by Andrew Robertson

Decarbonising the electricity sector has been identified as a short-term priority for cutting UK greenhouse gas emissions in response to the risks of climate change. The scale and rate of change in the electricity sector means that there is a strong need for energy research and a big potential for new research to influence policy. This article outlines examples of the areas where research is, or could be, particularly influential in policy making and uses them to demonstrate some of challenges policy makers face in using research to develop policy.

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by Michele Mastroeni

Regulation of science and technology is an important factor in how our technological landscape develops, and whether a technology makes it to the end-users. While ideally regulation will be based on
broadly accepted values and trusted scientific assessment, the reality is much more complicated. Just as different technologies spur intense debate in society, so too do regulatory systems and how they are constructed. Given the varying (often conflicting) interests in society, a regulatory system should be built on the values of transparency, and rigorous and equitable standards of evidence for all parties assessing a technology’s risks and benefits.

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by Tim Guilliams

Given the current economic climate it is important to maximise academic impact on society. Measures of academic impact have been dominated by the commercialisation of academic discoveries, thereby failing to capture the complete spectrum of academic activities that lead to societal impact. In fact, universities do not appear to act as a significant source of intellectual property and technology for private companies. It is therefore questionable to use commercialisation of academic discoveries as the main metric to measure impact. This
article highlights the importance of a broader view when assessing knowledge exchange between universities and other sectors and the measurement of academic impact on society, hoping to move beyond commercialisation.

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by Christina Chang and Rebecca Farnum

Our world is running out of fossil fuels to burn for energy. Therefore, even if we were not concerned with climate change, we need to be able to produce and store energy sustainably from renewable sources. Sunlight is an abundant energy supply, and the blueprint for sustainable energy creation and storage has long been right under our noses – and on our salad forks. This article draws attention to an emerging solar energy storage technology being developed in labs around the world, called artificial photosynthesis. Artificial photosynthesis can be used to make ‘artificial leaves’ that act like ‘solar batteries’, creating and storing fuel. We describe how artificial photosynthesis works and discuss how it may provide a way forward for renewable energy storage, reduce our negative impacts on the planet, and make electricity accessible to our most vulnerable population.

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by Victoria Plutshack

As the UK aims to produce 15% of its energy consumption from renewables by 2020, planning policy becomes increasingly important to facilitate the large-scale implementation of renewable technologies. As it stands, there is great opposition to wind farms across Wales, the North East of England and Scotland. How can we improve the planning process and companies’ engagement with the local community to increase the success rate for planning applications? This piece looks at what we can learn from psychological and sociological frameworks, such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour and concepts of place attachment, to craft a suitable government response.

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