PhD Studentship: Improving public engagement on disruptive green technology projects

The British Energy Security Strategy (HM Government, 2022) has earmarked public investment to fund a range of green technology projects, including small modular reactors (SMR), hydrogen, wind and solar. To date, decarbonisation programmes that had been successfully delivered have required minimal engagement with the public. However, projects on the decarbonisation agenda will increasingly require social and behavioural change, and as a result, more people-centric approaches will need to be considered as part of their project delivery (Demski, 2021). 

This research will critically examine the efficacy of current public engagement efforts for disruptive green technology projects. Within project management studies, public engagement has conventionally been addressed under the remit of stakeholder management (Chow & Leiringer, 2020), but this fails to capture the way stakeholder networks evolve dynamically over time (Missonier & Loufrani-Fedida, 2014). Moreover, opposition to urban development has often been labelled as NIMBY-ism (Carley et al., 2020), further alienating disenfranchised community groups.

This research will take the alternative debates to NIMBY-ism and the deficit model as its starting point to establish an integrated framework for public engagement (cf. Burningham et al., 2015). The goal is to develop two-way communication channels that enable the public to participate in decision-making processes and to enable the harnessing of local knowledge to improve project outcomes. 

There is scope in this project to explore how digital tools such as VR and AR act as boundary objects to affect public engagement (cf. Chow & Leiringer, 2021), and how engagement at the project level impact on the national agenda, with the potential to inform policy and practice.

Please see this PhD project’s dedicated webpage for more information.

The studentship is for three years and provides a tax-free stipend of £19,237 per annum for the duration of the studentship plus university tuition fees.

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