The University of Calgary in Canada is leading a new, collaborative program that would “prepare students to lead a new kind of energy future.” Two other universities in Canada — the University of Waterloo and the University of Alberta — are also involved in the pan-disciplinary research and training program.
The program, which is made possible by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), is aimed at helping students develop innovative, market-ready energy solutions.
This NSERC CREATE program, short for Collaborative Research and Training Experience, was developed to help bridge a gap in Canadian education and encourage students to develop innovative energy conversion and storage techniques, since one of the biggest hurdles facing renewable energy is the lack of storage in energy networks.
The CREATE program encourages collaborative research toward energy solutions that will benefit both the economy and environment by using technology, such as batteries, fuel cells, and CO2 conversions for use in cars and houses, and by industry.
The program is being headed by Dr. Edward (Ted) Roberts, professor in the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, who is an internationally recognized expert and innovator in the field of electrochemical technology.
“The students will all be working on clean energy research projects on these technologies,” said Roberts.
The training will include workshops where they will learn how to evaluate the environmental and economic potential of emerging technologies, and apply this to their own research.
In addition, students will also take part in workshops on techno-economics and technology transfer, where they will learn how to evaluate the relationship between technical and economic performance, intellectual property, funding and commercialization of clean energy technology.
“Often in university research the focus is on the important technical aspects, and in my experience it is through interdisciplinary collaborations that the most significant breakthroughs are achieved,” Roberts said.
In addition, there is a need for researchers to understand the challenges of commercialization, including the context of sustainability, economics, regulatory and market challenges, in order to focus the research towards the delivery of innovative, sustainable solutions.
The CREATE program will also focus on the importance of collaboration and network building, as students will take specialized courses offered at all three universities, both online and in person, and undertake a one-to-four month exchange with other leading research groups in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
“We have two PhD students who will be visiting the UK in Spring 2018, one at the University of Manchester and the other at University College London,” said Roberts.
The CREATE program began on Sept. 1, and is expected to continue for up to six years.
“We expect between 60 and 80 students will participate in the program each year, including undergraduate, masters, doctoral students, as well as 10 to 20 postdoctoral fellows,” Roberts said. “Over the six years of the program we anticipate that 500 to 600 students and postdocs will participate in the CREATE training program.”
NSERC will fund up to 1.65 million Canadian dollars for the program over six years.
The funding offers “longer term stability” for the program, Roberts said in a statement. “This program gives us continuity — it allows us to launch an ambitious program, support our students, while also providing administrative support as well.”
