The new research project is one of four that will share over £3m in funding from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with matched equivalent resources from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
The announcement comes in parallel with the State visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the UK this week.
The Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG) will receive £800,000 to collaborate with Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology to investigate how to reduce the carbon emissions of existing technologies and conduct research into alternative energy sources and the reduction of energy demand.
SERG will use Portsmouth and Xian as the case study cities for the City-Wide Analysis to Propel Cities towards Resource Efficiency and Better Wellbeing project.
Professor AbuBakr Bahaj, Head of SERG, says:
“This award builds on our track record of more than 15 years studying cities and energy. The work is multidisciplinary involving other researchers from the University and elsewhere.
“The focus is to explore renewables, energy efficiency and low carbon technology approaches to ‘re-engineering the city’ to more sustainable pathways and the impacts these have on society.”