Research Fellowship in Earth and Environmental Governance and Diplomacy

This Research Fellowship in the Lyell Centre of Heriot Watt University, a joint research initiative between the British Geological Survey BGS NERC-UKRI and Heriot-Watt University, involves two principal activities:

1) Creation of a role in the Lyell Centre on Earth and Environmental Science Governance and Diplomacy.
This will build on the Heriot-Watt Sustainability objectives and I will be working with Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer (VP Research and Sustainability HWU) and Dr Tracy Shimmield (Director of the Lyell Centre).

This area that straddles science strategy development, governance and diplomacy is one that I have been developing while at BGS and I recently presented on this at a series of workshops and conference proceedings at AGU 2018 in Washington DC. Science Governance/Diplomacy is about the use of scientific knowledge to address shared challenges and to build constructive international partnerships. One could argue that it already has the focus of the UN, UNESCO, FCO etc., but I would say that it is time for more linked-up thinking of government, the academic and private sector, including donors, as one moves from talking about the problems to instrumenting change and actions such as geoengineering. I will develop a programme of activities that broadly corresponds to this topic and that is led out of the Lyell Centre. It would deal with some of the more contentious international environmental problems, and this work would link with other Institutes across HWU and incorporate activities such as the Sendai Framework, IPCC, and Future Earth.

Output (Y1-3) Creation of a think-tank environment in the Lyell Centre around governance and diplomacy issues related to difficult Earth, energy and environmental resilience. Links with industry and Scottish Government. Panmure House (http://www.panmurehouse.org/) developed as a go-to place for such activities

2) Establish the Krafla Magma Testbed www.kmt.is
This project will involve several UK and Icelandic university partners and in-kind contributions from other sources including the Icelandic Energy Company Landsvirkjun https://www.landsvirkjun.com.

The KMT project involves five phases of experimentation and establishment of an observatory over a period of ~ 10 years and observation that might continue >25 years. Each phase will bring significant scientific and technological advances. The ultimate objective is to create a suite of boreholes that penetrate into magma and near magma that will be linked to surface infrastructure and data systems and will be accessible to the international science community. As such the KMT is not unlike the UKGEOS observatories that NERC-UKRI with BGS is installing in Cheshire and Glasgow.

The project requires careful preparation as KMT will be working at the rock magma interface of ~900oC with fluids in excess of 450oC. The magma body is accessible at 2.1 km and has been penetrated while drilling for high T geothermal wells by Landsvirkjun. They will be instrumental in helping license the project, working with the local community, and in innovation in well design and in use of power if the KMT develops design protocols for a new high enthalpy power source, as is expected.

Outputs (Y2) Produce a full science, technical, safety, and business case for the Krafla Magma Testbed www.kmt.is. Largely web-service driven with conference and funding presentations in international for a. (Y3) Report on innovation potential and industrial partnerships of KMT.