Celebrating 10 years of Energy Futures Lab

On 17 November Energy Futures Lab celebrated its 10th Anniversary with an exhibition and lecture on energy research at Imperial College London.

Ten years ago Energy Futures Lab was established at Imperial to bring researchers together to tackle global energy challenges. On 17 November 2015 the institute celebrated its 10^th Anniversary with an event to showcase Imperial’s strengths and  diversity  in energy research.

Back in 2005 energy was, as it still is, a major societal issue. It was against this backdrop that Imperial College London created Energy Futures Lab to foster multidisciplinary, cross-faculty collaborations in the energy sphere. “There was broad agreement across campus that we couldn’t fix these problems by staying in our departmental silos,” says Professor Tim Green, Director of Energy Futures Lab, “A proposal was presented to the College to create an institute to help drive energy research across discipline boundaries.”

In November 2005 Professor Nigel Brandon took the helm at what became the first of Imperial’s Global Institutes, established to promote inter-disciplinary collaboration to address some of the greatest challenges faced by society. Energy Futures Lab started with a small team of three , but this did not temper their ambition and in 2007 the first cohort of the  MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures enrolled at Imperial. That first intake of 23 students on this multidisciplinary programme has now grown to 50 students per year, and from 2014/15 the course is fully accredited by the Energy Institute.

The growth and success of the MSc mirrors that of Energy Futures Lab itself. Over the last ten years the institute has developed many initiatives involving industry partners, such as the Shell-Imperial Grand Challenge on Clean Fossil Fuels, the BP Urban Energy Systems and the Sustainable Gas Institute (with BG Group). Alongside these grand challenge projects Energy Futures Lab has been active in building a community at Imperial around five research themes, in addition to running networks for doctoral students and early career researchers.

All of this work, and the work of Imperial's energy researchers was the order of the day at Tuesday’s celebration. The whole community gathered to look back over the last ten years, to reflect on achievements and to lay out plans for the future. From the large exhibition in the Great Hall featuring research from areas as diverse as Marine Renewable Energy and Fuel Cells, to Clean Fossil Fuels and Photovoltaics, it was clear that Imperial College London is home to a large, diverse, and very successful energy research community.

The exhibition bookended a packed out lecture on the Past, Present and Future for Energy Futures Lab and Imperial College. Compered by Professor Tim Green the talk featured leading lights from around the College sharing insights into energy research projects past, present, and future. The speakers included Professor Nilay Shah, Professor Geoff Maitland, Professor Anthony Kucernak and Dr Ned Ekins-Daukes.

The lecture was followed by  birthday cake in the Great Hall, and for the rest of the evening attendees networked and socialised among the exhibition stands, strengthening the sense of community and optimism for the future.

You can follow how the evening went through the various social media posts in the Storify of the event.