ECO-I North West - Opening up the expertise, equipment and resource of the region’s leading universities

Company Profile The Centre for Global Eco-Innovation was established in 2012 based on the University’s pioneering decision to place its world-class environmental research at the heart of driving innovation for Clean and Sustainable Growth. Their most recent initiative, Eco-I North West, brings together expertise from six UK universities to empower businesses across the North-West to transition to sustainable solutions. The Project University-industry collaboration fosters huge potential to address key sustainability issues. However much of this potential has yet to be realised. This project aims to analyse university- industry partnerships and their wider impacts in order to rethink the ways that we evaluate and monitor sustainability collaborations. Using Eco-I North West as an example enables an in-depth investigation into how research can be communicated effectively and successfully implemented into real-world impact. Through working with researchers, businesses and wider stakeholders across the Eco-I NW initiative, this project aims to identify key opportunities which can be applied to wider projects, improving existing collaborations and helping to fulfil the potential of university-industry collaboration. Cathy Olphin Cathy first worked with the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation as an intern identifying mechanisms to improve the sustainability of Lancaster’s market traders. She has since graduated from Lancaster University with First Class Honours in Natural Sciences and is now looking to apply her skillset to the social sciences. Academic Supervisors Dr Joanne Larty Prof David Tyfield Eco-I North West