Research and Expertise

South West England is renowned for its beautiful environment and abundant natural resources. Once a world center for tin and china clay mining it is now at the forefront of developing the latest environmental technologies from waste management to marine energy development.  
 
The region is home to many firsts in the environemtal technology sector including the UK's first commercial wind farm, the first commercial centralised anareobic digestion plant , the UK's first pryolysis plant and the world's first permanennt off-shore tidal energy turbine. 
 
University expertise is helping to ensure that the region is first for supporting the growth of the environment technologies industry through leading research and consultancy, high quality trianing and development, business focussed students and laboratories to renewable energy test beds. 
 
South West Universities have extensive expertise in Environment Technology (ET) and the level of skills in ET businesses is very high, with approximately 80% of ET copanies employing graduates and over 50% employing postgraduates.