Sustainability project receives £1.9m boost as London and Durham partnership launches

A multi-million pound North East and London sustainability partnership has been awarded nearly £2m of funding from the government.

The ANTENNA project, a collaboration between Durham University, Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Imperial College London, has received £1.9m funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Prosperity Partnerships fund.

The project, which will run for nearly five years, aims to help reinvent cleaning products to be more eco-friendly and meet sustainability challenges.

The partnership plans to develop new tools that could transform the design of cleaning products to help make them more sustainable.

Professor Mark Wilson of Durham University’s Department of Chemistry, principal investigator on the project, commented: “Global sustainability challenges demand transformative solutions.

“This project will use our expert understanding of the science and engineering behind household cleaning products to create experimental and theoretical tools that can unlock new formulations to help consumers use less water and energy whilst still achieving excellent results – enabling them to be both clean, and green.”

Victor Aguilar, P&G’s chief research, development and innovation officer, said: “This partnership will lead the cutting-edge science to enable P&G’s global product innovation strategy and delight consumers in a way that not only solves their needs and pain points but creates irresistibly superior experiences when they use them.

“The partnership builds on the North East UK innovation ecosystem and is in line with P&G’s Ambition 2030 environment sustainability framework which is ensuring we grow responsibly, make our business more resilient, and better serve consumer needs in a resource-constrained world.”

Professor João Cabral of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London said: “This partnership spans the fundamentals of the molecular-scale, dynamic organisation of soft materials to the macroscopic performance of ubiquitous consumer products.

“We are excited to be working with Durham University. This award builds on Imperial’s strong and long-lasting partnership with P&G, with collaborations in areas as diverse as consumer products with superior physical stability and performance to leveraging the leadership expertise of the Imperial Business School to empower P&G’s R&D scientists and managers.

“By employing innovative molecular engineering approaches to address societal challenges such as water scarcity and sustainable manufacturing, the ANTENNA project also strongly aligns with Imperial’s research strategy.”