Latest News | 25 February 2021
£640k boost for university’s sustainability research project
The University of Derby has been given a £640,000 boost which it will use to deliver research that will create an augmented reality representation of Derby in the future.
The money is a legacy donation from Professor Richard Horsley Osborne, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 93 and left a substantial gift to the university in his will.
The Osborne legacy will fund a research project called Derby’s Urban Sustainability Transition (DUST), focusing on the transition of Derby’s urban landscape towards a more environmentally sustainable future.
Dr Chris Bussell, the university’s pro vice-chancellor dean of the College of Science and Engineering, said: “We are enormously grateful to the Osborne family for their generosity and support in our research that reflects the expertise of the late Professor Osborne in economic regeneration of towns and cities within the East Midlands, particularly in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
“Aligning to work underway with Derby City Council, the Economic Regeneration Forum, Marketing Derby and Derby Heritage, the DUST project will explore how we reimagine our city, capitalising on our rivers and streams, greenways and parks and open spaces, to improve active transport, reduce transport associated emissions and improve air quality.”
The three-year project will lay the groundwork for the long-term development of Derby city and surrounding areas, addressing issues of climate change, human and nature habitat management, sustainable mobility and transport, and integrated connectivity that enhances the lived experience of the citizens of Derby.
It will involve university partners, including Derby City Council, Toyota Manufacturing UK and international collaborative partners in Toyota City, Japan.
The legacy will fund, among other things, two post-doctoral researchers, each for a period of three years, as well as capital investment by the university for equipment in connection with the DUST project.
Dr Bussell, who also chairs Derby City’s Climate Change Committee, said: “The project will bring together researchers in computer science, virtual and augmented reality, biodiversity and environmental scientists, city planning and urban design, and physical and human geographers to, ultimately, produce an augmented reality of a reimagined city.
“Professor Osborne was passionate about regional economic development and the DUST project will continue his legacy, using new technologies to reimagine the city through augmented reality towards a sustainable, vibrant, future.”
Dr Sue Jones, niece of Professor Osborne and executor of the bequest, said: “Many generations of our family lived and worked in Derbyshire and my uncle had a deep interest in its social and economic development.
“He would have been very proud to be associated with a project which, in a time of profound national adjustment, seeks to take forward Derby and the surrounding area in a number of significant ways.”
