CIBSE is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 Ken Dale Travel Bursary, a prestigious award designed to support early-career engineers seeking to gain international experience and drive innovation in the building services industry. The bursary offers up to £4,000 (or local equivalent) to support research abroad, enabling engineers to explore how technical, social, environmental and political factors influence building services engineering around the world.
This year's finalists are asking questions the profession urgently needs answered, drawing on global examples to understand how climate, culture, and the push to decarbonise are shaping building services engineering around the world.
Meet the 2026 Finalists
Alex Govan
Study: A study of the viability of local heat networks in collaboration with community energy in remote communities.
Summary: The objective of this project is to investigate the challenges and benefits of rural heat networks, and to assess the viability of integrating these systems with community-run renewable energy production.
Asha Gedi
Study: Design follows Climate: How Extreme Climates Shape IoT Configuration and MEP Specification in Smart Buildings
Summary: This research investigates one specific scope of adaptive capacity: how climatic extremes determine the configuration of IoT-embedded MEP systems.
Benjamin Wilson
Study: Retrofitting Legacy Heat Networks for Net Zero and Consumer Protection: Lessons from Northern Europe for the UK Regulatory Transition
Summary: To identify and document the technical retrofit strategies used to upgrade legacy heat networks in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany, with particular focus on return temperature reduction, hydraulic optimisation, metering upgrades, and heat interface unit replacement
Esther Memeh
Study: Reducing Generator Dependence in West African Buildings: Energy, Carbon, and Hybrid System Design
Summary: To investigate how electrical demand, power reliability and resilience strategies influence building energy systems in West Africa.
Hasan Shwaish
Study: How do people use windows? A study of natural ventilation as a function of climate and human behaviour
Summary: To investigate how natural ventilation is shaped by the interaction between window design and human behaviour, as influenced by climatic conditions and cultural contexts.
Kehinde Adewumi
Study: Passive-First Cooling in Overheated Cities: Adaptation Strategies for a Warming UK
Summary: This research will investigate how cities that routinely experience sustained external temperatures above 35°C have successfully implemented passive-first and hybrid cooling strategies that limit reliance on energy-intensive air conditioning
Khizar Moti
Study: From Standards to Performance: Global Lessons in Heat Network Excellence, and What the UK Must Learn
Summary: To investigate how leading heat network nations, including Denmark, Sweden and Singapore, have developed the operational culture, measurement frameworks and regulatory structures that turn technical standards into sustained real-world performance, and identify what the UK can realistically adopt as Ofgem regulation takes effect.
Yijun Liu
Study: Beyond the Grid: Evaluating Sand and Gravity Batteries as Long-Duration Solutions for Resilient Heat Networks and Energy Networks
Summary: The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the technical and economic viability of non-chemical, long-duration energy storage (LDES) systems—specifically Sand Batteries and Gravity-based Mechanical Storage—as critical components for the next generation of decarbonised district heating and power networks.