Written by Emilie Vrain Trying to captivate non-specialist audiences with research can sometimes been tricky for academics, having to avoid jargon and maintain interest. A competition was developed called the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) to encourage researchers to summarise and clarify the background of their research and present their findings in an intelligent and engaging […]
Disruptive consumer innovations have to appeal to those buying or using them. But should public policy try and steer the disruption process? The CESAR project on low-carbon pathways for Canada argues that it should: “Looking forward to the next 30+ years of systems change, it is imperative to understand the implications of new technology, business […]
SILCI researcher Hazel Pettifor recently presented the results from a major study to the Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) in Cambridge. In March 2018, the SILCI team ran a series of workshops with over 65 residents of Norwich. These focussed on gaining an understanding of the important attributes of low carbon innovations that appealed to potential consumers. This work is part of a wider program to explore the mechanisms that […]
Charlie Wilson visited the International Energy Agency in Paris to present research on the potential contribution of disruptive consumer innovations to accelerated energy-system transformation in line with the 1.5oC climate target. This follows the recent IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC which had a dedicated (if short) section on disruptive innovation. Have a […]
Charlie Wilson gave a public lecture at his old alma mater, the University of British Columbia, on new research showing how to meet the 1.5oC climate target by transforming energy services. Examples of potentially disruptive innovations that can significantly reduce the energy required to provide useful services include shared mobility, pre-fabricated whole home energy retrofits, […]
A new online platform is tracking potentially disruptive ‘mega-trends’ which can contribute to global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Launched by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), the ‘SDG Trend Scanner’ has data on trends ranging from ageing, automation, digitalisation to climate change, social instability, and vulnerable employment. As the […]
On his travels by boat and train across to Vancouver, British Columbia, SILCI project researcher Charlie Wilson stopped off in the prairie state of Saskatchewan where he spoke to the CBC about low-carbon travel as well as new research on low-carbon innovation and the 1.5°C climate goal. Fittingly, the day he was interviewed was the […]
Our newest member of the SILCI research team, Emilie Vrain, recently attended the Sunbelt conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Sunbelt (originally held in places such as Hawaii and Florida, giving rise to it’s name) is an annual event to bring together social scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, ethnologists, public health experts and many others, who all […]
At the workshops we ran a year ago on disruptive low-carbon innovations, one of our keynote speakers, Kathryn Myronuk, made an interesting comment along the lines of: “I don’t get excited by the new stuff being invented, I’m interested in the stuff that’s been around for some time but is being combined in new ways […]
On the way home from Brussels on Eurostar, I picked up a copy of the Financial Times. The cover story was about how the number of millennials (born between 1980-2000) has overtaken the number of baby boomers in the US, marking a shift in consumer power as “millennials are now in the most important age […]