As you may know, Keele is a partner in the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA). ERA is a partnership of the eight universities of Midlands Innovation, along with the British Geological Survey (BGS). Funded with an initial £60m from Innovate UK, it has invested in 23 state-of-the-art facilities and demonstrators supporting energy research and innovation - facilities which can be accessed by researchers across the partnership.

Keele has been working with ERA on the proposal for the next phase of its development and investment – ‘The Big Ideas’. This proposal, which presents the case for investment in technologies focused on Energy Storage, Decarbonising Heat, Resource Recovery, Alternative Fuels, Low-Carbon Transport and more, will provide exciting new research opportunities for staff and students at the university.

ERA has also helped to co-ordinate university partnership bids for research funding, and has extensive industrial links and supporters both regionally and nationally. In addition, the ERA partnership has skills development programmes for both PhD and post-doctoral researchers, which researchers at Keele are welcome to join.

For more information about ERA, visit www.era.ac.uk