Energy innovation mapping – a collection of research, funding streams, and organisations

This is driving an incredible amount of research and innovation in the industry ranging from the way energy is generated, transmitted, distributed, converted between vectors, stored and consumed.

It is a complex landscape that can be difficult to navigate for those not familiar with it.

Understanding who is innovating and doing this research is important for a range of people, including:

• Investors: To understand which new areas are being investigated and where investment opportunities are evolving.
• Researchers: To reduce duplication, be able to co-operate with fellow researchers and create consortia to address research challenges.
• Energy companies: To know where to seek potential innovation partners and utilise research outputs.
• Suppliers to the energy industry: To build partnerships and utilise research results in their offerings.

The Energy Sector Executive Committee concluded, after some searching, that there was no single resource that provided a high-level overview of all the different energy innovation and research projects, funding streams and organisations; a gap that this map attempts to clarify and communicate.

We embarked on the journey of creating this map with some trepidation as we knew from the outset that it would need constant updates, due to the changing nature of the landscape.

Notwithstanding this we decided that we won't let perfection get in the way of usefulness and pooled our knowledge.

Next steps

 Given the disclaimer above, we would ask you for three things:

1. If you find this useful then please let us know. It would be good to know that the map is of some use to someone outside our group.
2. Spread the word.
3. Let us know of any organisations, projects, initiatives, and funding streams that we have missed, defunct elements and other errors and omissions.

Send your feedback, thoughts and any questions to policy@theiet.org with the subject line ‘Energy innovation mapping’. Alternatively, log on to your IET EngX account to leave your comments in the discussion.