During a visit to groundbreaking sustainability projects at the University of Cambridge on 31 March, The Prince of Wales met with experts and practitioners from all sectors and disciplines working together to solve the world’s biggest problems.
Achieving an aviation sector with no climate impact is one of society’s biggest challenges. Solving it will require a complex combination of technology, business, human behaviour, and policy. We have assembled a world class team of academics and industry experts to take on this challenge.
Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Laboratory
HRH The Prince of Wales visited the University’s Whittle Laboratory to see groundbreaking work hosted there on how to accelerate the transition to sustainable aviation.
He was joined by Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Kwasi Kwarteng and key figures from the aviation sector, including business and government representatives, to see both cutting-edge, zero-emission technology under development and a new global whole-system model of the aviation sector developed by the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA) — an industry-academic initiative started two years ago by a challenge from The Prince of Wales for Cambridge to accelerate the transition towards sustainable flight. The AIA is led by The Whittle Laboratory and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL).
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said:
“We are determined to seize the economic opportunities of the global shift to greener aviation technologies, which will help to secure growth and thousands of jobs across the country. That is why just this week we have announced record levels of government funding for our Aerospace Technology Institute R&D programme.
"It has been fantastic to accompany HRH the Prince of Wales on a visit to one of our country’s great seats of learning to discover more about some of the incredible new zero-emission technologies that are currently under development at the world-class Whittle Laboratory.”
The AIA, led by @cisl_cambridge and @whittlelab, has brought together a team of 60+ industry and academia experts to create a whole system model of the aviation sector. This evidence-based tool will help guide decisions on the future of aviation #AchievingZero @ClarenceHouse pic.twitter.com/EYpcd43QSg
— Aviation Impact Accelerator (@AIAZero) March 31, 2022
During the event, HRH was introduced to the latest developments on a planned new Whittle Laboratory building, currently under development. This new site would provide facilities for rapid technology development, cutting the time to develop technologies from years to months and act as a hub for the Aviation Impact Accelerator, a global network of experts working to provide evidence-based insights to unlock system-wide change. By bringing together multi-disciplinary global expertise from industry and academia this new hub will accelerate the aviation sector towards a climate-neutral future and help sustain the UK as a leader in aviation innovation.
“Achieving an aviation sector with no climate impact is one of society’s biggest challenges. Solving it will require a complex combination of technology, business, human behaviour, and policy. We have assembled a world class team of academics and industry experts to take on this challenge.”
— Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Laboratory
