Three Community projects to benefit from more than £60,000

The Friends of Energy House 2.0 Impact Fund has awarded funding for the projects to deliver educational outreach and community engagement programmes, with a focus on raising awareness around sustainability.

Each of the Friends – Barratt Developments, Bellway Homes, Bowmer + Kirkland, BTS, Dyer Environmental Controls, Electricity North West, Hg, Persimmon Homes, Schneider Electric, Seddon Construction, and Trilliant – have made a donation between £5,000 and £10,000 to the Impact Fund, totalling over £120,000, to help drive the activity of the new facility and enhance its social impact. Half will be used to fund a sustainability-focussed PhD student.

The winning projects are:

/ Digital Advantage’s The Sustainable Box Project will centre around the creation of the Energy House in kit form to be used in classrooms alongside a set of challenges to provide students with a hands-on, experimental programme that will encourage them to explore STEAM subjects and careers.

/ University of Salford Arts Collection Team’s Artist in Residence will be delivered in collaboration with Castlefield Gallery and Open Eye Gallery, to support two artist residencies in Energy House Labs to create awareness of the vital work of the Labs and engage the public in developing a better understanding of energy efficiency, sustainability, and climate change in thought-provoking and meaningful ways. The project will close with an exhibition at Castlefield Gallery in Spring 2025, alongside a public engagement programme.

/ Marple Education and Spotlight School of Speech and Drama’s The School Green Summit is designed to raise awareness of sustainability issues by developing the work of the Greater Manchester Green Summit to be more accessible for young people. The team will work with experts to create impactful lessons and spoken word exercises to improve the understanding of sustainability for teachers and young people; the spoken word exercises will take the form of a competition, with the winning students performing at The School Green Summit.

Energy House 2.0 is a world leading research project based at the University of Salford. Its climate-controlled environment in a huge hangar enables testing of ways to save energy. Energy House 2.0 is a £16 million test and research facility that is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The Friends of Energy House 2.0 Impact Fund is philanthropic source of funding made possible by the Friends of Energy House 2.0, a community of like-minded industry partners who are committed to fighting the climate emergency.

The STEM PhD Studentship and projects detailed above conclude the first phase of our Friends of Energy House 2.0 Impact Fund for 2022. If you are interested in becoming a ‘Friend’ in the future, please contact Sophie Thorp, Strategic Development Manager: S.L.Thorp@salford.ac.uk