The UK’s net zero challenge has long been framed as a knowledge problem. It’s one that requires new technologies, deeper insight, and scientific breakthroughs.
Universities have risen to that challenge, developing world-leading expertise that contributes directly to decarbonisation. The government’s industrial strategy explicitly sets the challenge for us to become a clean energy innovation superpower, but what if the real barrier to achieving this is not what we know, but how effectively we connect and use what already exists?
Connection issues
For many businesses, policymakers and investors, identifying the right expertise – and the right people – is a difficult task. Expertise is distributed across institutions, departments, research centres and disciplines, making it difficult to navigate.
That matters because innovation relies on connections. The “triple helix” relationship between universities, industry, and government only functions when expertise can be found and brought together. Expertise that cannot be discovered cannot be deployed.
As the net zero agenda moves from ambition to delivery, that gap becomes more consequential.
Recent discussions, including work by the Higher Education Policy Institute on collaboration platforms, suggest that this issue is beginning to emerge as a policy concern in its own right.
Wales offers a clear illustration of both the opportunity and the challenge. It combines a strong industrial heritage with a distinctive policy framework shaped by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.
It also has internationally recognised strengths in areas central to net zero, including hydrogen, nuclear, industrial decarbonisation, advanced manufacturing, environmental science and social research, and has benefited from place-based investments into areas across Wales including the Local Innovation Partnership Fund; SWITCH to Net Zero Buildings; Launchpad; Freeports; and through the creation of industrial decarbonisation clusters in north and south Wales.
However, the full value of these significant investments depends on something less visible: the ability to connect them with the breadth of expertise across the nation’s universities. Without this, opportunities for innovation, collaboration and economic growth risk being fragmented or missed altogether.
Who you gonna call?
If we are serious about building innovation-led clusters and accelerating the transition to net zero, we need to treat discoverability as a core component of the system rather than an afterthought.
This is the rationale behind the development of a new Wales-wide net zero expertise platform, launched by the Wales Innovation Network.
This online tool helps answer the basic question often asked by government and industry – who has the right knowledge to help me?
Users can explore strengths by institution, research centre, and thematic net zero capability – making it easier to find relevant partners quickly, whether you’re shaping policy, planning investment, or building funding proposals.
For businesses, this knowledge provides a clearer and faster route to make innovative advancements that drive economic growth. For policymakers, it offers a more coherent picture of national capability. For academics, it opens up new pathways to collaboration and impact across institutions and sectors.
Crucially, it also makes interdisciplinary connections more visible, helping users to identify not only technical expertise, but the wider knowledge needed to support implementation and adoption.
That last point matters more than it might seem. Net zero is not a purely technical challenge.
A hydrogen project, for example, brings together engineering excellence with regulatory insight, behavioural research, community engagement and public trust. In practice, these elements are often the difference between something that works in theory and something that actually gets built, supported and used.
The familiar “triple helix” of universities, industry, and government only gets you so far. Bringing in communities to the “quadruple helix” is an essential part of the process of shaping and sustaining change.
Connectivity is policy too
The importance of this initiative extends beyond Wales. It points to a broader principle that should shape higher education and innovation policy across the UK: collaborative infrastructure is not a “nice to have,” it is a strategic asset.
We are used to thinking about research infrastructure in physical terms – laboratories, equipment and facilities. These remain essential. But in a complex systems challenge like net zero, the infrastructure that connects knowledge across organisational and disciplinary boundaries is just as important. Without it, even the highest quality research struggles to translate into impact.
Investment tends to prioritise knowledge production over knowledge visibility. If universities are expected to play a central role in delivering economic growth, industrial strategy priorities and net zero ambitions, this imbalance will need to be addressed deliberately, through shared platforms, better data, and incentives that support collaboration across boundaries.
The transition to net zero will depend on more than excellent research; it’s vital that we implement effective integration between universities, businesses, governments and communities.
Reframing the challenge as one of connectivity sharpens the focus on what needs to change and highlights practical interventions – such as the new Welsh platform – that can accelerate progress.
If we want innovation-led growth and meaningful progress towards net zero goals, we must invest both in producing knowledge, and in helping people find it and use it.
Wales helped power the industrial revolution. Today, it is helping to lead the decarbonisation revolution. By connecting the depth of expertise within our universities to the needs of industry and government, we have an opportunity to accelerate net zero, drive sustainable economic growth, and attract the investment that will shape the industries of the future.
