On Monday 10th December about 60 PhD students and ECRs (early career researchers) gathered in Cambridge for an interesting event, with the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin title “Engaging with energy policy: a masterclass for Social Sciences & Humanities PhD and early-career researchers.”
Hosted by the Centre for Science and Policy (Cambridge University) and the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, this was an event of two halves. In the first we heard sat in a tiered lecture theatre hearing from various people with perspectives and advice that could/would be useful to a career in energy policy engagement (aka green confucianism). In the second we got to pick each others’ brains, primarily for the benefit of some people who will be doing secondments with outfits such as the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Energy Saving Trust and Practical Action.
Chris Foulds of the GSI and Robert Doubleday of CSaP opened with a defence of the importance of the Social Sciences and Humanities in offering broader perspectives on energy policy and the rationale of the “PIECES” project (I do sometimes wonder if there could be an annual prize for the best retronym). This was followed by Neil Simcock of Liverpool John Moores talking about the Energy Geographies Research Group and, well, energy geographies and Kate Jones, speaking on Vitae, which has developed several handy tools for personal and career development.
In the Q and A the good point was made that focus on an individual (female researcher’s) ‘resilience and need to be ‘more assertive’ can simply be compensatory for bad systems (nobody, though, dropped the P b-bomb – Patriarchy).
After a refreshments break, a panel discussion on “what makes the Social Sciences & Humanities unique when engaging with energy policy(makers)?” There were four panellists
- Alena Fielding, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
- Liz Hooper, Practical Action
- Amber Sharick, UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)
- Tom Hargreaves, Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) Research Group, UEA
Since it was never made clear if the meeting was happening under the Chatham House Rule, I’ll not ascribe any specific advice to any individual.
- Think of the three Rs – Rigour – (sine qua non); Relevance – timing, and luck, Opportunities may pass and not come back; Relationships
- Be aware that there are specific individuals – who will be very busy and have their own mental frames of reference – who you need to convince
- Engineers do clever things that don’t resonate with policymakers…(question of politics priorities/personalities, resource constraints/time constraints, context/consensus)
- Be clear, structured, let go of being pure.
- Don’t take people who support you (more senior, less senior) for granted.
- There was a reference to work around four key questions; where are we going with energy transition?, who wins loses and how?, is this desirable?, what should be done? STEM avoids asking these questions, ESS doesn’t
- Policy space has existing momentum
- SSH provides answers/evidence that don’t fit with existing assumptions/patterns etc
- As an academic you may produce things that policymakers actively don’t want to engage with
- Engaging with policymakers can be very disruptive of work patterns, and throw a lot of stress into a group, as other people end up picking up slack at short notice while you go off to (interminable and short-notice) meetings.
- Stand up for the value of SSH
- Don’t bow to pressure to simplify or reduce complexity to realise short term impact
- Don’t focus only on policy decisions, but look across and engage across multiple actors in the energy system
- Don’t just focus on decision-moments, seek longer-term learning
- Consider using “Trojan Horses” – approaches which get you into closed cultures and then stimulate reflection
- Provide constructive alternatives
- Don’t just sling mud and criticise – provide additive alternatives
- Be diverse
- Engage multiple audiences, play multiple roles, experiment with different techniques
- Don’t just shout louder, but also know when to dig your heels in and kick off
- Get experience on the ground
- Work in partnership
- Enhance your skillset (e.g. excel, GIS): Think about the things you can’t get away with not knowing.
The afternoon was given over to small group work about policy engagement (who, how, when, why etc) and brainstorming for the upcoming internships. I blathered about sustainability socio-technical transitions, the multilevel perspective and a few other things. This was apparently useful.
So, a good day – exposed to some new ideas, met some new people…. Finally, thanks to the organisers for the travel bursary and the enough-detail-but-not-too-much emails beforehand
marchudson.net 
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