Royal Academy of Engineering launches £150M fellowship fund for UK climate tech

The Royal Academy of Engineering has launched new Green Future Fellowships. It will award £150 million over the next five years to 50 of the best ideas and scalable technologies essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for adapting to the impacts of climate change.

At least 50 fellows (ten a year for five years) will receive up to £3 million each to develop and scale their ideas for up to a decade. These climate tech solutions should contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and help society adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The Green Future Fellowships will provide innovators, scientists, researchers and engineers with the funding, capacity and tailored support to transform their  ideas and existing initiatives into scalable, commercially viable, engineering solutions to secure a greener, fairer future.

In a new survey of 2,000 adults conducted by Opinium on behalf of the Royal Academy of Engineering, nearly two thirds of respondents say that more needs to be done to scale existing solutions to the climate crisis. It found that 7 in 10 people surveyed believe that engineers are essential for developing solutions that will help us adapt to living with the effects of climate change and preventing greenhouse gas emissions. Almost two thirds said that the UK needs more people to become engineers to tackle the climate crisis.

Three areas where the public believe the biggest impact can be made are the generation of a constant supply of electricity without burning fossil fuels; recycling and reusing metals and plastics more efficiently so that less energy is needed, and recovering and using energy that would otherwise be wasted (such as using waste heat from industrial processes).

Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, commented: “The climate and sustainability crisis is the challenge of our generation, requiring era-defining solutions to be developed and deployed at scale and with urgency. The Green Future Fellowships programme provides a new opportunity to do just that, providing the flexible, long-term support required to accelerate scalable and commercially viable climate innovations at all stages of development.

“We are delighted to have this opportunity to tap into the immense creativity in our research and innovation community, and excited to see the proposals that come forward. Green Future Fellowships represent a significant new contribution to efforts to harness innovation to tackle the climate challenge, which is a cornerstone of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s mission to harness the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.”

Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS FRMedSci, Chair of the Green Future Fellowship Steering Group, said: “Many innovators, scientists and researchers do not see themselves as engineers yet may hold the key to tackling the climate crisis. An engineer is anyone that brings, creates and practically implements ideas into the systems and structures that uphold our world.

“Too often, short-term decision-making by global funders prioritises immediate solutions and so does not always support the creativity and progress needed to enable innovators to turn complementary or long-term climate ideas into action. These additional solutions exist, but they need the space and the time to commercialise and scale up for lasting impact. We risk letting high-impact long-term solutions to the climate crisis slip through our fingers if we do not nurture and scale them now.”

The UK government has endowed the Royal Academy of Engineering with £150 million to fund at least 50 Green Future Fellows to commercially scale new ideas and existing initiatives that contribute to the UK’s climate ambitions and resilience.

The Green Future Fellowships will fund both new ideas and existing initiatives from a diverse range of people – from innovators to engineers, academics to scientists – regardless of their background or career stage.

Applicants can come from any country, however as a UK-funded initiative, they must locate their work in the UK and deliver impact that benefits the UK, alongside any global impact.

Successful innovators will become a Green Future Fellow for the 10-year award duration and will also receive non-financial support, including training, mentorship, access to the Academy’s Awardee Excellence Community, and additional tailored support.