A new outdoor innovation centre, majority funded by East Midlands Freeport, has opened at Loughborough University to help turn low-carbon research into practical technologies that can support businesses, create skilled jobs and accelerate the region’s transition to net zero.
The East Midlands Zero Carbon Innovation Centre (EMZCIC) provides a safe, flexible environment where researchers and industry partners can test equipment and demonstrate clean energy technologies at a scale that is closer to real-world use. It will help bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial deployment, giving businesses access to specialist facilities and expertise that can support innovation, investment and high-value employment in the East Midlands.
The Loughborough centre is part of a wider low-carbon innovation partnership with the University of Nottingham. Together, the two universities offer complementary facilities, with Loughborough providing an outdoor environment for safe hydrogen demonstrations and hardware testing, and Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus providing supporting indoor facilities focused on low-carbon technologies and advanced manufacturing. This joined-up approach is intended to give companies and researchers a clearer route from early-stage development through to demonstration and adoption.
East Midlands Freeport is supporting the centre as part of its wider role in attracting investment, backing innovation and helping businesses grow in sectors where the region has existing strengths, including advanced manufacturing, green energy and low-carbon technology. By investing in research and skills infrastructure, the Freeport aims to ensure that local people and businesses benefit from the opportunities created by the transition to net zero.
Tom Newman-Taylor, CEO of East Midlands Freeport, said: “Our universities are one of the East Midlands’ greatest assets, and this new centre showcases the innovation and expertise that exists right here in our region. We are proud that East Midlands Freeport has played a part in making this possible. The centre will help attract investment, support business growth and create high-value jobs, strengthening the East Midlands’ position as a leading destination for innovation and advanced manufacturing.”
As well as supporting industry, the facility will give students and learners practical experience of the technologies that are expected to shape future energy systems. It will support training for Loughborough students, learners from the Institute of Technology and students from other East Midlands universities, while also enabling the EPSRC-funded EnerHy Centre for Doctoral Training to scale industry- and university-led research projects.
The centre includes reconfigurable solar panels, water and hydrogen supplies, and hydrogen offtake equipment, including a hydrogen cooker. In practical terms, this means researchers and businesses can connect, test and refine clean-energy systems in a controlled outdoor setting, helping them understand how technologies perform before they are deployed more widely.
One of the technologies being demonstrated at the centre is Loughborough’s battery-electrolyser, which combines two functions in one device: storing renewable electricity and using electricity to produce hydrogen from water. The approach could help make clean energy systems more flexible, particularly where renewable power is intermittent or difficult to store.
Its development has received £3 million as part of a wider £12 million programme of grant-funded research to scale the technology. A similar unit has been commissioned in Malawi, providing renewable electricity and producing hydrogen for clean cooking at a hospital. The technology is now seeking commercial support to scale further.
Around 90 guests from academia, industry, local government and partner organisations attended the centre’s opening.
Professor Dan Parsons, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Loughborough University, said: “The opening of the Zero Carbon Innovation Centre is about connecting complementary strengths. This centre is just the first step in that progress.”