Who are we

Dr Mike Colechin is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience of innovation in the transport and energy sectors.

He is well recognised for his facilitation skills and his understanding and experience of innovation in energy and decarbonisation, and is deeply engaged in the UK’s journey towards net zero.  As co-investigator on ‘Delivering Net Zero’, a project funded by the EPSRC, Mike worked alongside Prof John Barrett from the University of Leeds and Prof Nick Pidgeon from Cardiff University to build an understanding of the narratives that are driving the transition towards a low carbon future.

Mike sits on, and in some cases chairs, a range of advisory boards. His past appointments have included the advisory board for the UK Energy Research Centre and the Welsh Government’s Deep Dive on Renewable Energy. For three years (from 2020 to 2022) he chaired the UKRI’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Energy and Decarbonisation. Mike is also a member of UKRI’s Peer Review College, often being called upon to chair peer review panels for the Research Councils, and he currently holds the post of Honorary Professor of Low Carbon Energy at the University of Nottingham.

Prior to setting up Cultivate, Mike was Partnership Manager at the Energy Technologies Institute – a £400M public-private partnership between UK government and six large private sector companies. He directly supported the organisations delivering low carbon energy innovation, communicating outputs to inform policy makers and building investor and industry confidence in these new approaches.
When he was with the ETI Mike was responsible for a number of key publications including an insight into ‘Accelerating low carbon energy innovation in the UK’ and a report on ‘What we know about Local Authority Engagement in UK Energy Systems’ (produced in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh).

Earlier in his career Mike spent fifteen years at E.ON, the last five years of this in the role of R&D Partnership Manager. Mike had responsibility for the development of a network of external relationships with industry, the public sector and academics who acted as partners and suppliers for internal R&D Programmes. For his first ten years at E.ON, Mike was a combustion engineer, providing technical support for electricity generation assets.

Mike holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. He still lives in Nottingham and alongside his work in the Energy Sector he makes large format photographs.