SDU researcher wins YERUN Research Mobility Award
In 2025, Associate Professor Muhammad Tahir Ashraf from the Department of Green Technology at the Faculty of Engineering is among the recipients of the YERUN Research Mobility Awards.
He is working together with two researchers from Brunel University of London , Salman Masoudi Soltani and Paulina Quintanilla.
The project is about finding a smart way to make sustainable fuels and chemicals by combining two technologies: biological conversion and pyrolysis (a process where organic material is heated without oxygen).
The research focuses in particular on using gases from digestate to produce methane that can be used in the gas grid, and on improving the quality of biochar for industrial applications.
Closer collaboration
The YERUN Research Mobility Awards create closer collaboration between researchers across the YERUN network and increase the exchange of ideas among disciplines and across national borders. As part of this project, SDU will send samples of biochar for laboratory testing at Brunel University, and in addition, students will be exchanged between the two universities and workshops held at both SDU and Brunel.
In the 2024–2025 edition, several new initiatives were introduced in the YERUN Research Mobility Awards.
To strengthen partnerships, applications had to be submitted by groups of at least two researchers from different YERUN member universities.
Funding has been increased to support more ambitious projects. 10 prizes of €4,000 each were awarded.
The awards were open to researchers both early and midway through their careers, which allowed more researchers to participate.