For those of you who are unfamiliar with EWB-UK, the Research Programme enables students to undertake university engineering research projects on international development with EWB-UK partner organisations.

Development work is an imperfect art. One of our biggest challenges is to translate the results of university research work into something tangible and sustainable, and many of the projects displayed here today have done this brilliantly. We always need to consider how ‘useful’ student work can actually be in contributing towards progress in international development, but we hope that today will convince you that students really can – and do – make a positive difference.

The Research Programme is growing fast and this year has been an amazing rollercoaster ride of new ideas and opportunities. A strong team of student and graduate volunteers from around the country has enabled us to collect many new research proposals from organisations around the world, and we are now able to provide far more support to students undertaking research, ranging from Research Grants, to access to a wide network of experienced professionals who can provide support for students and academics beginning research in unfamiliar areas.

One hugely exciting development this year has been the award of a three-year grant to EWB-UK for the areas of Training and Research from the governmental Department for International Development (DfID). This is enabling us to employ a full-time Research Manager to look after the Programme, beginning in the summer of 2008. All the work done to date has been achieved through students and volunteers, and so this will give us a great deal more capacity to achieve the aims of the Research Programme.

We are using the Research Conference today both as an opportunity to showcase work from EWB-UK students, and to demonstrate the amazing work being done by other organisations. We also hope that it will provide a forum for communication and networking. We envisage that the day will be busy, but if you have an idea that you would like to discuss further with the Research Team, please fill out the relevant form and hand it to one of the organisers so we can contact you.

This conference would not have been possible without the dedication of a huge number of individuals. In particular we would like to thank all of our speakers and exhibitors here today, and all of the students and partner organisations who have been invaluable in their enthusiasm and support.

Thank you for joining us today and we look forward to seeing you all again at our conference next year, and hopefully working with some of you in the future.

All the best,

Hayley Sharp

EWB-UK Research Coordinator 2007 – 2008