Alumni UK Grant Programme 2026–27

Project lead: Cagri Kutlu
Theme: Climate Action & Sustainability

This project accelerates regional climate action by translating low-carbon thermal research into practical application. By demonstrating supercooled phase change materials (PCMs) as a viable thermal storage solution, it advances the decarbonisation of buildings through smart, heat-on-demand systems. In doing so, it directly supports lower domestic carbon emissions and reduced peak electricity demand in Türkiye's built environment. Its key stakeholders and beneficiaries are students at the Project Lead's home institution, industry professionals, and the wider community.

Project lead: Fatma Dogan Guzel
Theme: Climate Action & Sustainability

This project will advance the Climate Action & Sustainability theme by raising understanding of microplastic pollution and combining scientific monitoring with citizen science to support evidence-based discussion and more sustainable behaviours. Participants (students, volunteers, and local stakeholders) will gain hands-on skills in monitoring, sampling, and data interpretation, while new links between universities, local organisations, and community groups will form a lasting network for future action. For the project team, it will build leadership in turning research into community impact and strengthen partnerships among the four UK Alumni researchers, communities, and stakeholders. The resulting knowledge, partnerships, and monitoring toolkit will underpin larger future initiatives on plastic pollution and climate resilience.

Project lead: Mujde Esin
Theme: Climate Action & Sustainability

The project team aims to extend its digital skills model into a concrete climate application: participants will build a neighbourhood heat map or air-quality visualisation from their own data, and a Youth Citizens' Assembly will recommend fairer city climate responses and more sustainable uses of AI. Girls and young women from underrepresented communities will gain practical AI and data skills and direct experience tackling a climate risk in their own neighbourhood, helping close the gap in which girls face disproportionate climate impacts yet are rarely included in shaping solutions.

Project lead: Serdar Tekin
Theme: Climate Action & Sustainability

This project aims to build climate literacy among 60 future English teachers, addressing a gap in Turkish teacher education. The project activities include a field visit to Lake Tuz, where students observe drought and water scarcity first-hand, followed by a workshop on teaching climate topics through storytelling. Student groups then design English climate stories and classroom activities based on local issues and deliver them to primary, middle, and secondary pupils in partner schools. The project concludes with a showcase event. The project creates a model that can be documented and shared with the Alumni UK Climate Action Community of Practice, and lays groundwork for future collaboration between UK and Turkish partners.

Project lead: Yasemin Kilit Aklar
Theme: Climate Action & Sustainability

Narli, an olive-growing village on Mount Ida, faces waste, water scarcity, and land-use pressures. The project aims to let residents, local government, and university experts jointly set priorities, pilot circular economy actions, and produce a Systems Map, 2035 Vision, Toolkit, and Roadmap, creating a replicable rural climate-resilience model. The experience will contribute to future research, educational activities and the development of a scalable rural innovation model that can inspire other villages facing similar environmental and social transitions.

Project lead: Gökçe Nur Yılmaz 
Theme: Climate Action & Sustainability

Central Anatolia faces worsening drought, yet its heritage of adapting to water limits is fading. In Ankara's historic Altındağ district, 30 TED University pre-service teachers, guided by community knowledge-holders, will research water heritage, climate-responsive houses, dryland farming, and ecological knowledge, then curate 3-4 public VR-ready galleries within an existing course in five months. By studying four strands of Altındağ's ecological heritage, from water systems to dryland farming, the project preserves how the city once coped with drought and heat and applies those lessons to water use, building, and food growing today.