PhD Studentship: Mapping Public Engagements for More Just and Responsive Sustainability Innovations

University of East Anglia - School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics

Primary supervisor - Dr Helen Pallett

The climate and biodiversity crisis requires not only new sustainability innovations, but also a new approach to innovation which departs from the profit-led, centralised, ‘move-fast-and-break-things’ model which dominates. Models of frugal, responsible and open innovation have been proposed and enthusiastically taken up to make innovations more just and societally responsive; however, such approaches still tend to imagine a monolithic public whose views can be established and understood through discrete engagements. Recent work in Science and Technology Studies and cognate disciplines has challenged this approach, instead viewing public engagement as already existing in diverse forms, constructed through practice and existing in wider ecologies. These insights necessitate a radically different approach to public engagement with sustainability innovations, which is able to not only attend to diverse pre-existing engagements which are relevant to the innovation in question, but which also provide ways for insights from these engagements to feed into innovation processes on an ongoing basis.

This PhD project will develop and evaluate an approach for mapping diverse public engagements with sustainability innovations to feed into innovation processes. The case(s) will be defined by the student, but could include smart energy technologies, AI, or waste innovations. The project will entail: (i) reviewing and receiving training in existing concepts and approaches to mapping public engagement; (ii) developing a mapping approach based on this review; (iii) applying the approach to live cases; and (iv) evaluating the mapping approach and its future development with innovators, policy makers and civil society actors.

The PhD will be based in the 3S research group in the School of Environmental Sciences and will work closely with the UKERC Public Engagement Observatory to make a major contribution to developing new approaches to better account for plural public values, visions and concerns in innovation.

Entry requirements

The standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1 in Geography, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, Design, Architecture, Engineering, Computer Science, Environmental Sciences, History, Psychology.

Mode of study

Full-time

Start date

1 October 2026

Funding

This PhD project is in a competition for a Faculty of Science funded studentship. Funding is available to UK applicants and comprises ‘home’ tuition fees and an annual stipend for 3 years.

Closing Date

10/12/2025

To apply for this role, please click on the 'Apply' button above.