A PhD student from Axminster will be presenting her chemistry research in Parliament on Monday, March 6.

Hannah Burnett, 23, who studies at the University of Manchester, has been chosen to take part in STEM for BRITAIN, a  scientific poster competition and exhibition to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the work being undertaken in UK universities by early-career researchers.

Hannah is among 120 participants who were short-listed from hundreds of applicants to present a visual representation of their work, which will be judged by professional and academic experts.

Her research focuses on redox flow batteries for grid-scale storage of energy from renewable sources.

She explained: “The idea is that these renewables generate energy at non-peak hours of consumer usage, so it can either be stored in batteries or wasted; the stored energy can then be discharged to the grid from the batteries at peak times of consumer usage.

“‘Redox flow’ is the type of battery used, and it is named as such because of the type of reactions that occur within it and the fact that the liquids used in the system are ‘flowed’ or pumped through the battery. ‘Grid-scale’ refers to the fact that the energy is being stored on a large scale and will be sent to the national grid for distribution to consumers.”

On the prospect of presenting her research in Parliament, Hannah said: “This is an excellent opportunity to communicate the importance of our research to politicians and will hopefully encourage a greater degree of collaboration between politicians and scientists in the future.”

There will be presentations in five categories: Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematical Sciences and Physics. The competition will end with a gold, silver and bronze prize-giving ceremony for each category.

Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said: “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.

“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”