policy world and even the research councils…where they can all have a hugely positive impact!”

Sustainability is not just about carbon. There are many other elements whose use we are now starting to rethink.
– Professor Peter Licence

ESRI: University-industry collaboration creates new energy technology on a massive scale

The Energy Safety Research Institute in Swansea is looking at the technology needed to green or replace fossil fuels by mid-century.  

Swansea University’s Energy Safety Research Institute, says director Andrew Barron, “is not about wearing a hard hat and safety goggles.”  Instead, its remit is to ensure that future energy supplies are secure and sustainable.

ESRI has been supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (via the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund), Innovate UK and the Welsh government, as well as a wide spectrum of energy businesses including BP. The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund awarded £11.7m towards the construction of the building, which was matched by £23.7m from industry partners. 

“We don’t just write the paper.” For this money, says Barron, the UK has got a facility which can develop new energy technology, and demonstrate it in action, at a scale of interest to industry. This approach has brought in universities and energy companies in Saudi Arabia, Brunei and elsewhere as collaborators and funders, with five oil-nations academics as ERSI visiting faculty.

ESRI is working on solutions to several of the biggest problems facing future energy supply. One is the transmission of energy, especially electricity. The shift to renewable energy means that electricity will increasingly be generated in new places, some remote. This calls for more investment in the transmission system. At the same time, says Barron, today’s power cables are made from copper and aluminium, and lose five per cent of the power they carry for every 100 miles travelled. “We need to improve on that, so we are working on new materials with lower losses,” he says.

Another, is the need to reduce the impact of energy systems on the environment. There is a greater priority to reduce industrial rather than domestic carbon dioxide emissions. As Barron points out, a fifth of Welsh carbon dioxide emissions come from just one source, the Tata steelworks near Swansea. New Welsh businesses could be created if industrial emissions can be cut. ESRI is researching organometallic compounds to capture industrial emissions of carbon dioxide in bulk.

Electricity power cables

ESRI is working on solutions to several of the biggest problems facing future energy supply including transmission (Photo credit: Getty Images).

ESRI is working on solutions to several of the biggest problems facing future energy supply including transmission (Photo credit: Getty Images).

As a scientist, Barron sees a big future for carbon capture and storage, the technology of putting carbon dioxide into stable geological structures such as exhausted fossil fuel reservoirs for long-term sequestration. ESRI research in this area has a promising focus on old shale oil wells as carbon dioxide reservoirs. Shale, says Barron, is a good prospect because it can absorb three molecules of carbon dioxide for every molecule of gas extracted from it.

But as a chemist, he is more excited by the possible use of carbon dioxide as the raw material for new industries. ESRI research is behind a bioreactor that can turn carbon dioxide into high-value chemicals or lower-value animal feed. This technology could be scaled up to use millions of tonnes of the greenhouse gas. “We can make carbon dioxide into useful chemicals with the addition of water, using electricity from the wind. And Wales has plenty of wind and plenty of rain,” says Barron.

ESRI is now developing catalysts that can speed reactions to turn carbon dioxide into premium products such as ethylene and ethylene oxide, key inputs for the chemical industry. It may also become a feedstock for the production of octanol, a possible replacement for diesel fuel.

While Barron and his ESRI colleagues are keen on renewable energy, they stress that technologies such as these are needed to cope with the continuing demand for fossil fuels. “You can make electricity with a solar panel, but it won’t make food, clothes or pharmaceuticals,” he says.

"We can make carbon dioxide into useful chemicals with the use of water, and electricity from the wind. And Wales has plenty of wind and plenty of rain."
– Professor Andrew Barron


Since UKRPIF was introduced 10 years ago, Research England has funded 53 projects across six rounds of competition across the UK in areas as diverse as Belfast, Glasgow, Leicester, Swansea and York. 

The total investment of over £900 million has leveraged over £2.2 billion in committed match funding from over 300 industry partners, charitable organisations and philanthropic donors. Thirty-nine of these projects have completed construction, many of which are now in operation. 

Net zero

At the beginning of 2022, supporting UKRI’s environmental sustainability strategy, UKRPIF invested £18.9 million across nine of its existing facilities. This investment enables them to explore innovative approaches to achieving net zero carbon emissions targets and make the research they facilitate more environmentally sustainable. 

Projects funded through UKRPIF: Net Zero

Taking IAAPS to Net Zero, University of Bath

The Taking IAAPS to Net Zero project will establish an innovative green hydrogen (H2) manufacturing capability at the state-of-the-art, UKRPIF-funded IAAPS research and innovation centre located on the Bristol & Bath Science Park. The project aims to decarbonise the energy used on the site, and support vital research and development into sustainable propulsion technologies and the use of hydrogen as an alternative green energy.

Sustainable Campus Testbed, University of Bristol

The Sustainable Campus Testbed will accelerate progress towards ‘net zero’ at the new home of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute (BDFI), a renovated 200-year old former industrial building.

In line with BDFI’s mission, the project aims to reduce the high levels of energy consumed by the institute’s data centre and building.

The Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems building

The Taking IAAPS to Net Zero project aims to decarbonise the energy used on the site. 

The Taking IAAPS to Net Zero project aims to decarbonise the energy used on the site. 

Transport – Aviation & Aerospace, East of England and South East

The UKRPIF: Net Zero award will unlock further research and innovation potential from two existing UKRPIF projects focused on the aerospace and aviation sectors: Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) and Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC).

The project focuses on advancing sustainable aviation research into developing low-carbon aircraft and decarbonising airport logistics.

New equipment will reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from research flying and airside operations at Cranfield University, amounting to 305 tonnes of CO2 per year and making a significant contribution to the ambition of net zero aviation by 2050.

CREWW ENZO: Embodying Net Zero in Operation, University of Exeter

The Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW) is a new research centre which will inform how water systems are managed in the face of climate change and population growth. CREWW is part-funded by a £10.5 million UKRPIF grant from Research England and established in partnership with South West Water.

The UKRPIF Net Zero award will be used to reduce emissions from the CREWW building to achieve ‘net zero in operation’ status from day one of operation, and through the lifetime of the building.

Low Carbon Chemistry Lab of the Future, University of Liverpool

The UKRPIF-funded Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) draws together world-leading materials research and technologies, and the seamless integration of computational and experimental.

As part of the University of Liverpool’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, this project will reduce CO2 equivalent emissions from electrical energy use of the MIF by a minimum of 25% over 2 years, and a further 20% by Year 4. The project aims to reduce the annual carbon footprint of the building by over 415,000kg CO2 equivalent.

Future Energy Efficiency with DC Microgrid Technologies (FEED-MT), University of Nottingham

Electrification is critical to achieving net zero and advanced electrical systems are central to the transition. The purpose-built UKRPIF Power Electronics and Machines Centre (PEMC) works on technologies for future power converters and electrical machines to enhance performance, improve efficiency, understand reliability and reduce cost.

This work aims to make the transition to ‘net zero’ economically, socially and environmentally affordable.

Towards Net Zero Medicines Development and Manufacturing, CMAC, University of Strathclyde

The Centre for Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation (CMAC) at the University of Strathclyde leads a collaborative, world class research programme to advance the development and manufacture of medicines. This exciting net zero pilot will help transform the existing UKRPIF national facility into a sustainable, digitalised ‘lab of the future’ for medicines manufacturing research, training and translation.

Interior of the new Bristol Digital Futures Institute building

The Sustainable Campus Testbed accelerates progress towards ‘net zero’ at the new home of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. 

The Sustainable Campus Testbed accelerates progress towards ‘net zero’ at the new home of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. 

The Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) building at Cranfield University

The Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) building at Cranfield University.

The Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) building at Cranfield University.

The Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) building at Cranfield University

New equipment will reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from research flying and airside operations at Cranfield University. 

New equipment will reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from research flying and airside operations at Cranfield University. 

Semiconductor Innovation for Net Zero (SIN_0), Swansea University

Semiconductors enable many aspects of our modern high tech world including computers, smart phones, telecommunications, and the internet. They are also key to advancing the net zero agenda and societal decarbonisation.

Swansea University will soon complete the building of a new industry focused, UKRPIF-funded research facility, the Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM). The focus at CISM will be the creation of ‘over-the-horizon’ semiconductor technologies to support ‘net zero’ such as advanced solar cells and efficient power electronics for electrification of transport.

A Net-Zero Institute for Safe Autonomy, University of York

The University of York’s Institute for Safe Autonomy is a new £45-million initiative supported by UKRPIF funding due for completion in early 2022. The institute provides an interdisciplinary hub for academics from across the university to work with industry, government, and the public to find solutions to the real-world challenges in assuring the safe roll-out of robotic and connected autonomous systems.

The UKRPIF: Net Zero award will enable the deployment of a photovoltaic (PV) array near to the building that, together with an enhanced, sensor driven, building management system, will enable the institute to become energy self-sufficient.

A technician tests semiconductor technology

The Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM) will focus on the creation of ‘over-the-horizon’ semiconductor technologies to support ‘net zero’. 

The Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM) will focus on the creation of ‘over-the-horizon’ semiconductor technologies to support ‘net zero’. 

Further information

Read more about our funded projects.

The UKRPIF: round seven funding call is currently underway. For more information visit UKRI’s Funding Finder or contact The UKRPIF Team.