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Researchers in Residence scheme welcomes first four academics to tackle built environment challenges

Specialists involved in railway decarbonisation, construction circularity and transport safety have been selected to join the new scheme.
A group of people is seated around a table working on laptops. One person is holding a pen and appears to be explaining something to others. There are papers, bottles, and a cup on the table.

Four academics have been appointed by Connected Places Catapult in the first round of the Researchers in Residence scheme, which aims to help forge closer ties between universities, industry and the Catapult Network.

They are Ges Rosenberg from the University of Bristol and Dawid Hanak from Teeside University who will both investigate the decarbonisation of railway stations; Haopeng Wang of the University of Nottingham who is looking into circularity principles in construction; and Andy Newton of Nottingham Trent University who is researching transport safety for women and girls.

“UK academia is world leading and the Researchers in Residence scheme is focused on creating new business, products and services to take the research further.

“Connected Places Catapult has connections with industry that can amplify projects that add value and is working to make collaborations between academia and industry stronger, more impactful and mutually beneficial.”
Connected Places Catapult’s Head of Academic Engagement, Will Pearson

Round one of the Researchers in Residence programme attracted more than 120 enquiries from over 30 academic institutions covering the key themes of net zero, resilience, healthcare and wellbeing. A second round of the scheme has just been launched.

The four Researchers in Residence are being supported by Connected Places Catapult’s Technical and Milestone programmes. The initiative is led by the Innovation Launchpad Network+ which is aiming to build new bridges between universities and the Catapult Network.

“The first round of the Researchers in Residence scheme attracted some really strong proposals across all three themes.

“In tranche two we hope to build on this initial interest and we would like to encourage applications from an even broader cross section of researchers from all four home nations. If you have some underpinning research that you would like to develop further with one or more of the Catapults then we would like to hear from you.”
Innovation Launchpad Network+ director Dr Peter Osborne, a senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre

For the second round of the Researchers in Residence programme, applicants are invited to address one of five themes that broadly cover the procurement of net zero solutions, modelling flooding impact on transport infrastructure, encouraging hydrogen uptake, electric vehicle micro-mobility in India, and the use of data to drive net zero operations for ports and vessels.