University of Sheffield receives £3.5m gift for climate research
The University of Sheffield in the UK has received a £3.5 million gift from the Grantham Foundation to support climate research, train future sustainability leaders and influence global climate policy.
The funding will support the University’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, an interdisciplinary research centre focused on addressing major sustainability challenges. The centre is already working on projects ranging from reducing the need for single-use plastics to helping refugees grow their own food, while also seed-funding emerging sustainability research through grant programmes.
Since its inception in 2014, the Grantham Centre has trained more than 260 PhD students and enabled close to 400 researchers to build connections and collaborate with more than 170 partners. These include community groups, government agencies, international NGOs and multinational companies working together to promote a more sustainable future.
Research at the centre spans a wide range of sustainability challenges, including decarbonising the energy sector, combating deforestation and exploring ways to decouple human wellbeing from economic growth.
The centre’s Sustainability Assessment Team brings together specialists in environmental, economic and social impact assessment to better understand the effects of products, projects and processes in everyday life. The team has supported initiatives such as the development of flood adaptation systems to protect people and property, the design of eco cook bags to reduce fuel use and emissions during cooking, and the creation of what researchers describe as the world’s most sustainable cold room to cut greenhouse gas emissions and food waste in rural communities.
Meanwhile, the centre’s Green Watch Team examines sustainability claims in news stories, products and policies to identify cases of greenwashing and highlight genuine progress. Its work includes analysing whether capturing emissions at sea could enable low-carbon shipping, challenging misconceptions about the role of electrification in decarbonisation and assessing whether vertical farming could play a major role in the future of agriculture.
The new £3.5m investment will enable the centre to continue its work over the next decade while expanding its impact locally, nationally and globally.
Professor Tony Ryan, Co-Director of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield, said: “We are delighted that the Grantham Foundation has chosen to support our work. Our mission is to combine leading edge research with training the sustainability leaders of the future. As well as continuing to deliver the University’s commitment to sustainability research, we will be particularly focused on the de-fossilisation of everyone’s lives and driving down global resource consumption. We will continue to call out greenwashing and greenwishing wherever we see it, without fear or favour.”
Established in 2014, the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures is a partnership between the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and the University of Sheffield. Founded in 1997 by Sheffield alumnus Jeremy Grantham and his wife Hannelore, the Grantham Foundation focuses on protecting and conserving the natural environment.
The foundation promotes new science, innovative thinking and public advocacy as central pillars of its work. Guided by these principles, the Grantham Centre conducts interdisciplinary research aimed at demonstrating practical solutions to climate change through collaboration between academia, business, policy and the voluntary sector.
Jeremy Grantham said: “We are proud to be able to support the University of Sheffield in facing and finding real solutions to climate change. Humanity is currently on an unsustainable path and it will require all of our best efforts to save ourselves. The work done at Sheffield has already been invaluable in this fight.”
Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: “At the University of Sheffield, we are deeply committed to addressing the global climate challenge. Working with Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham is a great privilege and their latest gift is testament to the strength of our partnership. Thanks to this shared vision, the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures will continue to develop the next generation of sustainability leaders, turning pioneering research into real-world impact.”
From summer 2026, the Grantham Centre will enter a new phase supported by the investment. The funding will allow the centre to continue advancing sustainability research, training and policy engagement while transitioning to a more sustainable long-term funding model.