Mini TESA
Jun 23, 2025
The Energy Systems Accelerator pilot known as Mini TESA has brought together academic and industry researchers in a multi-disciplinary hub that focuses on the transition to low carbon energy solutions.
The project has seen the creation of a total of 115 jobs for the county to-date, far exceeding a projected target of 102 jobs by the end of March 2025.
Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly – and at the time – OxLEP) secured £600,000 of funding towards the £800,000 project through the government’s Getting Building Fund, to convert an existing building into the new co-working space, which can host up to 100 workstations – as well as being home to an ideas-exchange hub where different disciplines and organisations can develop radical thinking.
Alongside far exceeding its jobs targets, the centre has also stimulated new thinking activities and powerful collaboration – working to drive innovation in low carbon technologies and facilitating industry and academic collaboration across all energy sectors.
The University of Oxford’s MSc in Energy Systems is taught at the centre in open adaptable learning spaces – right across the hall from one of the country’s most prestigious energy research labs.
Mini TESA is home to The ZERO Institute, accelerating multidisciplinary research on the zero-carbon transition and to the Energy and Environmental Informatics and Energy and Power research groups. The facility also hosts large-scale ‘SPRINTS’ bringing together many stakeholders from different disciplines to problem-solve key issues surrounding energy transition.
Now that the pilot has proved to be successful and once further funding is secured, the team are working to grow the project towards a ‘full’ TESA, significantly scaling up the space where stakeholders and academics can work and interact maximising creativity and accelerating the Energy Transition.