John Crane and the University of Sheffield: Perfect partners in Clean Energy

We’ve recently initiated a strategic partnership with the University of Sheffield. This collaboration is pivotal in our journey to drive innovation and accelerate clean energy.

As my Ph.D. supervisor astutely observed, “Industry is problem-rich but time-poor, and academia is time-rich but problem-poor.” This complementarity can make the perfect marriage. When strategy and long-term goals align, I believe that academia and industry truly benefit from collaboration. Academia operates on multi-year timelines, while industry is driven by annual financial calendars. A single, isolated project might falter, but a long-term partnership underpinned with a multi-year project portfolio can nurture and facilitate the development of disruptive technologies. As academic collaborators gain deeper insight into industry needs, they become invaluable team members, unconstrained by conventional business thinking. This is why our agreement with the university is a long-term, multi-year commitment.

Universities exist to advance knowledge and to educate and train the next generation of workers. Industrial partnerships offer academics a platform to apply their expertise to meaningful real-world challenges and provide students with opportunities to enhance their industrial awareness and employability. Our partnership with the university also forms an integral part of our early talent and people strategy.

Why the University of Sheffield?

Both John Crane and Sheffield share a single-minded focus on clean energy. John Crane is delivering technology for carbon capture, the hydrogen economy, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions from existing assets. Sheffield boasts an Energy Institute with over 300 leading academics dedicated to transformative research and innovation and is home to the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) with pilot facilities for carbon capture and green hydrogen.

John Crane was founded in 1917. Our notable innovations include seal lapping and the dry gas seal. We’re now a world leader in mission-critical fluid control engineering, specialising in rotating mechanical seals and products such as industrial filtration. Sheffield, the steel city, with its rich history in materials engineering, has academic excellence in metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, and computational fluid dynamics. The university is home to the Leonardo Institute for Tribology (the study of friction, wear, and lubrication).

Sheffield’s ranking in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 underscores its commitment to research and teaching. 96% of research within the Engineering facility is rated as world-class.

Diversity and inclusion are important to John Crane and Sheffield. John Crane is a global business with more than 6,000 staff across the globe supporting our customers. Sheffield’s diverse workforce and student body promote creativity and innovation.

Our shared histories, strategy and values align perfectly

We’re excited to collaborate with Sheffield to develop our people and to identify future talent. Our partnership spans departments and encompasses different engagement types, including fully funded Ph.D. research, master’s student projects, and year-in-industry placements. In September, we welcomed our first Ph.D. student, Riaz Husein, and we are seeking one more enthusiastic champion of clean energy to start this academic year, with further projects starting in October 2025.

I am delighted that we have agreed this partnership with the University of Sheffield. By combining our strengths and expertise, we aim to develop ground-breaking solutions to address the challenges of clean energy.

Prospective students can contact:

• Professor Rob Dwyer-Joyce, who leads the John Crane academic collaboration from the University: r.dwyerjoyce@shef.ac.uk
• Klaus Meck, Director of Core Technologies at John Crane: Klaus.meck@johncrane.com 

Learn more:

Leonardo Centre for Tribology | The University of Sheffield

Energy Institute | The University of Sheffield

John Crane

Smiths Group