The Foundation Industry Forum was held on the 16-17 October 2023 in Leeds. The report from this event, detailing the event's proceedings and outcomes, can now be downloaded by clicking on the thumbnail below. Our next Forum will be our "Final TransFIRe Celebration Event" which will be held on Wednesday 12th June at CMDC, Cranfield University. Registration is open now!
Last month TransFIRe brought together a wide range of industrial partners to offer them a chance to discuss and exchange information on the materials, waste and services that they have within their organisations and how these could potentially be used to supply another company as part of an ongoing agreement. TransFIRe has been helping the foundation industries (paper, cement, ceramics, metals, chemicals and glass) in the UK to collaborate to help tackle CO2 emissions and waste. The way that the products we use on a daily basis are produced tend to rely on established processes that utilise very expensive equipment and assets and often produce large amounts of waste. There is a huge demand for change in the way this is done in order to improve profitability and help become more sustainable. This Industrial Symbiosis Workshop, facilitated by International Synergies and project lead Dr Lampros Litos, enabled companies such [...]
On the 2 November 2022, the university partners of the Transfire team met up in Peterborough to discuss progress at the 18 month stage; half way through the 3 year project. It was great to meet up with everyone in person particularly as, as the project started during Covid, it has been harder than usual to get to know everyone on the project. Principal Investigator, Professor Mark Jolly, kicked off the day by welcoming everyone. It was great to have the tremendous industry expertise of our Transfire project and steering group Chairs Jon Bolton and Paul Booth CBE at the day with us. Jon was formerly Chair of British Steel and Director of Tata Steel and is currently Chair of the Materials Processing Institute. Paul has been a Director at ICI, has sat on many industry boards and is currently President of the Society for the Chemical Industry. Jon [...]
On 22 October, Mike Tharkoodin, TransFIRe Post Doctoral Research Associate, and I attended the Ethnic Minorities into Leadership Conference in London to gain insight on best practice that we could apply to TransFIRe Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Formerly called the BAME into Leadership Conference, the overarching theme was: ‘The time for talking is over. Now is the time to act!’ In its 11th year, the focus of the conference is on empowering and enhancing the capabilities and leadership opportunities for ethnic minority civil servants. Over 400 attendees are given opportunities to address persistent challenges, barriers faced and develop solutions. An overview of the speakers is listed below and they all included their lived experiences to provide engaging and insightful sessions. Bernadette Thompson OBE, Associate Director of Inclusion for the Barts Health NHS Trust Examining the current landscape for Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority leaders - Examining the [...]
The UK Metal EXPO 2022 UK Metals Expo | 14-15 September 2022 | NEC was held in Birmingham a few days after the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The expo was the first time the entire sector was both represented and brought together entirely at the NEC, Birmingham; from primary metal manufacture, supply chain management, processing metals, fabrication, surface coatings and recycling along with UKRI, BEIS, industry experts, leading vendors, innovators and academic researchers Jo Stansfield, Mike Thakoordin and I, EDI - Transfire (transfire-hub.org) spent most of the day speaking to exhibitors and attending talks at the Skills, Training & Strategy Theatre, which had an overarching agenda on: ‘Workforce of the Future – The need for green skills, digital skills & attracting talent’. At the ‘Future skills, upskilling and reskilling: Lifelong learning in the metal sector’ talk, we listened to the UK Metal Council panel who [...]
