Researchers from Scottish universities are to lead new projects to accelerate the growth of the UK’s green economy, supported by millions in funding from the UK Government.

The University of Glasgow will lead the £5.5 million Responsible Electronics and Circular Technologies Centre (REACT), while the University of Edinburgh will host the £5.6 million Centre for Net-Zero High Density Buildings.

REACT will work to establish Scotland’s central belt as a global leader in sustainable electronics manufacturing and design, while the Centre for Net-Zero High Density Buildings will aim to significantly reduce carbon emissions from densely packed buildings in UK cities and towns.

The centres are part of five newly announced across the UK, receiving a portion of UK Research and Innovation’s £25 million Accelerating the Green Economy programme, an initiative aiming to boost research and innovation efforts to help the UK achieve its net zero target by 2050.

REACT will be the UK’s first sustainable electronics centre, with hopes it will drive the transition to net-zero electronics, and address environmental and economic challenges faced by the industry, including the large amounts of waste electronic equipment, high emissions across the supply chain, and widespread use of critical raw materials with limited reserves.

Scotland is home to over 130 companies in the electronics sector, with 10,300 employees contributing to an annual turnover of more than £2.8 billion, making it vital to both regional and national economies. 

However, with manufacturers, buyers, and the government increasingly demanding suppliers to commit to decarbonising their products, pressure on the industry is mounting.

The University of Glasgow will lead and coordinate the four-year REACT project in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, and The Compound Semiconductor Catapult in Scotland to investigate these challenges, while collaborating with SMEs in the region to develop demonstrators, provide skills training, and create market-led solutions.

University of Glasgow’s Professor Jeff Kettle, who will lead and coordinate the REACT Hub, said: “The Centre will unite leading researchers to drive the industry’s transition toward a net-zero economy. Its primary focus will be developing solutions to reduce electronic waste, minimise reliance on critical raw materials, and reduce carbon footprints.”

The Centre for Net-Zero High Density Buildings, meanwhile, will investigate how densely-populated urban areas can be made more energy-efficient. 

Led by academics from the University of Edinburgh and supported by the universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde, West of Scotland, and Edinburgh Napier University, it will test new prototypes and retrofit buildings with low-carbon materials, heating and cooling systems, and energy storage technologies.

Based at Edinburgh’s newly opened Futures Institute, the Centre will primarily target buildings housing some of the UK’s lowest earners, including public sector and key workers, who often spend a disproportionate amount of their income on energy bills.

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Among the approaches being explored are sustainable construction methods, and natural insulation materials derived from plants like hemp and sisal, as well as low-carbon heating technologies that are reportedly more energy-efficient than traditional boilers and significantly faster to install than heat pumps.

The initiative will use Edinburgh and Glasgow as testing grounds, given their high proportion of flats and diverse building stock, with researchers estimating that these two city regions may require around £35 billion in investment for low-carbon retrofitting and construction over the next 25 years to achieve net-zero goals.

Dr Kate Hamer, UKRI programme director, Building a Green Future, said: “Transitioning to a sustainable green economy is a win-win for all; it creates new jobs, new partnerships and new industries.”