Workshop for EPSRC Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Research Challenge

Closing date for Expressions of Interest to Attend : 12:00 on 03 January 2012

The Research Councils’ Energy programme invites expressions of interest from eligible individuals to attend a workshop to be held at Hilton Birmingham Metropole, B40 1PP on the 23rd February 2012.

This workshop will bring together the various academic and industrial hydrogen and fuel cell energy communities to scope research challenges that this discipline faces. The outputs from this workshop will provide the basis for an open SUPERGEN Challenge call. The Energy programme has allocated up to £5M to support research in the call arising from the workshop. This SUPERGEN Challenge call will aim to support research projects that will hasten the deployment of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell energy technologies.
Up to £5 million has been allocated to fund collaborative research projects in the call arising from the Workshop. The workshop will be a one day event that aims to scope the challenges that face the deployment hydrogen and fuel cells technologies. The aim of this workshop is to bring together the various academic and industrial hydrogen and fuel cell energy communities to scope the issues for an open

The workshop
The workshop will be a one day event that that will bring together a balance of participants from academia and industry with interests in the engineering, environmental, social, economic and political aspects of hydrogen and fuel cells. Participants will discuss and capture the issues around the sector and will identify multidisciplinary challenges that can be addressed in the SUPERGEN challenge call. It is recognised that non-conventional energy has the potential to raise societal, ethical, philosophical and legal issues, and opportunities also exist for research in areas outside the natural sciences and engineering, for example policy and public acceptance. The involvement of researchers from these other fields is essential to ensure that scientific research develops in a societal framework and that any ethical, legal and societal issues that are raised are fully explored.

Who Should Attend?
Having the right mix of participants influences the success or failure of such an event. Applications are encouraged from diverse research areas across engineering, physical sciences, environmental sciences, life sciences and the social sciences. Applications are also encouraged from individuals in the hydrogen and fuel cells industry as the views of industry are very important. In this EOI call we are not defining the disciplines that should be represented at this workshop; rather we are asking potential participants to indicate how their expertise can contribute to identifying the challenges facing fuel cells and hydrogen research.
Expertise is required from a very broad range of disciplines; the workshop is intended to bring people together who may not normally interact. We actively encourage people to apply that are experts in their own research areas but have not yet applied it to the challenges facing hydrogen and fuel cells.

Applications
An application to attend will be taken to mean you are available for the full day, and will attend if selected. It is anticipated that 40 places will be available.

Applications are invited from individual academic researchers who can contribute to the workshop in scoping challenges that can form the basis for research projects. Anyone eligible to apply for funding from RCUK Energy Programme, EPSRC, NERC, ESRC, BBSRC or STFC is eligible to apply to attend the workshop. Applications are also sought from individuals from the hydrogen and fuel cells energy industry.

Please return completed application forms to: H_and_F_Cells@epsrc.ac.uk