Climate Innovations with the Low Carbon College
The China-UK Low Carbon College (LCC) opened on 15 September 2018.
A key base for low carbon ideas
The joint initiative, the first of its kind, between the University of Edinburgh, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Lingang City, will facilitate climate innovations. The college is based in a custom-designed facility in Lingang, south of Shanghai, and will become a key base for the exchange of low carbon ideas, talent, technology and resources between China and Europe to drive solutions to environmental challenges.
The LCC will cultivate knowledge in low-carbon across a broad range of disciplines, as well as establish and develop relationships in industry. The base in Lingang, a purpose built ‘smart city’, will include engineering centres and labs for research and learning, creating a national landmark for low-carbon innovation and entrepreneurship. The College will utilise experience and support from Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) which has a proven track-record – they’ve already helped more than 1,000 Scottish companies develop their business and develop international links.
ECCI has played a pivotal role in the inception and development of the college. ECCI’s Deputy Director Ed Craig takes up position in September 2018 as Dean at the LCC.
The University of Edinburgh aims to attract and teach the world’s best students and prepare them to make an impact. This partnership reverses the norm of bringing students to Scotland to access world-class educational opportunities and facilities, instead taking a radical approach by embedding learning where it is needed with real-world projects and research. While the University has been ‘influencing the world’ for centuries, the work of the Low Carbon College will reinvent this by taking our expertise into the Shanghai area, and ‘getting our hands dirty’.
This innovative approach enables effective two-way knowledge exchange. Collaboration with Chinese partners means Edinburgh will help lead the way in low-carbon innovation in China and globally. One area of development in the next 18 months is the construction of Living Lab; a research and teaching facility five times the size of ECCI, which will act as a living demonstrator of experimental and proven low carbon technologies.
The College will explore opportunities for joint undergraduate and PhD education programmes and operate an exchange programme for faculty members, support staff and graduate students.
The two courses currently offered by the College are an MSc in Energy and an MSC in Environment. Further courses will be launched in the coming months, including Carbon Finance, Management, Smart Cities, and Circular Economy.
The University is also now accepting applications from students at Shanghai Jia Tong onto five Masters programmes that focus on low carbon, and will build new research partnerships and create tailored executive education programmes.
This ground-breaking project shows the opportunity for the University of Edinburgh and Scotland to make a real impact with our Chinese partners in cultivating talent, industry and technology to lead the transformation to a clean energy future.