UK Carbon Capture and Storage Community Network (UKCCSC)

The potential for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to make a significant contribution to mitigating the risk of dangerous climate change has been recognised by a number of international bodies including the G8, International Energy Agency and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A range of commercial-scale demonstration projects are being proposed with the aim of CCS being available for widespread deployment from around 2020. A significant effort is required to train scientists and engineers (and others) to be able to design, construct and successfully operate these and future projects. It is also crucial to use lessons from these projects to inform CCS R&D, as well as drawing on insights from other fields that could be crucial for rapid development of CCS. Recognising these needs, the Research Councils have made a significant investment in UK CCS R&D capacity including through the E.On/EPSRC partnership and a programme of collaborative work with China.The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Community network (UKCCSC) has been established to support the UK academic community during a period (2009-2013) when significant changes in the CCS landscape are expected. The impacts of the Network will include better co-ordination within the UK CCS R&D community and more effective communication of accurate and impartial information, including key research results, to a wide range of stakeholders in a timely manner. The UKCCSC network will be the main mechanism to enable inter-communication between Research Council-funded projects on CCS. It will also contribute to maximising the efficiency of UK intellectual leverage, including within the international community. UKCCSC is deliberately not sponsored by any commercial entity so that it is able to maintain independence.UKCCSC aims to provide a 'one stop shop' for access to the UK CCS academic community. It intends to encourage collaborations that can support high quality work that will advance fundamental understanding of CCS technology, and the non-technical impacts of its use, and contribute to building world class capacity in this area. Any UK-based researcher is eligible to participate in UKCCSC core activities. These include two face-to-face meetings each year for academic researchers to share ongoing work, as well as updating key stakeholders. Between meetings, the UKCCSC website will provide relevant resources. A regular newsletter will also be circulated to UKCCSC members and registered stakeholders.Additional UKCCSC activities will support the development of a dynamic and stimulating environment for research and innovation on CCS in the UK. These include a programme of activities for early career researchers and specialist workshops or seminars organised in response to proposals from UKCCSC members. Support for exchange visits and other activities to develop strategic alliances within the UK or with international collaborators will also be available to UKCCSC members. In addition, it is expected that UKCCSC will help its membership to contribute to shaping future priorities for funding of CCS R&D in the UK.The UKCCSC secretariat will be responsible for running the network on a day-to-day basis. The full-time network manager supports and promotes academic CCS activities in the UK including by organising events. They are supported by a part-time early careers co-ordinator, webmaster and secretary. The secretariat is jointly hosted by Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh and managed by Dr Jon Gibbins and Prof Stuart Haszeldine. A project advisory committee will be established to guide the development of UKCCSC as it responds to the rapidly evolving challenges and requirements for CCS R&D. An international reference user group, formed of invited members from representative organisations in other countries, will ensure that strong links are maintained between UK researchers and the international CCS community.

The immediate beneficiaries of this project are the researchers involved - potentially all active CCS researchers in the UK. The sponsors of their research, the Research Councils, government departments, regulators, non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and industry should also benefit. UKCCSC will help researchers to enhance the value of their research, e.g. through facilitating interactions with the rest of the UK and international CCS community during its execution and assisting in effective dissemination of results. Industry is expected to benefit by gaining better access to timely updates on key results from the UK CCS academic community, as well as the people involved. This should be a key benefit for other stakeholders too. For example, it is expected that UKCCSC will respond to formal consultations from Government and others, where appropriate, as well as providing easy access to independent experts to provide ad-hoc advice on all aspects (technical and non-technical) of CCS projects. This should also facilitate high quality responses to media enquiries and, hence, contribute to public engagement and dialogue on CCS in the UK. The work of UKCCSC has the potential to impact significantly on the UK's ability to deploy CCS in a timely and cost-effective manner as part of a future low carbon energy supply system. This can both enhance the competitiveness of the UK, through effective energy supplies, and contribute to developing the evidence base and the multidisciplinary academic and industrial capacity needed for international deployment of CCS. The timescales for UKCCSC impact range from immediate to very long term. As the main academic forum for UK CCS researchers, UKCCSC will be participating in the UK and wider energy debate from its inception (the launch meeting is planned for October). It is expected that initial contributions could inform international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this year, including by facilitating media briefing and through the involvement of key government departments in the Advisory Panel. It is also expected that academic-industry links developed in UKCCSC will play an important role in identifying suitable research projects to address the fundamental scientific challenges that will inevitably emerge as the first UK CCS projects are planned and deployed in the next few years. Early career researchers trained within UKCCSC will also begin pursuing industrial careers in this expanding field. Looking to the future, over decades better specialist and multi-disciplinary academic research will both improve recognised CCS processes and help invent novel approaches. Senior academics and industrial scientists and engineers in 2050 may remember inspiration from UKCCSC and have enjoyed long-running collaborative relationships with colleagues they first met through UKCCSC to develop some of these ideas. Some of the power plants, pipelines and other CCS infrastructure planned or built during the UKCCSC project and benefitting from the improved interactions will also still be running in 2050. The main features of the UKCCSC structure will be an experienced Secretariat, an Advisory Panel bringing together key CCS stakeholders in the UK, and a well-informed and widely-connected International Reference User Group. The UKCCS Consortium has a tradition of successfully mixing disciplines and people that the UKCCSC network should build on. This is expected to include academic hosts around the UK continuing to work with the Secretariat to bring out the expertise and other strengths of the local academic environment at each meeting. The additional funds and staff in the UKCCSC network will allow the work of the previous UKCCS Consortium to be extended to a wider range of activities including a much broader (and expanding) academic community and also more extensive direct stakeholder involvement, where appropriate.