We currently have an exciting PhD opportunity advertised linked to the newly launched JUST Centre. More details below and via this link (link includes application details): Funded PhD Opportunities – Lancaster University
Any queries feel free to contact myself (Ally) a.gormally@lancaster.ac.uk, Jake Ainscough j.ainscough@lancaster.ac.uk, or Becky Willis r.willis@lancaster.ac.uk
Deadline: 30th April 2025.
This interdisciplinary PhD opportunity will investigate how actors in the UK energy governance system are navigating the dual imperatives of decarbonising at pace whilst securing and maintaining a public mandate. Effective public engagement in climate policy is belatedly being recognised as important for effective policy design, securing a public mandate, and avoiding backlash. Yet this imperative is often set against the need to move ‘at pace’, given the rapidly shrinking window for bringing down global carbon emissions. This poses a dilemma – how to move quickly, without generating a backlash that then slows the transition, as happened previously in the case of onshore wind. This dilemma has been posed afresh in the UK by the Government’s stated intent to achieve ‘clean power’ by 2030. This rush to clean power has been accompanied by a concomitant restructuring of energy governance institutions – including the launch of a new National Energy System Operator and an ongoing government review into the role of Ofgem. Local Authorities are also deeply implicated, as planning rules are re-written with a view to accelerating the transition.
The aim of this PhD will be to undertake one or more local case studies in the North of England, to critically analyse how actors in the governance system (e.g. local authorities, energy companies, regulatory agencies, DNOs, the NESO etc.) are balancing the need for citizen input and support with the renewed push for clean power. The project will have a particular focus on distributional impacts of energy governance changes, and the equity implications of the recent drive for rapid power decarbonisation.
The PhD is affiliated to the JUST (Joined-Up Sustainability Transformations) Centre, a new multi-University consortium bringing together the universities of Lancaster, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, and Newcastle, and with partners in the policy, innovation, business, local government, community and voluntary sector. JUST seeks to accelerate a just transition through coordinating research into action at all levels of society, to understand what works, where, why, and for whom. The Centres work is clustered around six themes: Principles of Justice; Governance, Policy & Change; Methodological Innovation; Built & Social Infrastructures; Social & Solidarity Economies; and Democratic Innovations.
Beyond the above specification, the project is open for the candidate to shape based on their own interests and disciplinary expertise. Please indicate in the application form which of the JUST Centre themes you would seek to position this project in – this may be more than one.