SME Knowledge Exchange opportunities with the SRI

Do you work in a Small or Medium-sized Enterprise (SME)? Would your company benefit from expert input in relation to:

• Nature-based Solutions and Green Infrastructure?

• Conservation Ecology?

• Resource Management & Efficiency?

• Adaptive Governance?

• Community Health & Well-being?

• Building Information Modeling?

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If so, there might be an opportunity to work with us on a Knowledge Exchange (KE) project.

The University of East London has secured Knowledge Exchange funding to promote sharing of UEL’s interdisciplinary, strategic research and to build pathways to impact for collaboration in addressing global challenges. As a leading research institute within the University, the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) is able to utilise this funding to develop research & consultancy knowledge exchange projects with SME partners. The funding can provide match-funding up to the full value of any KE contract brought into the university, so can double your money for product development and process efficiency support from us.

We have a diversity of SME partners that we already work with, but there are opportunities to develop many more new and innovative partnerships.

Here are some examples of the support that we have already provided:

Developing Standards for Green Roofs

The SRI has worked closely with the Green Roof Organisation (GRO) and the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI)  developing testing protocols and characteristic parameters for green roof substrates/growing media. This engineered ‘soil’ is fundamental to the success of a green roof as it supports the establishment and health of the vegetation layer. The types of plant species desired for the roof will determine the type of substrate required – therefore understanding the properties of the growing media is vital for making the right choice. Currently there are no standard methodologies of testing for important characteristics such as pH, water retention, nutrient content or particle size distribution. SRI’s green roof research has directly fed into GRO’s work on an updated GRO Code of practice, whereby test procedures have been clarified and made accessible to industry. This will make a huge impact on the quality assurance of growing media products for the green roof market place, and weed-out the sale of substandard materials.

Figure 1. SRI green roof research at Barking Riverside.

Critical design review for a Nature-based Solution regeneration project in Tbilisi, Georgia

The SRI have been working with Geographic (GIS and RS Consulting Centre) providing critical review and expert input into urban greenspace design and nature-based solution concepts to feed into their regeneration proposal for the culturally significant internal gardens of Aghmashenebeli, Tbilisi, Georgia. The SRI convened a design review panel of green infrastructure and nature-based solution experts from within the institute to provide input in relation to green infrastructure design for biodiversity and multifunctionality, socially inclusive urban planning, and landscape design to form a design review panel.

The panel was able to:

• review the urban design concepts detailed in the outline plans;

• provide details of global examples of nature-based solutions (NBS) that might be appropriate for the gardens of Aghmashenebeli regeneration;

• Suggest examples of good practice for nature-base solution design and delivery (e.g. locally attuned and multifunctional planting lists, environmental good practice and socially-sensitive design).

  
  

The design review panel was able to provide evidence that would strengthen Geographic’s regeneration proposal, drawing on expertise developed in the EU FP7 and H2020 projects TURAS (Transitioning towards Urban Resilience and Sustainability) and CONNECTING Nature.

Figure 2. Nature-based Solution report for the Aghmashenebeli Avenue regeneration project, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Developing products from waste with Tate and Lyle

The SRI has recently completed a consultancy R&D project with Tate and Lyle, investigating the potential for taking waste from the sugar refinery process and turning it into a useable product. The SRI developed an innovative lightweight growing medium by combining Tate and Lyle’s waste with that from our own university campus.

The substrate developed was then used to set up a plant growing trial experiment at UEL’s Docklands campus which was monitored for around 3 months to assess growth response. Various ratios of the produced aggregate and organics were developed and placed in different plots and compared to an industry standard control. As the plants grew so well on the recycled material, the trial plots were also subjected to a water stress experiment for 6 weeks – results were astounding with excellent survival of plants despite the lack of watering. These results indicate that there might be further scope for investigating the potential of this material for commercial growth applications including for use as a substrate on green roofs.

Figure 3. Growth trials on the Tate and Lyle lightweight aggregate from waste project.

A new approach to farming: win-win with wetlands

Wetland soils are the UK’s largest soil-carbon store, much more than all the carbon stored in the UK’s vegetation. When used for traditional ‘dryland’ agriculture the soils can suffer from long-term shrinkage and oxidation leading to carbon loss. For some time now the SRI has been working with a number of partners to pursue the possibility of developing new forms of agriculture – ‘wetland farming’, or ‘paludiculture’ for such areas.

Building from this original knowledge exchange, a multi-partner team consisting of SME, industry, academic and NGO partners, was able to secure Innovate UK funding to up-scale this research programme. The partnership is now trialing a range of potential wetland farming approaches.  This new form of farming offers the potential to prevent loss of wetland soils, retaining their considerable carbon store and reducing flood risk, while at the same time generating a range of new agricultural products.

Figure 4. Agriculture on fen soils. Drained peat soils shrink at a rate of around 1 cm/year and release up to 30 tonnes of CO2-eq per hectare per year.

If you are interested in exploring potential SME Knowledge Exchange opportunities with the SRI please get in touch with either Stuart Connop or Chloe Molineux and we can put you in touch with the best member of our team to help.

By Dr Stuart Connop