The Regen Innovation Catalyst is a pilot project that aims to accelerate positive impact on the climate and environmental crisis through innovation.
It is supporting the development and de-risking of selected research-based solutions that have potential for impact at scale in the market, through a new Proof-of-Concept Fund.
An initial Proof-of-Concept Fund call was run in autumn 2025, with funding and support available to progress the commercial readiness of technologies, products, and services, in areas such as prototype testing, market engagement, and commercialisation strategy.
Three projects were awarded funding and support through the 2025/26 call:
Meanwhile, the pilot project aims to build a wider pipeline of promising climate & environment solutions and to signpost a growing community of academic innovators to training and support available from Edinburgh Innovations.
In doing so, we are delivering positive impact on climate & environmental challenges by building understanding of the support needed by innovators and creating the right conditions to de-risk and deploy promising solutions at scale.
The Regen Innovation Catalyst pilot is being delivered by Edinburgh Innovations, in collaboration with the Edinburgh Earth Initiative, and aims to support delivery of the University’s Regenerative Sustainability Strategy and Research & Innovation Strategy 2030.
DAC-Proto: Biochar-based Direct Air Capture Prototype
Professor Ondrej Masek, the School of GeoSciences.
Direct Air Capture (DAC) is one of the few options for addressing legacy and residual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere. In line with IPCC and the UK’s Net Zero Strategy, DAC could deliver 20–40 GtCO2/yr of removals by 2100, but current solutions are constrained by high energy demand, stability and scalability limits, and problematic end-of-life management.
Academics in the School of GeoSciences have developed a biomass-derived structured biochar that rapidly captures CO2 from ambient air, offering high capacity and selectivity, fast cycling and excellent cycling stability, modular scalability, and material circularity. A UK patent has been filed for the material and its preparation, which offers significant potential benefits for carbon removal and the transition to a circular economy.
The Regen Innovation Catalyst Proof of Concept Fund-supported DAC-Proto project will enable the scaling of a lab system into an energy-efficient demonstration prototype. The prototype will capture performance and cost data - with a goal of achieving CO2 removal costs below £100/t compared with current levels of conventional solutions of £300–800/tCO2 - to drive commercial translation of the solution in a range of potential contexts (e.g. large-scale DAC, CO2 supply for the food and drinks industry, sustainable buildings and cities, greenhouses and vertical farming, domestic settings).
High-temperature superconducting electrical winding demonstrator for offshore wind energy
Professor Markus Muller, the School of Engineering
Offshore wind energy in UK waters is forecast to produce 30GW of electricity by 2030. Wind turbine units with ratings of greater than 20 MW are being developed to accelerate installation rates. Such turbines are very large, with rotor blade diameters in the region of 250 m, and with direct drive electrical generators weighing more than 500 tons.
The mass of conventional direct drive generators is at the limit of existing installation techniques and has a negative impact on cost. Generator mass can only be reduced by increasing the amount or electrical current in the generator to increase the torque. Superconductors can achieve this by conducting electrical current 100-1000 times that of copper used in conventional generators.
Thanks to support from the Regen Innovation Catalyst Proof of Concept Fund, this project will demonstrate a novel superconducting electrical winding that minimises mass and material costs of direct drive generators for wind turbines greater than 20 MW.
Pre-commercial demonstrator for sustainable data centre infrastructure
Dr Giulio Santori, the School of Engineering.
The rapid expansion of data centres across the world is significantly increasing pressure on water and energy infrastructure. Data centres emit formidable amounts of low-grade heat below 50°C. All water input, and ~40% of the energy input, is required to maintain the design temperature of data centres, making cooling the largest driver of their water and energy consumption aside from computation.
The University of Edinburgh holds patented intellectual property on a technology developed by the School of Engineering staff, for purifying water from low-grade heat below 50°C. The project team is working with Edinburgh Innovations to commercialise the technology for use in data centre cooling.
Regen Innovation Catalyst Proof of Concept Fund support is enabling the team to design and test a module of a demonstrator, which follows on laboratory demonstration and de-risks technology commercialisation, early customer engagement, and investor readiness. Tests on a lab-scale device have proven to significantly reduce energy and water demand from the fast-growing global data centre sector.
