Advancing global collaboration and equity in energy demand research: engaging early career researchers through the NEST 2025 platform

Research on energy demand reduction (EDR) is timely to contribute solutions to major energy challenges and to climate change. Engaging Early Career Researchers (ECRs) is essential to advancing cutting-edge research and fostering innovation in EDR.  

ECRs bring fresh perspectives and creative approaches that can challenge existing paradigms and address global energy challenges with interdisciplinary and context-specific solutions.   

This project aims at uncovering critical challenges and solutions to EDR by bringing perspectives from the Global North (GN) and the Global South (GS). 

The project aims to achieve the following objectives: 

• to create platforms for dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing which bridge regional and disciplinary divides. 

• to foster connections across regions and engage a diverse international audience to reflect on critical issues which influence energy systems worldwide. 

• to enhance EDRC’s visibility among ECRs by discussing global energy demand issues. 

The project main activities have been embedded within the 10th Annual Network of ECRs for Sustainability Transitions (NEST) conference “Bridging the Gap between Research and Reality: A reflection on 10 years of NEST” at the University of Sussex, 29-30th May 2025, with over 130 scholars from across the world. 

Methodology 

A suite of research activities was adopted during the conference: 

• Keynote on ‘Energy Justice and Development: Balancing Priorities in the South and North’; 
• Panel Discussion on “Energy Justice and Development: Balancing Priorities in the South and North”, with five experts including EDRC scholars;
• Four parallel EDR – themed Workshops

1. 1. Transdisciplinary Methods for Researching Sustainability Transitions 
   2. Learning to transition: Feminist utopias, reimagining sustainable futures 
   3. Integrating the human perspective: Emotions, identity and religion in Sustainability Transitions 
   4. Exploring the Role of ‘Place’ in Sustainability Transitions Research 

• Sixteen EDR-themed parallel sessions; 
• Poster presentations; 
• Networking reception hosted by EDRC. 

We are happy to share our outputs from the project, which include three blogs from our research team: 

• How our emotions shape energy transitions – Energy Demand Research Centre 
• Sustainability talks and visa walls: reflections from the NEST conference 2025 on whose voices are heard – Energy Demand Research Centre 
• Feminist utopia in sustainability transitions- Sustainability Transitions Research Network 

We also recently hosted, in collaboration with the NEST platform, the first of our ‘energy justice in the Global South’ focused webinar series with Dr. Patience Mguni presenting on ‘What can go wrong with cooking? Seeking justice while navigating vulnerability and resilience at the WEF nexus in Kampala’. Mapula Tsangela, PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University, was invited as a discussant. 

Our next webinar will host Prof. Pradip Swanakar’s from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, who will discuss ‘From Coal Dependence to Energy Justice: Lessons from India’s Just Transition’. 

Dissemination activities include a perspective article reflecting on key themes discussed at the conference and onwards by the project team.