Celebrating the next phase of the Priestley Centre
Date
Just over 8 years ago the Priestley Centre opened its doors, with an aim to bring together climate experts from across the University of Leeds to work collaboratively and deliver a wide variety of research and innovation projects.
Since then, we have grown from a team of 3 to a team of 12, with over 450 members, made up of University staff and students committed to climate research and tackling climate change. We have informed national and global climate policy, supported businesses to take steps towards a net zero future, and supported the next generation of climate researchers. And in June 2024, we celebrated becoming first of the University of Leeds’ Futures Institutes – the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures.
Today marks the beginning of an exciting new era for impactful action by the University and its stakeholders on climate change.
University of Leeds’ Futures Institutes have been developed with a focus on delivering research and education to address some of the most pressing global challenges. At Priestley, we bridge the gap between researchers, businesses, policymakers and other civil society to transform the groundbreaking climate research at Leeds into real-world impact.
Our celebration event gathered together the climate community from the University of Leeds and beyond and showcased some of this world-changing research. From Business to Computing, Politics to Environment, colleagues brought their research to life through demonstrations, models, and interactive games.
Outside the doors of the Refectory, our guests were greeted by a spectacular 9ft puppet created by Bev Adams, one of our Priestley Climate Scholars in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. After checking in, and making sure to pick up a few plant-based refreshments, our guests were then free to wander around the exhibition.
During his speech, Professor Hai-Sui Yu, Interim Vice-Chancellor, said “For climate, today marks the beginning of an exciting new era for impactful action by the University and its stakeholders on climate change.”
He went on to add “The importance of collaboration and research led action is evident, not only in global initiatives we engage with such as the United Nations Climate Change negotiations, but also much closer to home, in the important role that the Priestley Centre has taken in advising the development and reviewing the progress of the University’s sector-leading Climate Plan.”
This celebration, which served to highlight the breadth of climate expertise and extent of collaboration taking place across the University of Leeds and beyond was a living demonstration of the new Priestley Centre. Connecting experts with those requiring expertise, brokering relationships, and amplifying climate initiatives from across the University of Leeds, we are striving to tackle climate change, together.
Showcase gallery
Below is a snapshot of our celebration showcase. You can also find links and more information about all of the projects and initiatives in our event programme.
Gaia - a 9ft giant puppet built by postgraduate researcher Bev Adams as part of her research into Sustainable Puppetry Practices: Investigating the Communicative Efficacy of a Giant Climate Change Themed Puppet in Public Space.
The piano is an environment - An artistic intervention that positions the piano/pianist as an analogue for a natural ecosystem by introducing objects inside the piano’s mechanism that eventually make the pieces impossible to play.
Dreams of a Low Carbon Future - A real time artwork by James McKay to show Leeds as a positive, sustainable, zero carbon future society in 2074.
Poetry place - We paired University of Leeds poets Matthew Howard and Kate Simpson with Priestley Centre climate researchers to have a conversation to inspire a new poem.
Climate Action Training (CAT) - An e-learning masterclass designed to improve the carbon literacy levels of staff and students at the University developed in collaboration with the University of Leeds Business School.
Gair Wood - one of the most significant woodland creation projects in the North of England, with 66,000 trees planted in early 2023 as part of the wider University Climate Plan.
Geosolutions Leeds - a cross-disciplinary centre, supporting the refocusing of geoscience research to support the energy transition and deliver on net-zero goals.
The Sustainability Service - a team at the University of Leeds dedicated to helping support a more environmentally and socially sustainable University.
C-Capture – founded as a spin-out from the School of Chemistry. They shared a model of their carbon capture system with a live demonstration using human breath to produce CO2.
Sammie’s Flowers – based at Kiddal Quarry Farm, the Sustainable Flowers Project aims to encourage people to buy flowers grown on local farms, rather than flowers shipped from abroad.
Encouraging the use of sustainable transport through inclusive design - showcases a ‘game board’ used in the research process to help participants visualise how their journeys could be made with sustainable transport modes.
Feel for Food: Understanding mouthfeel to design sustainable protein food – their interactive game had participants testing the smoothness of different materials by rolling them down a board.
Global Food and Environment Institute (GFEI) - an interdisciplinary research community uniting academia, industry, and public policy.
University of Leeds Research Farm - work with academic and industry partners across the UK to co-develop high quality research programmes that address modern agricultural challenges.
Untangling cell walls for future climate-resilient crops - aims to address global concerns on food security, climate change and sustainable living.
Empowering the eco-anxious - a poster created by a student-led team at the University of Leeds, developed for the 2024 Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Gallery event at the UNFCCC Bonn Conference.
Indicators of Global Climate Change (IGCC) – provides an annual, peer-reviewed update of key climate indicators, building on established Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methodologies.
Envisioning Tomorrow: Climate stories from the Art Collection - using art works to facilitate discussion around the climate crisis.
Speculative Visions - combines art and AI as a participatory research and public engagement tool to facilitate grassrootsdriven visioning of climate-positive futures
Engagement & Outreach – the University of Leeds teams dedicated to sharing ideas, igniting curiosity, and paving the way for higher education in environmental studies.
Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission (YHCC) - works collaboratively with people from the public, private and civic sectors, including the region’s local and mayoral authorities, to drive ambitious climate action.
An ethnoclimatology of climate risk – a newly launched project working with Inuit communities across the Arctic to bring together science and Indigenous Knowledge to model how climate risk may change this century.
GENERATE: Creative approaches to building inclusive and climate resilient cities in Indonesia and Uganda - combines applied arts and social sciences to tackle inequalities that are exacerbating climate impacts.
UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI) - Hazard and vulnerability explorer tool from the national centre set up to accelerate the adoption and use of climate and environmental data and analytics by financial institutions.
Ice Club: From the top to the tap VR - following the journey of a single snowflake as it falls on the summit of Everest, through the Khumbu glacier, and down into the rivers that provide drinking water.
Seas of change - how cold seas and seafloor processes allow so much carbon to be absorbed from our atmosphere.
West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WYFLIP) – a programme to reduce the impact of flooding and climate change in the region.
Wetropolis Flood Investigator: Visualising extreme flooding events - a portable model with a weather machine leading to random rainfall onto a river landscape.
This celebration, which served to highlight the breadth of climate expertise and extent of collaboration taking place across the University of Leeds and beyond was a living demonstration of the new Priestley Centre. Connecting experts with those requiring expertise, brokering relationships, and amplifying climate initiatives from across the University of Leeds, we are striving to tackle climate change, together.