Our group welcomes opportunities to collaborate which translate research into practical, system-level solutions for sustainable water and energy systems.
This page provides an overview of ways the NEWP Lab approaches the development of collaborative projects and can contribute to sustainability conversations across industrial and academic research communities. We value partnerships across academic and industrial sectors which advance our group’s aims to accelerate applied solutions and connect theory with practice for our students at scale. Learn more about community engagement, industrial partnerships, and academic collaboration here.
For prospective students, please see our opportunities page.
Community Engagement:
Invite a Speaker
Talks and lecture forums provide opportunities to translate research into approachable questions, community discussion, and actionable insight.
Members of our group are available to contribute talks and seminars which draw on our work in sustainable systems to seminars, workshops, conferences, and invited lecture series.* We are able to engage across a variety of forums to connect technical developments in areas including power systems, energy storage, industrial decarbonization, and wastewater valorization to real-world applications. These engagements are designed to spark collaborations, inform decision-making, and guide sustainable system design. If our expertise can be of use, inquiries are always welcome.
*Note: postgraduate student availability subject to their own discretion and availability.
Industrial Partnerships
Like other groups in the IfM, the NEWP Lab values collaborative projects and dialogue with industry partners.
These collaborations identify pressing operational challenges and help IfM researchers develop solutions which are robust, economically viable, scalable, and sustainable in practice. Our group offers several pathways for involvement and collaboration, and we are always excited by new inquiries. Read on for an overview of how your company or organisation can get involved.
Sustainable Manufacturing & the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) Programme
Industrial partnerships facilitate hands-on research opportunities for third and fourth year students in the University of Cambridge’s Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) programme to the benefit of the companies that host their research projects.
We value opportunities for industry voices to speak directly to students taking Dr. Cooper’s module of the Sustainable Manufacturing (MET IIB (4th year) course, as well as the (3rd year) METIIA course, which brings MET students directly into industrial settings for site visits. Supported by both academic and industrial mentorship, MET students work with companies to identify, jointly define, and address concrete challenges in sustainable infrastructure which our work as engineers can help address.
The importance of industrial dialogue
These course-based industrial projects connect engineering theory with real-world challenges in energy systems, electrification, and industrial decarbonization, preparing students to contribute to the transition toward resilient, low-carbon infrastructure beyond graduation. Projects are structured to develop student skills in systems analysis, prioritize data-driven decision making and practical design, and place a strong emphasis on energy and infrastructure applications which respond to modern grid and industrial needs.
Company dialogue allows students to develop projects which meet and respond to intricate sustainability issues with comprehensive solutions, helping them better problematize challenges related to energy efficiency, process optimization, electrification pathways, and systems integration in complex operational environments. These opportunities produce scholarship and experience which is applicable across a variety of sectors, building our students’ resilience in translating engineering analysis into actionable solutions for real-world communities which depend on energy and infrastructure systems, often, forming lasting relationships between students and companies.
Interested in hosting a student project or site visit?
Help our students learn about industrial sustainability. Tell us about the sustainability challenges you face.
Postgraduate research collaboration
The IfM has a robust history of recent projects which have included industry partners such as Siemens, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, and Land Rover, focusing on challenges in automation, advanced manufacturing, and operational efficiency with direct relevance to energy-intensive systems and electrified infrastructure.
Communication foregrounds our approach to industrial relationships. We benefit from the support of IfM Engage to build relationships around research questions, allowing companies to confidently bring forward real challenges, and postgraduate students to engage them directly, supporting research that is grounded in practice and analytically rigorous.
These approaches ensure that findings and data relationships are directly relevant to industrial decision-making and policy implementation. We prioritize partnerships that provide access to operational data and context, enabling work which improves industrial sustainability in view of complete systems. Towards these goals, student approaches have prioritized attention to energy resilience, reducing the carbon footprints and wasted materials in supply chains by attending water-energy efficiency using modeling, experimentation, design and data audits.
The NEWP group welcomes dialogue with industry partners interested in co-developing projects that deliver practical insights, improved system performance, and scalable pathways for energy and industrial transformation.
Start the conversation.
Academic Collaboration
Our group welcomes collaboration with academic colleagues across disciplines who share an interest in advancing sustainable water and energy systems.
We are open to co-developing research projects and collaborative grant writing, contributing to workshops and collaborative networks, and working jointly on publications. We value open exchange, critical engagement, and participation in forums for interdisciplinary dialogue and are always keen to develop ideas through institutional collaboration.
We welcome partnerships with academic colleagues across disciplines who share our vision for integrated, sustainable infrastructure solutions which promote critical exchange and innovation in energy-water sustainability research.
Please contact us to arrange a meeting if you would like to discuss written or academic collaboration.
Contact our group
If you are interested in industrial collaboration, funding a doctoral project, academic partnership, or requesting an invited talk, please initiate a conversation:
nc646 [at] cam [dot] ac [dot] uk
For prospective students, please see our opportunities page.
Newp Lab 