DecarboN8 Cumbria – Mobility Transformation 2037

Monika is Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, Director of the Centre for Mobilities Research and Associate Director at the Institute for Social Futures. Her research explores the digital dimension of contemporary ‘mobile lives’ with a focus on IT ethics and risk governance. She combines qualitative, ethnographic studies, social theory, and design through mobile, ‘inventive’ methods, and stakeholder engagement. Her interdisciplinary, experimental, engaged ‘public sociology’ explores and shapes socio-technical futures. She leads research on the informationalisation of risk governance, exploring opportunities and challenges in national and international projects (BRIDGE, SecInCoRe). Her theoretical orientation builds on mobilities research, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, science and technology studies, feminist and non-representational theory, and design research. In 2011 she received an honorary doctorate for her work in participatory design from Roskilde University, Denmark. She edits the book series Changing Mobilities (Routledge) with Peter Adey.

Rebecca Willis is a Professor in Energy & Climate Governance at Lancaster Environment Centre, where she leads the Climate Citizens  project. In 2020 she was an Expert Lead for Climate Assembly UK, the Citizens’ Assembly established by the UK Parliament. Rebecca is a Trustee of the New Economics Foundation and an adviser to the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund. She features on the Woman’s Hour Our Planet Power List which highlights 30 women making an impact by helping to protect our planet. Her book, Too Hot To Handle? The democratic challenge of climate change was published by Bristol University Press in March 2020. Previously, she was a research fellow for the IGov project at the University of Exeter, investigating energy governance. From 2015-2019 she was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UKRI’s Energy Programme, and from 2011-15 she was a Council Member of the Natural Environment Research Council. She was Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising the Prime Minister and First Ministers of the devolved administrations, from 2004-2011. In 2009 Rebecca founded Green Alliance’s Climate Leadership Programme, an initiative to support Members of the UK Parliament, and earlier served as Green Alliance’s Director. Rebecca has a degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from Lancaster University.

Dmitry has a background in applied mathematics and started his career as an aerospace scientist before moving to sustainability and climate change. He has worked on a range of projects with partners from academia, the private sector, the UK Government and the United Nations. At Small World Consulting, Dmitry leads the portfolio of projects on assessing landscape-level carbon emissions and land use change options to aid carbon sequestration. Recent clients include all UK National Parks, all Welsh AONBs, Cotswolds and Cannock Chase National Landscapes, Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Councils, and private estates.  

Daniel bought The Quiet Site, a Carbon Neutral Holiday Park set amongst the stunning fells that overlook Ullswater, in 2000 after working for several years as an electrical engineer in London. He runs a business that has both an environmental and social conscience. The team are all paid a living wage and operate with a high degree of autonomy. The Quiet Site has reinvested in sustainable measures for two decades and started to trade as a Carbon Neutral from 2017. They opened a Zero Waste shop in 2019 which marked the beginning of their transition into a circular economy. Daniel believes that waste needs to be designed out of our lives and is keen to implement this. In 2020 The Quiet Site was awarded a Queens Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development.

Gemma Procter has worked within Travel and Tourism in Cumbria for over 15 years and has been involved with sustainable transport projects such as the GoLakes Travel Programme. In 2020 she completed her Professional Certificate in Sustainable Tourism with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

With a background in marketing, her specialism is teaming practical information and inspiring content to help enable behaviour change whilst travelling for leisure.

Steve Lenartowicz is a trustee of Ambleside Action for a Future, a network of local residents working together to mitigate climate and environmental breakdown and build community resilience.

Emma is Lead Strategy Adviser for recreation and sustainable transport for the Lake District National Park Authority. In her current role she develops strategies and policies to help develop sustainable tourism through working in partnership to improve opportunities for low carbon travel and recreational opportunities which are suitable for a wide range of visitors and residents. This has included developing a vision for sustainable travel for the Lake District, working with partners to develop the transport elements of the partnership Plan as well as facilitating the development of projects including new cycle and walking trails and shuttle bus services. Emma has over 25 years of experience in the field of sustainable transport, previously having had roles with Cumbria County Council and Northumberland National Park.

Greg is Professor of Transport Governance at the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. He has researched issues surrounding the design and implementation of new policies for over 20 years covering a range of issues. He is an expert in climate and energy policy in the transport sector and is the Transport Decarbonisation Champion for EPSRC. He is the Principal Investigator on the DecarboN8 network where he is responsible for integrating a new place based approach to decarbonising transport. Greg co-chairs the Commission on Travel Demand which has published influential studies on travel demand and shared mobility. He is the Secretary General of the World Conference on Transport Research Society and the Chair of the Special Interest Group on Governance. He has served as an advisor to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee and regularly advises local, national and international governments. 

Biography TBC

Alistair has worked in transport demand management in the public, private and voluntary sectors for 20 years. His particular interests are in new approaches to creating resilient, fair and low-impact access and transport in rural communities and national parks. This work relates to a conviction that there is benefit to blurring the boundaries between how people travel and explore and the visitor experience. Alistair was sustainable transport adviser at Lake District National Park between 2010 and 2014. As a freelance consultant, Alistair has developed close working relationships with the Lake District National Park Authority and Peak District National Park Authority. Alistair also has a long-standing interest in shared transport and was executive director at CoMoUK, and is a long-standing advocate of shared cars “vaccinating” people against car dependency, and of the (as yet) unrealised potential of shared e-bikes – all as part of integrated transport solutions for modern low impact mobility lifestyles.

Dénes is a newly appointed lecturer (assistant professor) in Energy Storage Systems Dynamics with Energy Lancaster. His research interests include system dynamics, energy transitions, energy storage, complex systems, multi-agent systems and data visualization. Dénes’ previous work revolved around data science and system dynamics simulation modeling to study problems of sustainable energy transitions and biophysical economics, where he developed global and national climate-compliant decarbonization paths. His data analyses and visualizations balance on the fine line between work and hobby and he has participated in, organized and led educational workshops on sustainability and renewable energy across developing regions in Asia and Africa. He also leads the datactivism blog ‘Try something new. Everyday.’, exploring topics in development through data analysis and visualization.

Dr Caglar Koksal is a Research Associate and Lecturer in Urban Planning at The University of Manchester. His work and research focus on spatial planning, urban governance and policy, and healthy inequities. He investigates these topics through practically-engaged, evidence-focused, critical research and using both quantitative methods, such as spatial analysis, and qualitative methods, such as critical policy analysis and elite interviews. Specifically, his most recent research critically investigates what sort of changes in urban governance and urban development decision-making processes are needed to bring about the imminent transformation needed to achieve our sustainability goals, not least in the land-use and transport systems.

Dr Alex Nurse is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Liverpool. His research interests focus on matters of urban governance, and urban cycling policy. Alex’s interests broadly focus on one question: how can local actors use policy levers to deliver outcomes that are important for them. These questions have been explored at every scale of the city: from Mayoralities to neighbourhoods. Most recently, Alex’s research has focused on the potential for delivering a step-change in how cities provide for cycle infrastructure. In particular, his research has focused on the phenomena of ‘bikelash’ (i.e. resistance to such schemes, and how planning techniques can prevent/minimise these occurrences.

Dr Julie Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy. Her primary research focus is urban and regional policy, with a special interest in the impacts of the urban environment on social inclusion, health and wellbeing. Sustainability forms a recurrent theme in her research and Julie is currently the Principal Investigator on an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded project for the DecarboN8 network, exploring modal shift in transport and the social acceptability of policy. She recently served for three years as Associate Director (Methods Hub) with the Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership at the Scottish Graduate School for Social Science. Julie was previously the research lead, project-managing the award-winning GoWell East Research and Learning Programme, a five-year, mixed methods research project investigating regeneration interventions and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Drawing on her track record of applied, policy-relevant social research, Julie has given evidence to government committees to inform policy development in the fields of urban transport, housing, physical activity and wellbeing.  Addressing social and policy challenges through engagement with community and policy stakeholders is fundamental to Julie’s research field and she is deeply committed to collaboration between academic research, policy and the wider community.