"Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow in Hydrogen Transition and Energy Justice"

Organisation: Cranfield University

Faculty or Department: Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Based at: Cranfield Campus, Cranfield, Bedfordshire

Hours of work: 37 hours per week, normally worked Monday to Friday. Flexible working will be considered.

Contract type: Fixed term contract

Fixed Term Period: For 30 Months

Salary: Research Fellow - Full time starting salary is normally in the range of £37,337 to £44,906 per annum. Senior Research Fellow - Full time starting salary is normally in the range of £48,039 per annum

Apply by: 11/02/2026

Role Description

About the Role

You will be advancing the development and application of socio-technical systems thinking and justice principles to ensure the benefits and disbenefits of hydrogen transition are borne fairly. You will be joining the Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center which aims to develop net-zero and responsible hydrogen pathways across the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. You will become a member of the cross-cutting policies, economics and market thrust as well as the UK team. You will lead social aspects of hydrogen infrastructure development and justice work streams across the four jurisdictions. You will be expected to evaluate the incumbent governance regimes, including formal laws and regulations, against principles of flexibility and learning with a view to establish a set of adaptive governance principles and identify best practices. Analysing how hydrogen transition may impact vulnerable or indigenous peoples, in particular whether and how it can undo past injustices, is very important for this role. You are expected to work and coordinate this strand of work with our local partners across the four jurisdictions. You will also support Cranfield’s role to devise activities for embedding multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity between technical and social science teams.

About You

You will be educated to doctoral level in governance of energy systems or institutional perspectives to energy transitions or socio-technical perspectives to energy systems change or energy justice or energy policy and regulation.

With excellent communication skills, you will have expertise in social science research methods and development of new concepts and frameworks. For appointments at Senior Research Fellow level, demonstrated ability to win and deliver research grants or manage research teams is an essential criteria.

How to apply

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Prof Nazmiye Ozkan, Chair in Sustainable Energy Transitions, on (T): 01234 45 7296 or (E): n.ozkan@cranfield.ac.uk

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on E: hrrecruitment@cranfield.ac.uk. Please quote reference number 5213.

Closing date for receipt of applications: 11 February 2026

Please note that we reserve the right to close this advert prior to the stated closing date should we receive sufficient numbers of applications. Therefore, we would encourage you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.