ESRC Seminar Series (2015-16): Green Innovation: Making It Work

ESRC Seminar Series (2015-16): Green Innovation: Making it Work

Policy challenges and research contributions

Wednesday 18th May 2016,10.00am to 4.30pm

UK Research Office, 4 Rue du Trône, Brussels

(The nearest Metro station is Troon/Trône – via the exit marked ‘Luxembourg’)

PROGRAMME

10.00Registration (tea and coffee from 9.45)

10.30Seminar introduction: David Smith, Rob Ackrill and Richard Blundel

10.45The complex challenges in bringing sustainable biofuels to the EU and world markets, given conflicting stakeholder positions, and an absence of long-term policies.Dr Kyriakos Maniatis (European Commission, DG-ENERGY)

11.45A critical analysis of UK and EU Green Innovation policy challenges. Andrea Westall (Independent Strategy and Policy Consultant andVisiting Senior Research Fellow, The Open University, UK)

12.45Lunch – including research poster session

13.45Green innovation and regulatory institutions: The case of smart electricity grids in Great Britain:Dr Matthew Lockwood (Senior Research Fellow, School of Geography, University of Exeter)

14.35Making the most out of academic research: translating research into practice. Alyssa Gilbert (Head of Policy and Translation, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College, London)

15.30Plenary discussion –Enhancing green innovation policymaking: mapping out an agenda for research and engagement(tea and coffee will be available)

16.15Conclusion and details of next seminar (16.30 Finish)

We would very much welcome submissions for the poster session on the theme of Green Innovation Policy Challenges – in particular, from doctoral students and Early Career Researchers. If you are interested in submitting and presenting a poster,please let the organisers know when you book your place on the Workshop (the details regarding which are provided below).

Thisfourth seminar in a series of six will explore the theme of policy, with expert speakers representing the policymaking, academic and consultancy communities. The papersprovide a broad overview of current challenges in UK and EU policymaking, complemented by detailed analyses of green innovation in particular fields, and their associated socio-technical, political and regulatory challenges.We shall also examine the role of research in this policy arena, and how it might contribute more effectively in helping to overcome these challenges.

Speaker profiles

Dr Kyriakos Maniatisis Principal Administrator in the Directorate General for Energy, European Commission. He is responsible for technical issues related to biofuels and manages the DG ENER demonstration component on advanced biofuels in the Commission's 7th Framework Programme. He contributes accordingly to the legislative actions of the EC and to the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative of the SET Plan and he is involved in the CEN standardisation work on liquid and gaseous biofuels. He coordinates the team that launched in June 2011 the Biofuels FlightPath for Aviation in close coordination with the aviation and biofuels sectors. Kyriakos also represents the European Commission in the Executive Committee of IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement and served as the ExCo Chairman in 2002, 2005-2007.

Andrea Westallis a Strategy and Policy Consultant, as well as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the OU, working in sustainable economics and government policy. She has contributed directly to the development of UK Government strategies, specific policies, and evaluations on innovation, science, entrepreneurship and small firms, as well as devising the rationale and strategy for, and being seconded to set up, the Government’s Social Enterprise Unit. Andrea hasalso been Head of One Planet Economy at WWF, Deputy Director (and Acting Director) of the New Economics Foundation; Director of a Policy Unit in the Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management at the London Business School; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Dr Matthew Lockwoodis a Senior Research Fellow working on the EPSRC-funded IGov project and a member of the Energy Policy Group in the School of Geography, University of Exeter. He has worked on energy and climate policy in the UK, Europe and emerging economies in a variety of roles since the early 2000s. He joined Exeter from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (2011-2012), where he was Head of Climate Change. Prior to that he was Associate Director of Energy, Climate Change and Transport at the Institute for Public Policy Research (2006-2011). During 2009-2010 he worked on secondment to DECC, helping to draft the Government’s strategy on smart grids. He has also worked as a consultant and adviser to the Design Council, the London Development Agency, the Deputy Mayor of London, the Department for International Development (DfID), the Sustainable Development Commission and Friends of the Earth UK. He is a member of the British Institute of Energy Economics.

Alyssa Gilbert the Head of Policy and Translation at the Grantham Institute for Climate change and the Environment where she connects relevant research across the university with policy-makers and businesses. She is also a member of NERC’s Strategic Programme Advisory Committee (SPAG). Alyssa worked at the specialist energy and climate consultancy Ecofys for over eleven years researching a range of topics including Emissions Trading policy and market-based mechanisms, broader carbon pricing developments, Forestry and REDD+, adaptation to climate change and climate finance. She has had many years of experience in managing projects of various sizes for key government clients at the international level, in the UK and for other national governments. Alyssa has also worked a researcher for the Deputy Mayor of London and as a journalist on Environmental Policy in Brussels. Alyssa has a degree in Natural Sciences.

Background to the series

The primary aim of this seminar series is to promote a deeper understanding of green innovation, with a focus on the factors that facilitate and constrain its practical application. In doing so it seeks to propagate knowledge about the institutional changes and infrastructures required for the effective dissemination and diffusion of green innovations in both developed and developing country contexts. We have adopted the shorthand term ‘green innovation’ to signal its role as an open forum for the exchange between academics, practitioners and policy-makers. A short video of the first seminar in the series is available at:

Further details and reservations

There is no charge to attend the seminar, but numbers are very limited. Further details and booking from:

Future seminars

The remaining seminars will feature keynote speakers and an open call for academic and practitioner papers on the following themes:

Green innovation applications: mobility (The Open University, Milton Keynes)
Deconstructing green innovation: implications for policy and practice (NTU, Nottingham)

Proposed outputs

Abstracts from the presented papers will be featured on the seminar series web pages, along with a short promotional podcast, regular announcements and related news items. There are a number of publication opportunities, including a Special Issue on Green Innovation in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, edited by Professors David Smith and Rob Ackrill and Dr Richard Blundel. The series organisers also have agreement in principle with an academic publisher for an edited book of readings associated with the Series.

Who should attend?

All those with an interest in green innovation are very welcome to attend, including academics, research students, practitioners and policy makers. For further information, please contact David Smith: ; or Richard Blundel: .

Organising team

Professor David Smith, Nottingham Trent University

Dr Richard Blundel, The Open University

Professor Rob Ackrill, Nottingham Trent University