Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

The UKUH’s 3^rd Integration Event (IE) was held via Zoom on 15 January 2021. Taking place annually, these events comprise interactive workshops with the ambition of bringing together the UKUH community (academics, researchers, project partners and stakeholders) to facilitate thematic discussions and to share ideas and knowledge.

At previous IEs, we have focused on knowledge sharing and knowledge integration, however, this session took a different approach. Given that we are now past the half-way mark of our research programme, this session was designed to be entirely internally focused, with the aim of:

1. Taking Stock: Gathering evidence relating to the outputs and deliverables to date from across the programme; and
2. Looking Ahead: identifying or ‘mapping’ where our research outputs have translational applications beyond the ‘shale gas’ debate.

At the event, Challenge 1 facilitated two breakout sessions, where researchers worked together on shared Google Documents.  The first session provided an opportunity for each Challenge group to document their research outputs to date and note where changes in the energy landscape have led to shifts in their research questions. The second breakout provided an opportunity for interdisciplinary (mixed-Challenge) groups to ‘map’ where and how the findings of UKUH research have the potential to generate insights for the energy landscape of 2021.

This event also provided the opportunity for stakeholders to discuss the relevance of the UKUH programme in the changing landscape, and evolving opportunities for knowledge translation.

Guest speakers at the event included Dr Bethany Adams and Dr Iain Williams from NERC who presented an overview of the UKRI funding landscape, with particular focus on the NERC strategy. We were also joined by Professor Jim Watson who imparted his experience on building academic-industry partnerships.

Following this event, Challenge 1 will continue to coordinate with the other Challenges to document research outputs, which provide insights for:

• Translational research
• New research
• Policy change
• Behaviour change
• Net Zero future
• Energy Justice
• Green Recovery
• the Levelling-up agenda

Over the summer of 2021, Challenge 1 will convene a series of seminars to facilitate cross-Challenge debate on a range of ‘insight’ topics. We will use these ‘Insight Seminars’ as an opportunity to widen our existing stakeholder network and create links with other multidisciplinary programmes involved in researching the decarbonisation of the energy system and Net Zero technologies.