The 2026 Ken Dale Travel Bursary has been awarded to Yijun Liu LCIBSE, a mechanical engineer at Warrington Borough Council.
The bursary provides up to £4,000 to support research travel for early career members. Liu will use it to travel to China, the US, Switzerland, Finland and Scotland to further his work in evaluating sand and gravity batteries as long-duration solutions for resilient heat networks and energy networks.
Liu is studying the technical and economic viability of non-chemical, long-duration energy storage systems – specifically sand batteries and gravity-based mechanical storage – as critical components for the next generation of decarbonised district heating and power networks.
The Ken Dale Travel Bursary funds early career CIBSE members who wish to spend up to four weeks outside of their own country researching global engineering innovations connected to their work.
Candidates are shortlisted based on their proposals and final selections are made after presentations by applicants during the interview stage.
CIBSE would like to thank the judging panel – Susan Hone-Brookes FCIBSE, Neil Panton FCIBSE and Sara Kassam – for their time, insight and consideration during the process, and for supporting the next generation of engineers.
For more information about the bursary, visit www.cibse.org/kendale