Catalysis Hub-SFN Workshop

Key members of the UK Catalysis Hub and the Solar Fuels Network met for the first time at the Royal Society in London early October to explore new opportunities for collaborations between the two research communities. Spurring this timely event was the recent announcement of the Mission Innovation commitment by the government, where funding to carbon mitigation efforts are to be doubled. During this meeting, many common challenges and avenues for collaboration were identified. These include the need for photocatalysis performance standardisation, high throughput catalysis screening methods, mechanistic understanding of multi-electron chemistry, closing redox cycles, and process scaling. In moving forward, a second joint meeting is being planned for 2018 to take place in Harwell. This upcoming meeting will allow for more in depth discussions of the science proposed, and will be open to all members of both communities.

The UK Catalysis Hub is Consortia of universities involved in Catalysis research lead by UCL, Bath, Cardiff, Queens University Belfast, and Manchester. The hub has a range of Projects around the UK.

The UK Catalysis Hub aims to interact, network and build the UK catalysis and wider international catalysis community through collaborative projects, meetings, conferences and research outputs, including publications. The Hub endeavours to develop a broad scientific program, from fundamentals for tackling big challenges to allowing extensive collaboration to develop new catalysts, reactions and process. In turn, this provides fundamental understanding, benefiting industry, the economy and scientific understanding. The UK Catalysis Hub also aims to develop the next generation of students, through courses, conferences, PhD programs, summer schools and outreach activities.

More information can be found at http://www.ukcatalysishub.co.uk/