Working at the Energy Saving Trust. Reflections on an Industry Placement
Published on 23 October 2024
Blog by Dr George Warren, an ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow. George took part in a placement scheme for the Energy-PIECES project funded by the UKERC Whole Systems Networking Fund while a PhD student.
During my PhD studies, I was very lucky to be partnered with the Energy Saving Trust as part of a networking and skills development project aimed at promoting Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) perspectives in the energy sector. My main role, set out in dialogue with the organisation, was to engage with people in the industry and apply insights from the literature to help practitioners understand what shapes success in delivering domestic energy advice.
I was working with a range of people with academic and non-academic backgrounds in the policy team and practitioners across the Energy Saving Trust. This taught me a lot about how social science is made, understood and used in non-academic environments.
My placement was a really different experience than doing a social science PhD. I learnt a lot about how research in non-academic environments is shaped by different needs, capacities, and opportunities to those we traditionally think about in academic institutions. Undertaking the placement really cemented my desire to undertake research that has an impact, and to work at the interface of disciplines and sectors to address environmental crises.
The placement, and the report we published on English energy advice as a result, was also impactful on my PhD research direction. I think it probably helped me get my role as a Knowledge Exchange Fellow with ACCESS, since it gave me to a chance to engage in knowledge exchange in a structured, supportive and impactful environment.