Reef-UKC is delighted to announce that it has been invited by EPSRC to apply to the invitation-only Next Generation Supergen Hub funding call.
This prestigious opportunity represents a significant milestone for the UK cooling community. Supergen Hubs are strategic UKRI investments that bring together leading researchers, industry partners, policymakers and stakeholders to accelerate innovation and deployment in critical areas supporting the UK’s net zero transition.
The proposed Supergen Reef-UKC Hub for Sustainable Cooling aims to establish a national centre of excellence dedicated to accelerating renewable-powered and sustainable cooling solutions across the UK.
Funding Opportunity at a Glance
- Funding Available: £5.8 million (Full Economic Cost)
- Programme Duration: Up to 5 years
- Application Deadline: 3 November 2026
- Hub Start Date: 1 April 2027
Why Sustainable Cooling Matters
Cooling demand is growing rapidly across homes, healthcare, food cold chains, industrial processes, data centres and commercial buildings. Meeting this demand sustainably is essential to achieving net zero goals while ensuring energy security, resilience and economic growth.
The proposed Hub will address critical challenges including:
- Renewable-powered cooling technologies
- Smart cooling system integration
- Energy flexibility and demand management
- Cooling resilience under climate change
- Low-carbon cold chains
- Sustainable cooling for healthcare facilities
- Cooling solutions for data centres and digital infrastructure
- Deployment models that accelerate market adoption
Call for Industry and Stakeholder Partners
We are now seeking to expand our stakeholder network and welcome participation from:
- Industry partners
- Technology providers
- Energy companies
- Local authorities
- Healthcare organisations
- Food and cold chain businesses
- Building owners and operators
- Data centre operators
- Professional bodies
- Policymakers and regulators
- Investors and innovation organisations
Stakeholders will have the opportunity to help shape the Hub’s research priorities and ensure the programme delivers solutions aligned with real-world challenges and market needs.
How You Can Support
Partners can contribute in a variety of ways, including:
- Staff time and expertise
- Access to operational data
- Case studies
- Demonstration sites
- Workshop participation
- Advisory board membership
- Industry secondments
- Access to facilities and equipment
- Technical guidance and validation
Benefits of Participating
By joining the proposed Supergen Reef-UKC Hub, stakeholders will gain:
- Visibility and networking: Stakeholders can showcase their research, products, services, operational challenges and innovation needs through Hub networking, dissemination and engagement activities.
- Access to new knowledge and tools: The Hub will generate state-of-the-art knowledge, integrated system architectures, machine-learning control/design methods, and techno-economic, business and RoI models for renewable-powered cooling.
- Direct influence on research priorities: Stakeholder input through questionnaires, data sharing, case studies, site access and expert feedback will help shape research questions, validate methods and ensure outputs respond to real-world needs.
- Practical innovation outcomes: Hub outputs will support new consultancy services, product development, system design methods, deployment strategies and evidence-based investment decisions across cooling, heat pumps and renewable energy integration.
- Impact-focused delivery mechanisms: Activities such as seed funding, industry secondments, policy placements and professional-body engagement will be aligned with stakeholder needs and used to accelerate translation into practice.
- Influence on standards, policy and best practice: The Hub will provide evidence to professional bodies, policymakers and public-sector stakeholders to support updates to standards, codes, guidance and market-enabling frameworks.
- Mutual value exchange: Local authorities, industry, professional bodies and policymakers will inform the research programme, while receiving back validated evidence, tools and solutions to support decarbonisation, resilience and investment planning.
Contact Us
For further information, collaboration opportunities or to discuss how your organisation can contribute, please contact:
Durga Prasad
Project Manager, Reef-UKC
Aston University
d.prasad@aston.ac.uk
