DLUHC Building a Green Future Fellowship UKRI Policy Fellowship
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Geographical Sciences
Abstract
Each fellowship will last up to 18 months to cover:
a 3-month inception phase for set up activity
a 12-month placement with the host organisation
an impact phase lasting up to 3 months
Fellows will co-design projects and activities with their host and produce analysis to inform government decision-making across a range of policy priorities. Fellows will also engage across the host organisation, building effective working relationships and supporting wider knowledge exchange with researchers.
This will be supported through their embedded role within the host organisation, including line management support.
a 3-month inception phase for set up activity
a 12-month placement with the host organisation
an impact phase lasting up to 3 months
Fellows will co-design projects and activities with their host and produce analysis to inform government decision-making across a range of policy priorities. Fellows will also engage across the host organisation, building effective working relationships and supporting wider knowledge exchange with researchers.
This will be supported through their embedded role within the host organisation, including line management support.
| Description | Ed Atkins funding from this fellowship supported the development of the Net Zero Resilience Index. The Net Zero Resilience Index assesses risk across four factors: Complexity (employment diversity), Relatedness (industry co-location), Reliance (dependency on few industries, especially those at green restructuring risk), and Working Age Population. This determines not just vulnerability to an economic shock but also the resilience of the local economy: its ability to bounce back, pivot and provide new jobs for those affected. Each Local Authority District receives a 1-10 score, highlighting economic resilience and vulnerability to guide targeted support. The NZRI highlights 32 Local Authorities that are more vulnerable to net zero as an economic shock and require additional policy support to ensure greater resilience. This Index was developed outside of government, but based on discussions and collaboration developed during this fellowship. It has been used in internal decisions in MHCLG, DBT and DESNZ, been presented in ministerial briefings, and been shared with combined authority decision-makers to support regional decision-making. It will be used to frame longer-term collaboration in this space to ensure a sustainability of the Fellowship work. |
| Exploitation Route | 2025 report - We are now working with policymakers in central and regional government to understand how the NZRI can be developed further - both in terms of using additional data and in how it can be presented to allow an easier-to-use tool in decision-making. |
| Sectors | Energy Government Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-briefings/net-zero-decarbonisation-economy/ |
| Description | Overarching narrative: Net zero policy represents an important process of economic restructuring, including both benefits and costs across the national economy. To date, there has been relatively limited research on net zero as policy of economic transition and, with such a conceptualisation, as causing localised economic shocks due to the phasing down of high-emission industries or workplaces. My research explores these socio-economic consequences of net zero policy, understanding localised impacts as often overlapping with previous patterns of economic precarity. I work on both sides of this transition - understanding how vulnerability and resilience is geographically dispersed and/or clustered (depending on the sector) and working with communities to understand how new green skills and profiles can mitigate such impacts. The fellowship supported greater knowledge exchange activities namely: - Briefing policy and research teams officials across three different government department (MHCLG as host, plus DBT and DESNZ) directly on the research - Sharing academic research publications across internal policy networks and beyond, including work with IPPR and my designated policy mentor. - Providing comments and feedback to documents on developing ideas and policy programmes on request. - Supporting the development of internal research culture and policy through my being hosted at the Chief Scientific Adviser's Office, MHCLG. - Writing of 10 internal briefings, shared across different teams and departments, exploring and conceptualising net zero as a transition opportunity and risk: presenting empirical findings and challenging assumptions in existing work. In discussion with civil service colleagues, this knowledge exchange has led to two key areas of impact - that are currently emerging and taking form in policy: - The Net Zero Resilience Index (defined previously) has been used directly in developing early interventions to understand potential transition risks to high-emissions sectors and workplaces across the UK. The NZRI has provided an important knowledge base to foreground geographies of risk and resilience in these discussions - providing novel data to support better policy. This has led to the NZRI being discussed in ministerial briefings at DESNZ. - My research challenged preexisting assumption and changed the MHCLG/DBT base on net zero as a transition. It has underpinned broader discussions around industrial policy (currently at green paper stage) and has been referenced in several internal briefings (including to SOS) as highlighting key regional dynamics of net zero's economic transition. Both of these impacts remain emergent and will develop over time. Further details of this are classified at this stage. Overall, this fellowship has enabled the embedding of my work as an academic within the policy-making setting: allowing its translation and use within emergent policy priorities and support the co-devising of research projects (i.e., the NZRI), bespoke research advice, and future work that will extend beyond the project end. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2025 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Circulation and presentation of research |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Description | Circulation and presentation of research |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Developed knowledge base of net zero as an economic transition and/or shock |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | My research has been used directly and cited in three research papers internally to MHCLG, DBT and DESNZ respectively. In doing so, my work has: a) challenged prevailing assumptions about the geographies of net zero as form of economic restructuring and transition risk; b) provided empirical evidence to inform policies, in development, to seek to mitigate these consequences, and c) developed the knowledge base and records to three government departments (with this work now shared across several different teams and directorates in the respective departments). Further details are classified. |
| Description | Bristol Poverty Institute Seedcorn Fund: Developing a Net Zero Resilience Index |
| Amount | £3,370 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2024 |
| End | 08/2024 |
| Description | ESRC IAA Seedcorn: Disseminating a Net Zero Resilience Index |
| Amount | £2,247 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2024 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Description | UKRI Policy Fellowship activities at MHCLG and other government departments |
| Organisation | Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The UKRI Policy Relationship has enabled Ed Atkins to be embedded in various teams across the UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and other government departments - including work with the Chief Scientific Adviser's Office (MHCLG), teams working on developing industrial strategy and in evaluating nad mitigating transition risks associated with net zero (MHCLG and Department for Business and Trade), teams working on planning reform to support the refurbishment of buildings over demolition (MHCLG), and those working on industrial decarbonisation (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Contributions include the writing of internal briefings, provision of ad hoc advice, and supporting strategic thinking on emergent policy challenges. Work has been fed into Ministerial briefings and supported policy development. |
| Impact | All internal to government departments and currently confidential. This collaboration has enabled me, as a researcher, to build a contact network, attend and lead meetings, arrange, write and present briefings, and co-devise new research questions and projects that will continue post-award. |
| Start Year | 2023 |