The Grantham Scholars: Annual Report 2021-22

Annual Report 2021–22

The Grantham Scholars

What’s the impact of the Grantham Scholar programme?

Rather than do a traditional introduction this year we asked the Grantham Scholars – from current first years to our first ever cohort – to tell us the best thing about their programme.

Dr Emanga Alobwede

(cohort 1: 2014 – 2018)

Not only was it unique in its interdisciplinary nature, but there was the additional element of fostering our communication and public engagement skills. This is an important skill that scientists need to possess as we carry out cutting edge research but at times fail to take that out of the laboratory and communicate this effectively to policymakers, practitioners, etc.

As a Grantham Scholar, I learned how to conduct robust scientific research. And now I am in a position where I communicate scientific research and findings to the appropriate audiences for the purpose of ultimately applying it to decision making.

Hanyu Qi

(cohort 8: 2021 – 2025)

The best thing about being a Grantham Scholar are the many opportunities to learn from different people from varied fields and to meet kind, lovely and excellent staff. For instance Jana (Green, Centre Admin), Deborah (Beck, Centre Manager) and Claire (Moran, Comms) who are as helpful as they can be.

Grantham Scholar alumni Dr Emanga Alobwede in her lab. In last year’s report we covered Emanga’s appearance on the BBC’s flagship science show Horizon talking about her research into soil improvement using algae.

Grantham Scholar Hanyu Qi who is one of the Grantham Scholars who took part in the Festival of Debate this year (more on that in a later section).

“Being a Grantham Scholar was a unique (PhD) experience.”

Dr Joe Llanos

(cohort 3: 2016 – 2020)

Not only did I benefit from top quality training that I would not have had access to otherwise, but it also gave me the opportunity to link into a brilliant community of people who are all passionate about global sustainability issues. This ‘Grantham network’ helped me to grow both as a sustainability professional and as a person. And the interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations with people from all walks of life gave me a fresh perspective on so many issues.

I have now finished my PhD and moved to the next stage of my sustainability career, but I can honestly say that I still apply many of the lessons I learnt from the Grantham Centre training programme in my day-to-day work. The network of people I was able to engage with has also been a huge help going forward, and I know that these connections will continue to benefit all Grantham Scholars (and, hopefully, our sustainability work) in the years ahead.

Tavengwa Chitata

(cohort

5: 2018 – 2022)

Being a Grantham Scholar has taught me leadership and communication skills which I wouldn’t have otherwise had the chance to learn.

Particularly, communicating to different audiences including policymakers and people outside the academia.

Rohit Chakraborty

(cohort

5: 2018 – 2022)

The best thing for me being a Grantham Scholar was the exposure it provided to support my research. The all over support and the training helped put my research out there. And this was not limited to academia because the Grantham Centre helped me make it possible to start a shift in how people think on air pollution all over The UK.

Secondly, the Grantham Centre has always tried to put the researcher first, for example through interviewing us about our work and promoting our work in multiple ways.

It also helped me make a lot of great friends, which was a lovely bonus.

Dr Joe Llanos during his fieldwork collecting earthworm worm eDNA from soil. Joe now works in policy for The WildLife Trusts (more in a later section).

Tavengwa Chitata with his Young Scientists award, as reported in last year’s annual report.

Rohit Charaborty, who has been interviewed by the Times this year, as well as launching a UK air pollution sensor and publishing papers (see other sections for more).

“Being part of the Grantham Centre was the highlight of my PhD experience.”

Dr Mira Lieberman (cohort 4: 2017 – 2021)

Being a Grantham Scholar is an honour, not only are you a part of a team of brilliant people, but they are amongst the first line of defence for our planet.

I’m maybe simplifying things a little, but what the Grantham Centre is about is essentially life and death. The day-to-day work, symposiums, seminars, training – it is all to ensure the survival of life on Earth.

Manasi Mulay

(cohort 5: 2018 – 2022)

Jana (Centre Administrator) provided admin support for my PhD training. Her friendly and ready to help attitude is appreciable. She has always been just an email away to resolve the queries.

Claire (Comms Officer) provided editing support for the blogs that I wrote for the Grantham centre website. Claire ensured jargon-free writing for communicating the science to the non-expert audience.

Deborah (Centre Manager) ensured our wellbeing, made sure we are completing our training within the timeframe and signposted any relevant activities that may be useful for our career interests.

Teresa Tete’ Mausse

(cohort 7: 2020 – 2024)

The Gilman/Fulbright-Grantham event was an opportunity for me to mind map diverse ideas and solutions with a group of vibrant global thinkers. These and various other developmental and networking opportunities earmark the academic and career charms of being a Grantham scholar.

Mira Lieberman, who published a policy paper for the UK Parliament this year (see later section).

Grantham Scholar Manasi Mulay who went to COP26 as an official observer for TUoS this year (more in a later section).

Teresa Tete’ Mausse is another Scholar who put on an event for the Festival of Debate this year.

Thank you Deborah, Jana and Claire for all you have been doing to support the Grantham Scholars.

Sophia van Mourik (cohort 9: 2021 – 2025)

The best thing about being a Grantham Scholar is the regular sharing of ideas and collaboration with researchers outside of my specific project field. Something I value hugely because tackling the climate crisis is going to take individuals from every background.

Climate change is a problem placed across everything we do and being a Grantham Scholar has made that clearer to me more than ever.

Su Natasha Mohamad (cohort 7: 2020 – 2024)

It’s amazing to bond with other Grantham Scholars who come from different backgrounds yet share a keen interest in environmental care.

All in all, being a Grantham Scholar has been a continuum of fun.

Su Natasha Mohamad.

Sophia van Mourik, another Scholar who created an event for the Festival of Debate.

What have Grantham Scholars been doing this year?

Prizes, publications, policy and more. The Grantham Scholars have had a busy year. Here are some of the highlights.

Grantham Scholars win finance prize

Reena Sayani and Nancy Muringai won the YES (a competition that encourages researchers to think about how their work could be commercialised) finance prize.

Grantham Scholars are supported in taking part in YES by Deborah Beck as part of the training programme.

Policy paper on the financial risks of nature loss

Mira Lieberman and her supervisor Prof Jill Atkins contributed to the POSTnote Financial Risks of Nature Loss. The publication reviews nature-related financial risks and impacts and biodiversity disclosure frameworks. It also outlines mechanisms to align finance with targets for nature recovery.

POST is the UK parliament’s in-house research service and it produces summaries of scientific evidence –POSTnotes – to inform policy.

Grantham Scholar teams up with Grantham Institute

Reena Sayani and Paloma Ortega Arriaga (Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment) teamed up to work on sustainable energy. They are researching how electricity demand evolves in rural communities who access electricity for the first time via renewable sources. A paper from this project is due to be published in 2022.

There are other Grantham Foundation links in this work as well. “Dr. Phil Sandwell, who is a Grantham Institute alumni, has developed an open access energy system mode,’ explained Reena. “This is the core methodology we implemented in our work. We are immensely grateful to Phil for providing constant guidance and support.”

Nancy (left) and Reena (right) won the YES finance prize.

Reena and Paloma at COP, where Reena was an official observer for TUoS and the Grantham Centre.

Research fellowship in Parliament

Also at POST, David Rapley completed a Post Fellowship and co-authored a report on genome-edited food crops with his supervisor Dr Jonathan Wentworth (an Energy and Environment Adviser at POST).

Gilman and Fulbright Scholars visit

Visit to Oxford to see Jeremy Grantham

In spring 2022 we sent 3 Grantham Scholars and Centre Administrator Jana Green to Oxford to see Jeremy Grantham talk at an event organised by Oxford University. Grantham Scholars Charles Gillott, Manasi Mulay and Hanyu Qi all went, and Manasi was chosen to ask a question to Jeremy Grantham.

Manasi was inspired by Jeremy Grantham’s ideas for the future. “It was insightful to know his vision for the sustainable living of future generations. It is interesting how he leads investment – not just in futuristic technologies but also in training and higher education.”

Hanyu said the event broadened her knowledge about sustainability. “I really enjoyed the talk by Jeremy Grantham because it opened up different aspects of climate change and sustainability for me, like finance.”

We were delighted to team up with TUoS Global Engagement to host nearly 100 recipients of the prodigious Fulbright and Gilman Scholarships.

Grantham Scholars joined the American Scholars over 4 days, with events ranging from trips to cultural landmarks and seminars on sustainability. Rachael Rothman and Tony Ryan gave presentations, as did Grantham Scholar Nicole Kennard, who was a Fulbright Scholar.

Fulbright Scholar and now Grantham Scholar Nicole Kennard (insert and below on the left with Rachael Rothman on the right) talks about her work at the Gilman/Fulbright visit.

People’s Choice Award nomination for air pollution project

Maria del Carmen Redondo Bermudez’ BREATHE project is shortlisted for the People’s Choice Award 2022. BREATHE is a ‘green wall’ of plants which wraps around school playgrounds in order to reduce air pollution exposure for children.

(From left to right) Charles, Jana, Manasi and Hanyu in Oxford waiting for Jeremy Grantham’s talk.

Former

Maria (last on the right) with the BREATHE team at a school in Buenos Aires where one of the green barriers was installed.

Jocelyne Sze and Vibhuti Patel shortlisted for Postgrad Awards

Jocelyne and her group were shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Postgraduate Student Diversity’ for their decolonisation work.

Vibhuti Patel was shortlisted in the ‘PhD Student of the Year’ category.

Guide to decolonising research

Jocelyne Sze and a team of Grantham Scholars (Caterina Cosmopolis, Maria Wang Mei Hua, Suma Mani, and Ella Hubbard) created a guide for PhDs to help decolonise their sustainability research.

Jocelyne explained why this work was so important. “The issue of lingering effects of coloniality on Higher Education and academia has been discussed for a long time, but is really coming to the fore at present. I’m glad we had strong support from the Grantham team (especially Deborah Beck) when I first brought up the possibility of running a reading group with fellow scholars and subsequently when we decided to produce the guide.”

First UK warning system for woodburner pollution

Rohit Chakraborty and an academic from The University of Manchester created Burner Alert, an online system that monitors air pollution. Burner Alert uses sensors and weather data to monitor local air quality. When pollution levels are high, users with other heating options are advised against using woodburners.

Rohit was interviewed about the dangers of woodburners in The Times. The piece focused on the rise in wood burning due to the cost of living crisis and included other notable air pollution specialists.

Publications

Many Grantham Scholars have been published this year, here’s a selection of them.

Maria del Carmen Redondo Bermudez wrote 2 papers on air pollution and green infrastructure, both from the BREATHE project mentioned above.

Manasi Mulay wrote on water pollution and treatment with reference to SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation.

Nicole Kennard published on comparing resource use for tomato production on farms in Georgia, USA.

Charles Gillott’s work on vertical extension was included in the Institution of Structural Engineers’ Sustainability Resource Map.

Oscar Morton wrote about the protection of threatened species and CITES.

Phebe L. Bonilla Prado published on adsorption-based postcombustion CO2 capture.

Jocelyne Sze in a mixed pine-rhododendron forest in Langtang National Park, Nepal.

Vibhuti Patel who was nominated for PhD Student of the Year.

What do our alumni do?

Grantham Scholars are all over the world working in pretty much every kind of sustainability role you can imagine, from policy to industry to NGOs (and of course academia).

When contacted for updates, most said they kept in touch with the ‘Grantham network’ and found it an invaluable source of information and support. Many also praised Grantham Centre training for preparing them well for their new positions.

Dr Jonas Cromwell

Jonas was offered a lectureship position before he’d even completed his viva. He will be at the Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds, where Grantham alumni Dr Carol Auma already works.

Dr Gloria Mensah

Is now a Policy Advisor in the Energy Markets & Consumers at BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) a department of the government of the United Kingdom.

Dr Phebe Bonilla Prado

Phebe is now a research communicator at Research Retold. We asked her what the best thing about this new role was. She said, “I enjoy helping researchers communicate their findings in more accessible ways to make research actionable.”

Dr Jonas Cromwell.

Dr Gloria Mensah.

Dr Phebe Bonilla Prado on a bench in Copenhagen created as part of an awareness campaign. It is unusually high to reflect the level it would have to be if the sea level increases due to climate change as expected.

Dr Joe Llanos

Joe now works for The Wildlife Trusts at their head office as a Policy & Information Officer. The Wildlife Trusts have more than 870,000 members and 32,500 volunteers and are a major voice in conservation and sustainability in the UK, having King Charles as their patron.

In this role Joe works to influence policy decisions in the UK that protect biodiversity and limit climate change. Joe has said that his training as a Grantham Scholar was as useful as his PhD for his work in this role.

Dr Marta Crispo

Currently works as Senior Technical Officer in Forestry at the Soil Association. The Soil Association has been around for over 75 years and works to transform the way we eat, farm, and care for our natural world through a focus on soil. One notable aspect of their work is their subsidiary Soil Association Certification Limited which is the UK’s largest organic certification body.

Dr Rohit Chakraborty

Rohit has started working for AirRated as Air Quality Scientist. In this role he will focus on indoor air quality and solutions to improve it. AirRated provides a certification for Indoor Air Quality using the latest sensor technology.

Dr Roberta Fabrizi

Dr Aneesa Ahmad

Aneesa is now a Research Fellow in Molecular Astrophysics, University of Leeds.

Dr August Lindemer

August has joined Accenture –a Fortune Global 500 company that specialises in information technology services and consulting – as a consulting analyst.

Roberta is now a STEM Educational Specialist at WeSchool, Milan, Italy. Of this role Roberta says: ‘We make cool digital content for schools and provide a collaborative online learning platform.’

Dr James Shipp

James is a postdoctoral researcher in multidimensional vibrational and electronic time-resolved laser spectroscopy, University of Pennsylvania in the United States. A recent publication from James was the most popular paper in the journal Inorganic Chemistry.

Dr James Bezzina

James is now a Process Engineer at Infineon Technologies - a world leader in sustainable semiconductor solutions – in Dresden.

Dr Roberta Fabrizi on TUoS campus in the ‘grey to green’ garden outside the Grantham Centre office.

Joe Llanos at COP14 where he was an official observer for TUoS.

Rohit explaining his revolutionary air pollution monitoring website ‘Burner Alert’ at ISAC.

Dr Ling Min Tan

Ling Min is now a Research Associate in Urban Decarbonisation, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The University of Sheffield. Her work is on Regional Emissions Budgeting Framework, Retrofit workflows for residential buildings and urban decarbonisation.

Dr Theresa Nelson

Currently works as a Heritage Facilitator at Creswell Heritage Trust, an archeological park in Nottinghamshire.

Dr Kaisa Pietilä

Dr Eunice Oppon

Eunice is a Lecturer in Business Analytics at University of Exeter Business School.

Kaisa is a Senior Research Scientist at Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Finland. Her focus is on biodiversity policy and politics and she co-produces science and knowledge in order to better tackle biodiversity loss in Finland, at EU level and also internationally.

Dr Harry Wright

Harry Wright (who Tony Ryan supervised) has a £364k Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Vita Cellular Plastics funded by InnovateUK on work directly leading from his PhD. He will be recycling upholstery foam into a synthetic soil for non-food crops.

Dr Jenny Veenstra

Jenny is currently responsible for monitoring and evaluation at Enda Dominicana, an NGO Non-Profit representative for the Dominican Republic of the International Network for Environment and Development in the Third World, which has its headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, Africa.

Dr Jonathan Sykes

Is now a Technical Consultant at Actica Consulting.

Dr Ligia Bertolino

Works as a Specialist in Plant Molecular Farming at BioManguinhos (Institute of Technology in Immunobiology) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dr Ling Min Tan at a tram stop in Sheffield close to TUoS where she is now a Research Associate.

Kaisa at COP14 in Egypt.

Jenny Veenstra and Jonas Cromwell at COP24.

What do Grantham Scholars do?

Grantham Scholars are at the cutting edge of sustainability. Not only does their research tackle the most pressing issues in sustainability, they are taught how to communicate this work persuasively through the training programme. Over the last 3 years our Comms Officer has furthered this training through a series of interviews with the Grantham Scholars.

These interviews serve as a virtual ‘homebase’ where Scholars can send people for information on their work. Additionally, they are also a trustworthy source of online sustainability information. And many Scholars have been contacted by journalists as a result of these interviews coming up in Google searches.

Here are some of the highlights from the interviews over the last year.

Abraham Mariech

“A key challenge for various governments in the Global South is the growth and proliferation of informal settlements. Especially around upgrading the livelihoods of informal inhabitants, which has to happen sustainably.”

Abraham researches disability, housing and sustainability in Kenya, where he was born and grew up. He did his fieldwork in Eldoret, one of the fastest growing cities in Kenya. In his interview, Abraham explains that his focus on people with disabilities in informal settlements exposes the vital need for sustainability work to come from “the ground up, rather than a top-down imposition of ideas such as the SDGs”.

Abraham plans to use his research to transform how informal settlements and cities are understood and work with/for their residents. ‘I really aspire to make a contribution around informal settlement transformation and general city management. And especially that social sustainability aspect. That’s what inspires me.’

Abraham and a woman with disabilities outside her home in an informal settlement.

Mira Lieberman

Mira’s research demonstrates how linguistics and accounting can work together to help protect biodiversity. In her interview, Mira explains how extinction accounting works.

“Imagine a house that has a fence around it. The house is the company, and the accountant decides how far out the fence goes – what is part of the house and what isn’t. Until the 90s, the environment was seen as this free resource –outside the fence, an externality. This idea means a company can take what it wants, pollute as it likes, but does not account for the damage done beyond its ‘borders’. In order to expose this exploitation, and its impacts, extinction accounting extends those borders, it moves the fence back.”

Reflecting on her interview, Mira told us that it increased her confidence.

‘Being interviewed by Claire (our Comms Officer) allowed me to form my ideas about my research and share them with a non-academic audience. It boosted my confidence to have Claire so supportive and interested in my work. I felt proud seeing my interview on social media, and on the Grantham newsletter, another boost!’

Maria Wang Mei Hua

Maria Wang Mei Hua researches how rubber trees can be grown in a more sustainable way. Alongside this, Maria has played a key role in efforts to embed sustainability across TUoS. She was one of a group of Grantham Scholars who conducted initial work on the TUoS sustainability strategy.

“I’m part of a collaborative effort to make all levels of the rubber value chain more sustainable. It is a lot of work, and sometimes I wonder if it is possible for an industry with entrenched interests in profit to become genuinely sustainable. But we shouldn’t stop trying.”

Maria had this to say about being interviewed.

“The interview helped my friends to get to know me and my research better, especially those who are outside academia, but also other Grantham Scholars – and the same for me reading other Scholars’ interviews - so I think it is a really great thing that you are doing for us.”

Jocelyne Sze

“What I’m hoping to do with my project is to make conservation policy more fair, such that the conservation of areas doesn’t have to be at the expense of Indigenous or local peoples.”

Jocelyne Sze had a productive year. First she published a paper which shows that Indigenous lands are often as good as - or better - at conserving forests then other types of protected. Alongside this, she created a guide for decolonising research (see earlier section).

In her interview, Jocelyne highlighted the need for conservation to examine the effects of colonialism.

“There is this perception that conservation has to keep areas free from human influence, because human activity degrades nature. But this way of seeing nature stems from Eurocentric, colonial ways of thinking. We’re increasingly aware that some human activities are actually beneficial for conservation or for the flourishing of biodiversity and life in general.”

Maria Wang Mei Hua.

Hannah McCarrick

Hannah McCarrick researches digital technologies and smallholder farmers in Tanzania. In her interview, she explains how having her young twins with her during fieldwork enhanced her data.

“Most of the valuable insights came through discussions with the women I worked with, who were also mothers. Being a mum allowed me to be accommodated in a different way than if I’d come without them. We fed our kids together, and my kids participated in local activities. People shared stories that you don’t get asking questions in a standardised fashion.”

Hannah also explains how her work demonstrates that farmers are often exploited for profit by digital technology providers. And how these providers also treat farmers as ignorant.

‘Often they (digital technologies) have a built in assumption that the goal is to make everyone into a high producing farmer. But from the farmer’s perspective other things are more important, such as sustainability and how farming fits in with other aspects of their lives.’

Hannah wants to contribute to digital tech changing to support smallholders by putting farmers and their specialised knowledge at the centre of their products.

Philippa Hughes

Philippa researches community led-housing. In her interview, Philippa explains how community-led projects lead the way in sustainable housing.

“Community-led housing demonstrates a future, it offers new ways of thinking. Not just imagined alternatives but ones we build and think through. At the same time it holds a mirror up to the current system.”

For Philippa the interview helped her work with others.

“I really enjoyed doing the interview and found it rewarding in terms of contextualising my research for myself and articulating the main arguments from my work. I have shared it with quite a few people as a source of more information about my work, both in academia and wider. Friends and family have also said it’s the first time they’ve really understood what I do!”

Hannah with her 2 small children being shown around a farm by a smallholder in Tanzania.

Philippa Hughes at a protest against poor housing conditions for tenants in Sheffield.

What makes a Grantham Scholar?

We prepare the sustainability leaders of the future through the Grantham Scholar training programme. Whilst no single bit of research will fix the climate or biodiversity crisis, providing experts with the skills they need to embed their work within policy, business or academia will be vital.

As such our Centre Manager Deborah Beck has created a bespoke training programme that improves each year and is adapted to suit the needs of each cohort. Highlights this year included ISAC, the Festival of Debate and COP.

Festival of Debate

Festival of Debate is the largest annual politics festival in the UK. Every year we support the Grantham Scholars to take part as part of their training programme. In 2022 we had 5 teams of Scholars and topics included water and biodiversity.

ISAC

Internal Seminars and Cake is a multidisciplinary knowledge exchange. Periodically throughout their PhDs the Scholars get together, present their research in a semi-formal setting, bake for each other and bond as a group.

Tavengwa Chitata explained different ways to engage with interdisciplinary research on water and irrigation infrastructure at ISAC.

COP: Global climate policy

Since the famous COP21 in 2015 where the Paris Agreement was signed, we’ve sent people to COP as both delegates and official observers for TUoS.

GranthamScholarsatCOP26

In2021COPwasheldintheUK.Sofocuswason thiscountrythatyear,andthecurrentgovernment’s policies(orlackofthem)thatdealwiththeclimateand biodiversitycrisis.

Wesent7GranthamScholarstoCOP26asofficial observersforTUoS.TheywereCharlesGillott,Mary Eliza,MariaWangMeiHua,ManasiMulay,David Rapley,ReenaSayaniandSumaMani Allweregiven bespoketrainingtomakethemostoftheeventand supportedfromstarttofinishbyDeborahBeckand JanaGreen.

Before they went, Comms Officer Claire Moran interviewed the Grantham Scholars and these interviews were used as the core resource for TUoS coverage and publicity of COP. As a result of their interviews, many of the Scholars were contacted by the media during COP. For example, Charles Gillott was interviewed by the Sheffield Telegraph and wrote about the need for greener construction for The Conversation

GranthamScholarsMaryEliza,Reena SayaniandSumaManiatCOP26.

Annual Symposium

Towards climate justice: local and global perspectives

For this year’s Symposium we asked the Grantham Scholars to choose our Symposium’s theme and they decided on climate justice. Guided by this choice, Centre Manager Deborah Beck created a diverse programme of speakers. And alongside them, Grantham Scholars will present their work, utilising skills from their training programme.

Grantham Scholars Abraham Mariech, Kristin Bash and Charles Gillott are Grantham Scholars who research food, housing and disability, which they will present in the light of climate justice at the symposium.

And Jocelyne Sze and Ella Hubbard will talk about their guide for PhDs to decolonise research (see our news section for more on this).

Deborah ensures that every year the Symposium becomes more accessible, so it will be hybrid for the third year running in 2022.

Symposium 2021: COP26

In 2021 our theme for the Annual Symposium was COP, which was in the UK that year. Two of the Scholars we sent to COP presented at the Symposium, Reena Sayani and Suma Mani. Alongside them were other TUoS academics who went to COP, Grantham Ambassadors from business and industry and MP Paul Blomfield. As a result of this event, Paul asked a question raised at the symposium in Parliament the next day.

Firth Court, TUoS campus, where the Annual Symposium always takes place.

Charles Gillott who is one of the Grantham Scholars presenting at our Symposium this year.

Grantham Centre news and updates

Centre Director Professor Rachael Rothman

South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre

Rachael Rothman is now the director of the new £13m South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre (£5m funding from Research England). Over the last couple of years Rachael has worked with TUoS, researchers from Sheffield Hallam, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, the 4 local authorities and businesses and industry in the region to put this centre together.

“As a region we have targets to be more sustainable and reach net zero. And that will involve a lot of change,” Rachael explained. “But at the moment nobody really knows how we’ll do it. The sustainability centre aims to join up research from the universities in Sheffield to provide the evidence base needed to make sustainable decisions in the region.”

Martin Mayfield, Duncan Cameron and Sol Brown – who all work within the GCSF – have research projects within the SYSC. And they’re hoping that Grantham Scholars will join them as post doctoral researchers.

Paving the way for Hydrogen

Rachael is one of 3 investigators in the UK leading the development of a Hydrogen Research Challenges Hub (£12.5m). The last 6 months have involved community building and identification and prioritisation of research challenges. Now they are putting final details in the Hub bid ready to start in April 2023.

University Academic Lead for Sustainability

Rachael continues to spearhead the strategy and plan to make the University more sustainable. In the last 2 years, scope 1 and 2 emissions have dropped by 37%. Now the challenge is to secure investment to reach the targets of 60% reduction in scope 1 and 2 by 2025 with net zero in 2030.

Professor Rachael Rothman.

Centre Director Professor Tony Ryan

Physics, Polymer Physics Group Founders’ Prize

This year Tony was awarded the Institute of Physics, Polymer Physics Group Founders’ Prize. This prize is for a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to polymer physics in the UK or Ireland and he used his prize lecture to recruit physicists to the sustainability cause.

Catastrophe Garden film

Catastrophe Garden is a 2022 film which celebrates the work of Moaed Al Meselmani, Duncan Cameron and Tony Ryan in the Zaatari refugee camp. The team works with a mix of NGOs, the UN, scientists and social scientists to sustainably improve life at the camp.

The film was made as part of the Pioneers Film Fund in association with planetSHINE – an initiative to inspire filmmakers to focus on the future of food

World Plastics Summit in Monaco

In March 2022 Tony and Sarah Greenwood attended the World Plastics Summit in Monaco. The summit assembled an international community of researchers, technology developers, multinational companies, and global policy makers to accelerate the science and engineering of plastics recycling, upcycling, and redesign.

It was organised by John McGeehan from the University of Portsmouth and Gregg Beckham, CEO of the BOTTLE Consortium, with support from Lady Oxana Girko, Oleg Novachuck and the Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco.

The three-day meeting covered topics including understanding the scope of “the plastics problem” and the issues from a carbon, energy, economic and pollution perspective. It was a safe space for interaction, and

started discussion and teamwork between biologists, chemists, engineers, environmental scientists, material scientists and sustainability analysts critical to generate new solutions, realise evidence-based policy, and ultimately stem the flow of plastics into the natural environment and the world’s landfills.

Tony gave the final plenary lecture on “Neofossils: bio-based plastics that sequester carbon from the atmosphere.” which was well received and prompted questions from Prince Albert II himself.

Chemistry for a Sustainable Future

Tony has devised and leads a new 1st year module called Chemistry for a Sustainable Future. It sets the scene for the rest of the undergraduates’ degree and the central issues that will define their future as chemists.

Students make a film, infographic and magazine article as coursework. The Chemistry Department uses these in its recruitment and the articles also get published in its magazine. Vitally, this is also part of the TUoS ‘One University’ vision which has sustainability at its heart. Whilst Chemistry was the first department to embed sustainability in its teaching it is now part of the University Strategic plan.

Tony Ryan in Monaco for the World Plastics Summit.

Sarah Greenwood and Tony Ryan at the World Plastics Summit in Monaco.

Think Ahead nomination

Deborah Beck, Jana Green and Claire Moran were all nominated for ‘brilliant doctoral supervision’ in the Think Ahead scheme, which aims to recognise and celebrate people who support PhDs. Grantham supervisors Brant Walkley and Jags Pandhal were also nominated.

The Double 100 Challenge

Humanity currently produces about 36 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents per year, and we need to reduce this by 11 Gt CO2e/yr to stay within our 1.5ᵒC warming targets.

The IPCC 2022 report warned that in addition to making substantial reductions in our emissions, we urgently need to deploy technologies that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. However, the development and use of carbon capture technologies lags well behind the timescales required to meet our climate mitigation targets.

A new collaboration

In May 2022, the Grantham ‘Double 100 Challenge’ was launched to advance our ability to capture and store atmospheric CO2. This is a new collaboration between the Grantham Centre and the Grantham Foundation.

The challenge was to propose a novel research idea with the potential to remove 100 million tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere at US$100 or less per tonne. The successful project was also required to have the potential to be commercialised in the near future.

Applicants had the opportunity to work with a net zero expert from global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company to develop their proposal, before pitching to the Grantham Foundation.

Winners to harness photosynthesis

The winning project was submitted by PhD student Emily Harrison and Professor Julie Gray, who proposed a biological solution. Their project aims to harness nature’s greatest carbon capture technology: photosynthesis.

In brief, CO2 is taken up by the plant through the stomata pores on the leaf surface, before diffusing to the photosynthetic cells, where it is converted into sugars and eventually more complex carbon polymers. Plants currently absorb an estimated 123 Gt CO2 annually, although much of this is returned to the atmosphere through respiration and more slowly through degradation.

Enhancing nature’s mechanisms

Emily and Julie will explore ways of producing plants with enhanced carbon drawdown. With agriculture facing unprecedented demands from an ever-growing world population, repurposing existing cropland for carbon capture is not a feasible option. Therefore, they will first implement this technology into crops – helping farms to serve as more efficient carbon sinks to help curb climate change.

It is hoped that these photosynthetic improvements could also increase agricultural productivity, enabling this carbon capture technology to help maintain global food security, as well as actively mitigate climate change which threatens it.

For the past decade, Prof Gray’s research group has used stomatal engineering to improve and future-proof food security. Emily has been involved in the successful development of gene edited crops with improved abiotic stress tolerance and has extensive expertise in crop physiology, measuring carbon fluxes and photosynthetic efficiency. They are excited to have been given this opportunity to apply their skill sets to target climate change at the source; by enhancing the rate at which crops drawdown CO2 from the atmosphere.

Professor Julie Gray and one of her rice experiments in Thailand.

Many Happy Returns

Many Happy Returns is a Grantham Centre project which evolved out of Plastics: Redefining Single-Use.

A multidisciplinary team of scientists and social scientists work in partnership with packaging manufacturers and designers, brand owners, retailers and policy makers. Together they explore reusable packaging systems with the aim to reduce single-use plastic packaging.

Reuse on campus: local impact

In 2022 the MHR project introduced Vytal - a reusable container scheme –in cafes across TUoS campus. To date, this has saved over 1252 single use packages from being used. The Vytal reuse scheme will continue past the end of the Many Happy Returns project.

BBC Panorama

One of MHR’s project leads, Sarah Greenwood, was on the BBC’s Panorama programme.

On the program Sarah explained why some types of plastic are so hard to recycle. For example flexible plastic packaging like crisp packets, which have layers of plastic and other materials which make them hard wearing, but also makes attempts to recycle them complicated.

All-party roundtable on reuse

MHR partnered with the All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group and the Sustainable Resource Forum for an all-party roundtable on reuse. Focus was on consumers’ attitudes towards reusable packaging and how government and industry can enable change.

This was in partnership with the independent think tank Policy Connect who act as the secretariat for the APPG and was part of their inquiry into Refill and Reuse. There will be a report issued from this work.

Plastics and the dragon

A project lead for MHR Rachael Rothman was on Dragon’s Den investor Deborah Meaden’s programme: Tackling Plastics and Greenwashing. The podcast helps listeners make ‘the best and greenest use of our money and to find out how businesses are lowering their impact on the planet’.

A Vytal return point on TUoS campus.

Sarah Greenwood on Panorama.

IChemE Hutchison Medal

Congratulations to the Many Happy Returns team for winning a IChemE Hutchison Medal!

The IChemE Hutchison Medal recognises work that stimulates debate within chemical engineering. Our Many Happy Returns team was awarded the medal for their paper on reuse systems.

Film in the works for MHR

The team are currently putting a short film together with local filmmaker Gemma Thorpe.

Publications

As well as the paper which won the IChemE award, the team have published 7 papers from the project so far. Topics have ranged from the linguistic and psychological issues around reuse to reuse in dentistry.

Healthy soil, Healthy food and Healthy people

Professor Peter Jackson from our Management Group is part of a new consortium that aims to transform the food system from the ground up.

The H3 Consortium

Along with other world-class researchers from Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, Cambridge, Newcastle and City Universities Peter will work with stakeholders on this integrated programme of interdisciplinary research.

The H3 Consortium addresses the links between food production and consumption and takes an interdisciplinary approach. It will identify workable paths towards transformed UK food systems, delivered via a series of interventions: on farm, in food manufacturing, distribution and retail, and in terms of the health implications and inequalities associated with food consumption in UK homes and communities.

This is an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity to use cutting-edge research to have a genuinely transformative effect on the health and sustainability of the UK food system.