Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry visits Keele
Claire Perry, Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry visited Keele on Friday for a roundtable discussion on energy and environmental research.
The Minister spent time with postgraduate students as part of the event at Keele’s Sustainability Hub, and found out more about some of the current research projects underway in environmental sciences at the University.
This was followed by a round table discussion hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Trevor McMillan, exploring two of the University’s key projects to underpin national and international efforts to combat climate change: the £15m Smart Energy Network Demonstrator, the first “at scale” development of its kind in Europe which will turn the campus into a “living laboratory” where new smart energy technologies and services can be researched, developed and tested in a real-world environment, and the HyDeploy project, a ground-breaking programme to demonstrate the use of blended hydrogen in the national gas grid.
Leaders from industry also joined the round table to discuss the latest climate change research innovations, as well as the wider gas decarbonisation agenda, including representatives from Upside Energy, Burns & McDonnell, Cadent, and Progressive Energy.
Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry, Claire Perry said:
“The UK is ranked the third best country in the world at tackling climate change and through our ambitious Industrial Strategy we are investing in energy innovation to support the move to a low-carbon economy.
“It was excellent to meet so many brilliant researchers and students working on innovative projects at the University, and to see first-hand how collaborations with industry are creating economic opportunities.” 
Professor Zhong Fan, who recently joined Keele from Toshiba to become Academic Director of the new Smart Energy Network Demonstrator project, commented:
“This was a fantastic opportunity to discuss critical research areas with the Minister and to showcase how Keele is working with industry and government partners to drive groundbreaking research within the fields of energy and sustainability, both nationally and internationally.”