Strengthening Diverse Research Capacity for an Inclusive Green Recovery in Canada

Julie MacArthur was awarded funding through a SSHRC grant for a research project aimed at empowering women and non-binary academics’ contributions to sustainable energy research.

Energy systems are in the midst of significant restructuring across the globe, facing pressures to decarbonize, decentralize, diversify and decolonize. However, as governments commit to net-zero targets, there is no guarantee that a low-carbon transition in the context of a post-pandemic green recovery for Canada, particularly in the energy sector, will be just or equitable. Increasing evidence demonstrates that, despite rhetoric to the contrary, low-carbon transitions do not necessarily reduce existing intersectional racial and gender inequities, but rather are likely to magnify them (Stephens & Allen 2022; Bukhari, Turner, Mittal, Osawe 2020; Johnson, Han, Knight et al 2020). In energy industry employment, academic energy research, and policy and decision-making processes, large racial and gender gaps are prevalent and persistent (Baruah, 2017; Williams et al 2021). The Strengthening Diverse Research Capacity for an Inclusive Green Recovery in Canada project will address diversity gaps in energy research and practice by increasing the profile of racially diverse energy scholars who identify as women, genderfluid, or non-binary.

At the heart of this application is the existing Women and Inclusivity in Sustainable Energy Research (WISER) network, whose main aim is to empower women and non-binary academics to contribute towards a generous mode of knowledge production for sustainable energy research. With more than 150 members from 24 countries, WISER was founded in Toronto in 2017 and has a strong Canadian base with a plurality of Canadian members (38%). This project includes a large team comprising of the WISER steering committee (Drs MacArthur, Tozer, Das, Sharma, Savvidou, and Joshi) as well as WISER members who will participate as speakers and are well placed to ensure the most diverse representation of experts for our project. We have partnered with organizations (Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI), Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE)), keen to exchange knowledge with members and translate research from a diverse range of scholars to policy communities and the public. Their support for student researchers, together with our schedule of events over the 12 months of the project also provides important training opportunities for the next generation of diverse energy scholars.

Strengthening Diverse Research Capacity for an Inclusive Green Recovery in Canada will communicate with two main audiences: policy-oriented scholars working with energy transitions, and policy and decision-making practitioners. In convening research symposia it will improve visibility of energy research led by diverse individuals. Expected outputs are the expansion of research networks of diverse scholars through three themed symposia in 2022, identification of potential new stakeholders through knowledge mobilization activities (podcasts, op-eds, summary blog posts), and the design of a scholarly book on energy transitions featuring racially diverse women as editors and authors. The symposia will cover topics essential to understanding and facilitating low carbon transitions: energy justice and democracy, Indigenous sovereignty, fossil-fuel phase-outs, energy modelling and data innovations and the status and role of policy change. An often missing but vital piece of this project also includes online seminars providing skills development on media outreach and managing academic careers. It is our expectation that the above activities are important, though not sufficient, steps towards a more equitable and inclusive research practice, knowledge-making activities, and research institutions.