ECR Alumni Case Study – Chris Wiseall

What did you study at university?

I did a chemistry degree at the University of Nottingham – an integrated Master’s with a year in industry, which I spent at the British Geological Survey (BGS) on geochemistry. I then did my final year project trying to synthesise solar cell materials. It was about 8-9 months of work, and I got to about 7 milligrams of product at the end, which was a bit demoralizing, but I learnt a lot.

Where did your integrated Master’s lead you?

In the November of my final year of Uni, I’d just had interviews for some more typical graduate schemes when my dad died. He’d done a Physics PhD and it was one of those moments where I realised that perhaps I wasn’t destined to be an IT consultant, but should probably do something that interested and challenged me. So that, alongside the fact that my university tutor had a funded opportunity, led me to apply for a PhD. So, I ended up on – it’s a bit of a mouthful – The Carbon Capture and Storage and Cleaner Fossil Energy (CCSCFE) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), based at Nottingham, but in collaboration with Sheffield, Loughborough and Birmingham.

TERC – operating a small power turbine with carbon capture as part of the research involved with the CCSCFE CDT. Required operation of the turbine, monitoring of the capture facility, and sampling the solvents throughout operation.

What was your PhD in, and how long did that take?

It was actually an EngD (Engineering Doctorate) but it’s easier to say PhD as more people know what that is. It started in October 2015 and we were working with a sponsor company, focusing on measuring and modelling water solubility in dense-phase CO₂. So, how does dense phase or supercritical CO₂ behave? How much water can be absorbed by the system? What is the limit when liquid water condenses? What is the impact of impurities such as N₂ or H₂? It was a combination of lab work and computer modelling work.

Then in November 2015, a previous government cancelled the £1bn CCS Infrastructure Fund, which I think is fair to say was a surprise for industry and academia. That had a knock-on effect for my PhD as the sponsor company had less of a direct interest in the outcomes, understandably with there being less of a market expected in carbon capture. I continued with that work, but also developed another half of my PhD, not directly related to carbon capture but modelling and designing chemical and photochemical reactors. So yes, my PhD was a bit of a PhD of two halves.

Also, fortunately with the PhD, because it was a CDT, we basically did a Master’s worth of modules in the first year, not just focusing on carbon capture but on broader energy and climate change topics – including technical, financial and social issues. So, in that year, you learn a lot more around the topics before you really get into the proper research.

Another impact of the £1bn funding cancellation was me realising the importance of policy in delivering CCS. So, with the support of the CDT lead, Professor Colin Snape, and my supervisors (Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff and Professor Mike George) at Nottingham, I did a three-month internship at the National Assembly for Wales, or Senedd, through the UKRI Policy Internships scheme. I focused on climate change and environmental policy for the Senedd which gave me a much broader experience and skillset. I didn’t expect to end up writing reports on the red meat sector in Wales or researching bovine TB when I started my PhD, but that experience really helped when I eventually applied for jobs afterwards.

Chris at the National Assembly for Wales/Senedd during his UKRI Policy Internship

After those three months, I went back and finished my PhD a couple of years later. My viva was actually in the first week of lockdown in 2020, on Zoom or maybe Skype at the time, which was a bit strange. I’d decided by then that I probably didn’t want to continue in academia but wanted to still work in CCS.

How did you get into working in policy full time?

At one of the UKCCSRC ECR Winter Schools (2016, I think!), I’d heard a talk from Matthew Billson, who’d been seconded to the University of Sheffield from government. I kept in contact with him and reached out to have a chat. He outlined that, although there weren’t a huge number of jobs coming up in CCS at the time, if I did want to work in it, then I should get my foot in the door in the Civil Service and go from there.

So that’s what I did. I applied for a job and started working in Defra on air quality, carrying out analysis and supporting local authorities to deliver their clean air plans.  Covid hit about six weeks into that which was a big disruption, but at least in a professional sense provided an opportunity. I volunteered to help out on Covid-related work and was put on the Northern Ireland protocol around Brexit – slightly different to what I expected! But it was useful to learn a lot about policy across about 12 different environmental areas. So, I was just broadening my horizons and my skillsets applying all the key skills you develop in a PhD – structuring problems, initiative, asking the right questions, etc.

Towards the end of 2020, I was basically waiting for a CCS job to come up and Matthew had put me in contact with Will Lochhead, one of the BEIS CCS leads, to understand government plans for CCS and if any opportunities were coming down the track. A role came up on Civil Service Jobs at the end of 2020 and, after interview, I was lucky enough to be selected for that.

Visit to Boundary Dam as part of the IEAGHG’s Summer School at the University of Regina in 2023

It’s fascinating to see how you positioned yourself, and the way that your skills and your interests have come together. That waiting, putting yourself in the right place, ready for the right opportunity, is so important in CCS, isn’t it, because there are so many CCS jobs that don’t necessarily exist yet.

Yeah, I also think it highlights how you can make the most of the opportunities that conferences or events bring. I always think they’re worth going to, even if there isn’t something that’s exactly relevant to what you’re working on at the moment, because you will learn something new, might bump into somebody and have a chat with them, then who knows what will come of that. That’s the serendipity of conferences. It’s really hard to measure the impact of that kind of stuff, but I definitely think it’s very valuable.

We’ve touched on it already, but how did you engage with the UKCCSRC and in what ways?

I did a UKCCSRC ECR Winter School every year during the CDT, because that was part of their CCS provision – I might have even won a group presentation prize one year. Then, more recently, I’ve been coming along to the conferences. I’ve also been part of the Abstract Review Committee for the last two Knowledge Exchange Conferences. It’s interesting to see what research is going on out there.

What’s your current job?

I’ve done a few things in the CCUS programme since I joined in 2021. It was the beginning of February and we were all hands on deck getting the first cluster sequencing process up and running. I helped set up and deliver that over 2021 – it was a really intense summer, but we got to an announcement in October for the first set of clusters. My job has then followed that process through with project selection, and then that evolved into negotiations with projects, helping set up the negotiations and approach of the £1bn CCS Infrastructure Fund (CIF). The CIF kind of came full circle, with me ending up working on what disrupted my PhD.

I then led on the cross-government financial assurance and governance processes for the £20bn Negotiation Funding Envelope which gave me a great oversight of all the projects throughout negotiations. This role evolved into becoming co-Head of the Commercial Integration Team which coordinated negotiations and oversaw cross-chain risk in the business models and negotiations – effectively making sure that when the contracts, which have been negotiated separately, are signed, they work collectively.

I have just recently become Head of Growth and Supply Chains for CCUS which I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into. It will be basically looking at how we can ensure CCUS delivers long-term economic benefits and high-quality jobs for the UK.

It’s evolved a fair bit from a technical engineering PhD, but should get a bit more exposure to the innovation side of things in my new role. I also enjoy the fact that there are quite a lot of technical engineering people and experts within the programme itself, which I know is not always common across the Civil Service.

Do you have any other thoughts about CCS – its present, its future, any concerns?

Yeah, I think we just have to get on and do it now. I joined in 2021 and, for the four years since then, there’s been a lot of contracts, negotiations and discussions. Obviously, they’re absolutely critical, but we’re going to learn so much more from doing CCS. Organisations like the UKCCSRC are going to be important – we’ll all collectively learn a huge amount which can then inform future projects and policy, including through incremental research as well as more paradigm-changing research.

I also think it’s clear that the UK has followed a certain path to delivering CCUS that other countries can learn from. But similarly, we’ll be able to learn from other countries about how they’ve done it and how we could improve. That’s why I think networks across government, across academia, across industry, are really key!