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Carbon Trust
Leading researchers, innovators, policymakers and funders gathered at the University of Oxford for the Ayrton-Oxford Academic Symposium, exploring how equitable global partnerships can accelerate clean energy innovation and expand access to affordable, reliable energy. Co-convened by the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund, the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Transforming Energy Access Learning Partnership (TEA-LP) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the symposium brought together expertise from across the clean energy ecosystem.
Discussions focused not only on technologies and investment, but on the partnerships needed to turn research into sustainable, locally relevant solutions. This reflects an approach at the heart of AfOx’s work: creating opportunities for African researchers and institutions to shape research agendas, build long-term collaborations and connect knowledge with pathways to impact.
The symposium opened with a keynote address from Professor Sir John Edmunds, Chief Scientific Adviser at the FCDO, who highlighted the Ayrton Fund’s role in developing research partnerships that bring together UK expertise with locally-led knowledge, innovation and experience.
The scale of the network demonstrates what international collaboration can make possible. Ayrton-supported innovations have improved clean energy access for 46 million people across emerging economies, leveraged more than £3 billion in public and private finance and supported more than 256,000 green jobs. Its network spans 100 countries, 78 universities and more than 840 innovators, academics and delivery partners.
Programmes represented within the wider Ayrton portfolio illustrate different dimensions of this collaborative approach. The Transforming Energy Access Learning Partnership works with more than 30 universities across Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands to develop clean energy expertise and research capacity. The TEA@SUNRISE network connects more than 400 members across 40 countries and 80 universities, while initiatives including the Faraday Institution, Climate Compatible Growth, Energy Catalyst and ZE-Gen connect research, innovation and industry to help move promising ideas towards practical application.
AfOx aim of facilitating genuinely equitable, interdisciplinary and cross sectoral partnerships with colleagues and institutions across the African continent was reflected across discussions at the symposium. The themes of the symposium connect with the work and ambitions of African scholars and fellows within the AfOx community.
As Dr Morategi Kale, Career Transitions Programme Manager at AfOx said “It was wonderful to be part of these two days of discussions about how we can deliver inclusive global energy transition. As we had hoped across the two days of the symposium, we saw collaborations being built between researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, funders, development financiers and others.”
Mercy Masanga, a Mastercard Foundation Scholar and graduate of Oxford’s MSc in Energy Systems, attended the symposium. Her work explores how clean energy solutions including renewable energy and clean cooking solutions can translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives. Her Clean Energy For All (CEFA) initiative was recognised through Oxford’s All-Innovate programme and has received support from the Carbon Trust. More recently, through AfOx’s Ubuntu Transition Programme during which she worked with Greenage Technologes in Nigeria, she has developed her technical expertise into approaches focused on implementing renewable energy solutions and addressing clean cooking challenges in African contexts.
Her research highlights an important dimension of equitable energy transitions: moving beyond energy demand alone to consider the services energy makes possible, including cooking, lighting and mobility. It is an approach that places communities and development outcomes alongside technology when thinking about the transition to cleaner energy.
Faisal Elfaki a Mastercard Foundation Scholar and graduate of Oxford’s MSc in Energy Systems, also attended the symposium. He is currently working on the SuRide initiative which seeks to build Sudan's first integrated electric mobility ecosystem for two- and three-wheelers. Rather than importing finished vehicles, SuRide is developing solutions adapted to Sudan's conditions including heat, dust, road quality, load patterns and power availability. By doing this it will builds local capability through in-country R&D, local parts manufacturing and assembly, and the training of technicians and operators.
SuRide vision is a Sudan where transport runs on locally generated clean energy, and where the vehicles, the skills and the infrastructure behind it are built at home rather than imported. Fuel in Sudan has become both expensive and unreliable. For the riders, it is the largest cost standing between a day's work and a day's income. Going electric cuts that operating cost substantially (by 20 - 50%), depending on route and usage. But the vehicles themselves remain out of reach, which is why SuRide offers them on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Faisal said: "Africa's energy future is being designed right now. I was particularly encouraged by the focus at the Ayrton Oxford symposium on how we can design this transition from on the ground in Africa."
Current AfOx Fellow Dr Joseph Asare’s work focuses on developing flexible photovoltaic cells to enable a wider range of materials to produce solar power. The solution he is developing is a low-cost, resilient solar solutions designed for off-grid applications. His research is vital for Africa’s development, as it provides the scientific framework for affordable renewable energy systems that can withstand local environmental conditions. Alongside his academic work Dr Asare has started a company with his students which is focused on how enabling rural solar electrification can drive economic growth.
Caroline Ward, Senior International Funds Manager at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), said: “The Ayrton-Oxford Academic Symposium provides an important opportunity to strengthen collaboration between universities, innovators, funders and policymakers across the UK and partner countries. By bringing together global experts, the symposium will help build equitable partnerships, attract investment and accelerate the development of clean energy solutions that support economic growth and climate resilience.”
Professor Kevin Marsh, Director of the Africa Oxford Initiative, said: African researchers will play a critical role in developing solutions which tackle global challenges such as energy access and green transitions. Translating this research into impact on the ground requires interdisciplinary collaboration between research, innovation and investment. This approach underpins the work the Africa Oxford Initiative has done over the past ten years supporting hundreds of outstanding African researchers, scholars and innovators.
Jiska de Groot, Project Lead at the Transforming Energy Access-Learning Partnership (TEA LP), said: “The TEA Learning Partnership is excited to co-convene this symposium, and has been TEA’s first university-level capacity building programme since 2019. For us, equitable partnership means African, Asian and Indo-Pacific researchers leading their own, locally relevant, research agendas, training the next generation of energy leaders inside their own institutions, and shaping how clean energy solutions get designed and implemented.”The symposium reinforced a shared message: delivering an inclusive global energy transition requires more than technological innovation. It requires sustained investment in people, institutions and equitable partnerships that enable researchers closest to the challenges to lead in defining and delivering solutions