University of Birmingham Case Study

The Project

‘Living Lab: Net Zero Carbon Lodges’ is one of the University’s flagship research and innovation projects.

This initiative promotes innovation, bringing together joint expertise between professional services, academics, and industry to transform five on-campus properties into unique zero- or low-carbon, fully functional, living lab houses.

The intention is to upgrade the buildings in partnership with a broad range of technologies, materials and construction partners to turn the five houses into showcase projects, which can be reproduced at scale.

The Brief

The University’s Director of Estates commissioned Innovation Gateway (IG) to manage the ideation process and lead an innovator engagement campaign for Living Lab: Net Zero Carbon Lodges (Phase 1).

The brief capitalised on IG’s wealth of experience working with climate innovators, drawing upon a database of 1,500+ IG-verified climate solutions to:

Engage climate innovators producing cutting-edge solutions to partner in the initiative.
Assess the quality of innovator engagement using a Matrix aligned with innovation best practice.
Deliver a Dragon’s Den-style in-person pitch event to evaluate innovators and potential partners.

Our Approach

In response to the brief we identified, designed and delivered a phased timeline of activities and outputs, which included:

Designed an innovator selection process.
Creating a marketing campaign engaging a targeted list of innovators via email and social media channels
Building an online submission process including web pages and application form.
Compiling data on all interested innovators and implemented IG’s 3-step innovator review process for shortlisting (initial review, formal assessment, shortlist).
Coordinating innovators and UoB at each stage of the in-person pitch event programme, which was set up and managed by IG.

Outcomes achieved:

Innovation Sourcing

41 innovators engaged from initial outreach.
24 innovators shortlisted for the Pitch Event.

Innovation Partners

13 innovators identified to be of significant interest from the Pitch Event.

Wider Partnerships

Identified funding opportunities with local organisations.
Evolving pipeline of Partners as the project develops.

University of Birmingham Testimonials

“So pleased with the progress , support and enthusiasm associated with this project to date. Many thanks Cressie and the Innovation Gateway team, Matt Beveridge, Matt Pumfrey and the super supportive UoB academics. Great things are about to happen – watch this space…”

Trevor Payne, Director of Estates

University of Birmingham

Following our innovator pitch event:

“It was fantastic to see the sheer range of innovation that companies are developing, and to explore the opportunity of how this could be integrated into the development of the Net Zero Lodges. The Energy Institute is looking forward to being able to work with some of these companies, joining up their innovation with our expertise on the campus and wider regional projects”

Prof. Martin Freer, Director of Birmingham Energy Insitute

University of Birmingham

Following our innovator pitch event:

“I arrived this morning thinking about innovation as technology, but I have left thinking about a much broader interpretation.”

Tim Packwood, IT Innovation Manager

University of Birmingham

“Initial engagement with the market has been extremely positive, ranging from global brands through to dynamic start-ups, and we have identified a variety of innovative products and services that we intend to trial and test at a number of the properties. We are super excited to share the learnings and outputs with our regional, national and international partners”

Matt Beveridge, Head of Innovation and Partnerships

University of Birmingham

Case Study

Outcomes achieved:

University of Birmingham Testimonials

Latest news from Innovation Gateway

HGVzero shortlisted for Logistics UK Partner of the Year Award!

Meet Innovation Gateway’s new team members!

We are finalists of the Unlock Net Zero Awards!

Get in touch today