TY - GEN
T1 - The Challenge of Ending Fuel Poverty: A Transition Engineering Research Sprint
AU - Cherubini, Paolo
AU - Ahrens, Florian
AU - Andoni, Merlinda
AU - Couraud, Benoit
AU - Kilgour, Jonathan
AU - Kirli, Desen
AU - Iqbal, Zafar
AU - Norbu, Sonam
AU - Papathanasi, Androniki
AU - Webb, Lynda
AU - Krumdieck, Susan
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The pressure to accelerate just transitions to Net Zero is felt across all disciplines. Moreover, researchers face challenges of developing research aims directed at wicked problems that arise in engineering transitions. Engineering research groups in particular face the challenge of incumbency, following their vested disciplinary inquiries when the just transition challenges are transdisciplinary and require new perspectives. Recent research in transition engineering has developed a transdisciplinary process to navigate a solution space that includes long term sustainability goals, social good outcomes and viable technological enterprises. This paper reports the experience and results of the Transition Engineering Sprint process undertaken by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded Decarbonisation Pathways for Cooling and Heating (DISPATCH) project research group to reframe research questions around the just transition issue of fuel poverty. A Transition Engineering Sprint is a methodology using a series of whole-systems explorations which creates a new narrative around wicked problems and unveils a creative space exploring direct routes to transitions. The sprint team included PhD students and Post Docs in energy, power system and transition engineering, along with data and social scientists. The process resulted in uncovering a root cause for fuel poverty and generating exploratory concepts for research in a sandbox. The new concepts re-framed ongoing research activities in the group and opened novel transdisciplinary research agendas. The results of a critical self-reflection exercise show that the Transition Engineering Sprint proved effective and that it can be applied in similar trandisciplinary engineering research contexts.
AB - The pressure to accelerate just transitions to Net Zero is felt across all disciplines. Moreover, researchers face challenges of developing research aims directed at wicked problems that arise in engineering transitions. Engineering research groups in particular face the challenge of incumbency, following their vested disciplinary inquiries when the just transition challenges are transdisciplinary and require new perspectives. Recent research in transition engineering has developed a transdisciplinary process to navigate a solution space that includes long term sustainability goals, social good outcomes and viable technological enterprises. This paper reports the experience and results of the Transition Engineering Sprint process undertaken by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded Decarbonisation Pathways for Cooling and Heating (DISPATCH) project research group to reframe research questions around the just transition issue of fuel poverty. A Transition Engineering Sprint is a methodology using a series of whole-systems explorations which creates a new narrative around wicked problems and unveils a creative space exploring direct routes to transitions. The sprint team included PhD students and Post Docs in energy, power system and transition engineering, along with data and social scientists. The process resulted in uncovering a root cause for fuel poverty and generating exploratory concepts for research in a sandbox. The new concepts re-framed ongoing research activities in the group and opened novel transdisciplinary research agendas. The results of a critical self-reflection exercise show that the Transition Engineering Sprint proved effective and that it can be applied in similar trandisciplinary engineering research contexts.
U2 - 10.3233/atde240957
DO - 10.3233/atde240957
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - Advances in Transdisciplinary Engineering
SP - 1008
EP - 1017
BT - Engineering For Social Change
PB - IOS Press
T2 - 31st ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering 2024
Y2 - 9 July 2024 through 11 July 2024
ER -