It is with great sadness that we announce that Nick Chapman, our loved and respected colleague, passed away on the night of the 15th July, 2024.
To celebrate, and show our gratitude to Nick as a team mate and a colleague, we are updating the Elephant of the Month post that he wrote in November 2021.
Blog continuation after Nick’s passing on the 15th July 2024.
What attracted us to Nick?
When Nick joined Inveniam we were growing the public funding team, and so we were on the look out for native English speakers with technical backgrounds.
Nick was dyslexic, and very open and honest about it, with little public funding experience. However, he had important technical skills that we were lacking as a team. It was agreed on all sides, including with Nick, that we would give it a go.
Pretty quickly it became clear that Nick’s need to clearly structure an argument and connect the dots before starting to write, coupled with his strong investigative skills, made him an excellent proposal writer, despite the occassional spelling mistake.
What did he do at Inveniam?
Nick undertook many tasks at Inveniam, particularly writing public funding proposals in recent years and previously tech scouting for large energy companies to prepare them for the clean energy transition.
Prior to taking his sabbatical, Nick helped us undertake a fundamental change in how we work at Inveniam. Rather than writing projects for others, or joining other organisation’s projects, Nick developed, wrote and won the first European project that we fully originated and developed at Inveniam. The project, called BioBoost, is supporting the development of bioeconomy projects in Catalonia, which are expected to raise over 30M euros investment.
In the last 18 months he focused almost exclusively on bringing together researchers and industry from across Europe to develop renewable energy projects. One such project, Hyield, was awarded 10M euros of funding to demonstrate the potential of producing Hydrogen out of waste, and using it to power the cement industry. Nick often came up with new ways to do these tasks, and invented new tools to project manage them, that he then shared with his colleagues.
What were his unique qualities?
Sometimes working with World leading researchers can be difficult, but Nick’s natural, collaborative style and excellent technical capacities made him a trusted and valued partner.
Nick was talented in his ability to understand the concept being developed, suggested new technologies or research that could be included to make the project stronger, and then true skill in tying together these often diverse and abstract concepts into a cohesive narrative.
He was always patient and generous with his time, both to colleagues and to the client, bringing his knowledge and inquisitive nature to the service of others.
How will we remember him?
Nick will be remembered by everyone who he met and worked with, whether for 5 years or 5 minutes. Since we first heard the shocking news of his passing, his smile, his generosity, his kindness have all been trending topics in our conversations.
Beyond his personal qualities, he has had a profound impact on Inveniam, the way we work with our partners and clients and how we operate as a team. Nick showed us that leadership is not about shouting the loudest or trying to show how clever you are. Nick led through calm, kind, wise and patience guidance. For Nick, the loudest thing in the room should be his shirt.
He was strongly committed to his values, to the environment and to living in a sustainable way, but in a pragmatic, humble and personal manner. He never preached to others about his efforts to move exclusively by bicycle or public transport, or trying to eat in a sustainable way. He led through considered and measured example.
As a company, we are focused on helping impact innovation reach the market to deliver change. Nick was great at identifying ways to increase the impact of a project or recognises its weaknesses that could limit its market deployment. However, he has also helped us as a team realise that impact is not just an external factor but something that each one of us can implement in our daily lives.
Nick has helped us grow as an organisation, both in terms of the team through the projects that he won and in terms of the roles we play in projects and how we play them. We are not the same Inveniam as the company he joined in 2019, and a large part of that is thanks to Nick. As a team, and as a company, we have learnt a lot from spending time with Nick. We will always be grateful for his presence. He has left a small part of his energy in all of us, teaching us to see life from another perspective we might never have considered without him. His humanity, integrity, and knowledge will continue to guide us.
MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh
MPhil in Smart Grids from the University of Manchester
What interested you about working with Inveniam Group?
The main pull to joining Inveniam was the chance to work in a dynamic, business-oriented, and people-centered company that values and specializes in sustainability. Before joining, I had spent the past 7 years working in research and engineering roles in the renewable energy sector and felt that it was time for a new challenge. For me, Inveniam offered a chance to learn about the business end of the sector and collaborate with entrepreneurs, research institutions, and investors to bring tomorrow’s clean energy and circular economy technologies to the market.
What do you do here at Inveniam Group?
I am a manager in Inveriam’s sustainability team, which comprises myself, Paolo de Carli, Emma Pipó Ollé, and led by partners Eric Suñol, Javier Alonso, and Alex Fuentes.
In my role, I provide advice on both R+D+i public funding as well as strategic consulting to technology developers in the clean energy and circular economy space. I also deliver technology scouting services to major energy players to support their diversification and decarbonization strategies.
What are your fields of interest?
I am interested in science and technology’s role in addressing the major social and environmental challenges of the 21st century. This has led me to specialize in the renewable energy sector, specifically smart grids and community energy. Over the last 2 years at Inveniam I have also invested a lot of time learning about renewable gases, such as biomethane and hydrogen, which has been a fascinating journey.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I do improv theatre classes during the week, and at the weekends I try to get to the countryside at least a couple of times a month. I also do a lot of cycling and normally spend my summer cycle touring around Europe.
