The first Empowered Future communications workshop took place on 23 and 24 May. Academic partners and 15 school members met each other in-person for the first time at Bjørnafjorden Hotel, Os, near Bergen. Day one began with a round of introductions, before the first part of an academic writing masterclass by acclaimed energy scholar, Professor Benjamin Sovacool. Professor Sovacool focused on the best ways of searching literature, theoretical frameworks and conceptual approaches, and research design. This was followed by PhD project presentations from members Vegard Solhjem Knutsen, Ulrik Kohl, Shayan Shokrgozar, Nicol Staňková, Mathilde Rainard, and Marieke van der Star.
Day two began with the second part of Professor Benjamin Sovacool’s masterclass. Here he focused on promoting research and impact, preparing for rejection and failure, and his own 8 personal tips for becoming a better and productive researcher. Finlay Bain Kerr of University of Strathclyde, Scotland is researching the tensions and considerations present in the minewater geothermal energy development ecosystem in Scotland to illicit greater understanding on how to overcome embedded injustices in the energy system. Of the masterclass, he commented:
“For me the most useful part was about the triangulation of theoretical families, and that you don’t have to combine or lump them together, but you can position them in different ways and then find where you situate within that. I find that for my research there’s a very strong practical relevance and real-world relevance. It’s very much influenced by theory but trying to find where I contribute to theory is quite a challenge.”
Day two ended with the remaining nine PhD project presentations from Line Lefstad, Larry Ibrahim Mohammed, Håkon da Silva Hyldmo, Hilde Solli, Finlay Bain Kerr, Daniel Molin, Cristián Flores Fernández, Birgitte Nygaard, and Anna-Sophie Hobi. After a discussion and feedback session, the group then headed to Stavanger and Sola kommune to learn about their plans for a different energy future.