IIPP’s missions part of Mexico’s pathbreaking £7.8m sustainable energy programme

The Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) is one of a number of selected partners for the UK consortium of the £7.8m Mexico-UK strategic alliance on energy sustainability – Mexico’s largest cooperation with the UK on clean energy research.  

Working closely with SENER and CONACYT, IIPP will develop and apply its research in innovation, industrial policy, green finance and renewable energy on the ground. This will assist with collaboration on the project as well as the investigation of potential for institutional change in the Mexican public and private sector. The work will include cross-sector participatory workshops and high-profile policy engagement, working with a regional research and delivery partner − the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico City.

Starting in 2019, the three-year project is based on mission-oriented innovation projects in Mexico designed to address the societal challenge of energy transition and climate change. As a key tenet of IIPP’s research and practitioner-focused work, missions offer a way of framing challenges − such as those addressed in the United Nations Development Programme's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) − into solvable problems that have concrete long-term targets which require cross sectoral collaborations, as well as partnerships between public, private and voluntary sector actors.

The aim of mission-oriented approaches is to achieve sustainable, inclusive and innovation-led economic growth. IIPP’s mission-led frameworks are currently recognised and implemented within high-level arenas including the UK’s Industrial Strategy, the Grand Challenges approach, the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research programme, and plans for a Scottish National Investment Bank, to be launched by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2019.

Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, Mexico’s Minister of Energy, attended an MoU signing in November, alongside Professor Tadj Oreszczyn of The Bartlett − UCL's faculty of the built environment − where IIPP is based, and Dr Gabriela Dutrénit Bielous of UNAM. UCL is joined by London-based institutions Imperial College and the London School of Economics (LSE) as partners in the programme.

Image from left to right: Ian Hamilton, UCL Energy Institute; Corin Roberston, British Ambassador to Mexico; Nelson Mojarro, SENER; Tadj Oreszczyn, UCL Energy Institute