University of Nottingham is a research-led University in the United Kingdom with annual research awards totalling €190 million. It has the largest number of top-rated (by Higher Education Funding Council) Departments in UK Universities for research following Cambridge, Oxford and London Universities.

It is the home of many ground breaking discoveries and inventions such as magnetic resonance imaging, and is also the 4th ranked UK University for research grant income from private industry.

The University of Nottingham has participated extensively in over 300 EU FP7 funded research projects and the Department of Architecture and Built Environment (DABE) has conducted over 35 EU FP7 research projects.

UoN has been working on green retrofits projects funded by the UK government and industry. The University has constructed six unique low/zero carbon Creative Energy Homes on the University Park Campus as well as several low-carbon buildings.  The department has a long record in research projects over the past years investigating phase change materials-based thermal energy storage systems in various applications in addition to micro-cogeneration systems for heat and power employing different technologies.

A thermal conductivity test carried out at the department on microencapsulated phase change materials, to be used as a cooling storage and transport medium in a solar-driven air conditioning system. In addition, the UoN has recently developed and tested a novel building façade driven by solar energy, providing heating or cooling by coupling a solar air collector and a PCM storage layer. The system could be used for residential and commercial buildings (e.g. school buildings/offices), providing heating and cooling for the living space. It has been tested under real-life context in the creative energy homes at University of Nottingham.

Professor Saffa Riffat, the academic investigator of the proposed project, is a Chair in Sustainable Energy and the Head of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment.

Professor Saffa Riffat is one of the world’s leading experts in low carbon technologies and sustainable buildings and has published over 500 refereed papers in these topics and secured over £35 million research grants. He has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Oxford and Honorary/Distinguished Professorships by 10 universities. He is the Chief-Editor of the International Journal of Low Carbon Technologies and International Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society.