Dr Rebecca Ford, Chancellor's Fellow, Departments of Government & Public Policy and Electronic & Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde and Dr Jo Patterson, Senior Research Fellow, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
31 January 2022
As we move forward into 2022, inching further into the "decade of action" for delivery on many of the UK's climate ambitions, we'll also be seeing a shift in focus for the EnergyREV programme, from research to delivery, and from insights to impact. While, at its core, EnergyREV is an academic consortium, we have always had a clear agenda to support learning across the Prospering from the Energy Revolution Programme, and share lessons that can support the scale up of Smart Local Energy Systems that help deliver a just net-zero future.
This has been embedded in our activities from the start where we have not only engaged with a highly interdisciplinary team across our consortium but have also strived to connect, communicate and collaborate with relevant stakeholders across the wider energy sector. We have found, through our research, that communication is essential for the delivery of future energy systems and, that on the whole, most people relish this connection and communication to learn and develop their knowledge further. This ‘Mission focussed’ approach can help to promote the urgency of the need for change, with our outcome-orientated research helping to inform the wider network by delivering our insights in a format that is understandable to a wider audience which aims to stimulate further connection and communication. Working directly with stakeholders stimulates this further.
During EnergyREV's first few years of operation we've been working hard to build a strong evidence base across our diverse portfolio of research, from intelligent systems to adaptive policy, from local business models to local participation, and from measuring impacts to monitoring skills gaps. Over the next year we'll be bringing this knowledge together, and working even more with policy makers, the energy industry, and community and civic actors to explore how we can help the changes that are needed to happen - what action needs to be taken? and by who? and what this means for those designing, delivering and participating in smart local energy systems?
Keep your eyes peeled for a raft of insight reports, briefing papers, and online webinars (and maybe even some in person events too) and please do reach out to us by signing up to our network via our website https://www.energyrev.org.uk/contact/ or via our email info@energyrev.org.uk if you'd like to get involved.