From producing and storing hydrogen to putting it to use, materials are critical to making hydrogen technologies work. Our recent Royce Hydrogen Conference is just one of several events this autumn which are highlighting how Royce expertise and capabilities are helping to address these challenges.
The one-day Royce Hydrogen Conference, held at Imperial College London in September, brought together researchers, policy-makers, innovators and industry leaders to share latest developments in materials solutions for hydrogen systems.
The event provided an overview of the state-of-play for the nascent hydrogen economy and the role that Royce is playing in supporting the development of advanced materials which enable hydrogen use.
Dr Robert Sorrell, Research Challenge Lead for Materials for End-to-End Hydrogen and CEO of the Royce Hydrogen Accelerator, said:
“Our fourth Royce Hydrogen Conference brought together the community of hydrogen researchers from across the UK. It was very exciting to hear about such a wide diversity of topics from the people actually doing the work and also from their industrial partners.”
The conference particularly showcased the research partnerships between industry and academia supported through our Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP). Over the six rounds of ICP funding, Royce has supported 66 projects related to hydrogen, investing over £6 million. Presentations from researchers who worked on some of these projects shared findings and next steps for the innovations they had investigated. Read a case study from an ICP project testing hydrogen barrier coatings here.
As well as supporting hydrogen innovation through collaboration, funding and convening the sector, Royce also plays an important role in providing access to hydrogen fabrication, testing and characterisation capabilities through our labs, hosted in our partner universities. These cutting-edge facilities can be accessed by students, academic researchers and industry, with our access schemes providing subsidised access to eligible projects.
The Royce Hydrogen Conference also showcased the work of the Royce Hydrogen Accelerator, which champions critical materials solutions for the hydrogen supply chain, supporting innovators to scale and introducing them to investors. The Hydrogen Accelerator brings together industry, academia, investors and growth partners and is creating a pipeline of compelling, de-risked opportunities that are ready to scale, with the right investment.
On Thursday 12 November the Royce Hydrogen Accelerator is working with the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative to host the Hydrogen Innovation Showcase at Sustainable Ventures, London. This event will bring together companies with compelling hydrogen innovations with potential investors for pitches and networking.
Applications for the next round of ICP funding will open in December 2026, with projects relating to materials for large-scale electrochemical energy generation and conversion (including hydrogen) and materials for hydrogen transport, storage and use being identified as scope areas. Find out more here.
