Funding, forums and engagement in Glasgow
The Supergen Bioenergy Hub hosted a series of events in Glasgow in mid-May ahead of the All-Energy Conference and Exhibition.
On 13 May, members of our SHARE Network for early career researchers met for a public and policy engagement workshop, where Policy Fellow Joanna Sparks led a session on the Scottish Government bioenergy policy paper consultation, followed an interactive session led by Stakeholder Engagement Manager Catriona Heaton gathering thoughts from the ECRs on how the new public engagement forum should run.
Dan Taylor from Aston University gave an update on planned future activities. The SHARE Committee has summarised previous discussions on what the wider network wants to see from SHARE over the next few years and pulled it together in a poll to determine priorities. To register your priorities, please complete the poll here.
Collette Larkin from The University of Edinburgh finished the meeting with a presentation on the REA’s Future Game Changer Awards, sharing her experience from being a finalist in last year’s awards.
In the morning of 14 May, the SHARE Network visited the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre, gaining valuable insights into how Glasgow City Council manages its waste and recycling services as well as understanding how the facility, co-run with Viridor, produces heat and power from the waste materials. The visit was arranged by Akshay Badge from the University of Glasgow and is part of a series of site visits planned by the SHARE organising committee.
Meanwhile, Hub project leads and researchers convened to share project updates, offer feedback and identify opportunities for cross working.
In the afternoon, we were joined by more than 50 members of our wider stakeholder community at a sold-out event to hear about plans for four new stakeholder forums, the launch of the flexible funding call on biomass to bio-based products and the opportunity to discuss challenge topics and collaboration opportunities.
Mirjam Röder closed the session by introducing a showcase of images from the Global Bioenergy Stories project, which gives young people a platform to voice their visions for sustainable energy in collaboration with local artists and informed by UK bioenergy scientists.
On 15 May, the Hub team held a meeting of our advisory board before attending sessions and networking at the All-Energy Conference.
Special thanks to Jun Li from the University of Strathclyde for hosting and helping to organise the events on the first two days.
