People must be at the heart of sustainability initiatives for them to succeed, but there are big, unanswered questions about how this should practically be done.

Regardless, it is clear that – following decades of failure and underwhelming progress – there needs to be fundamental change in how researchers, policymakers and funders approach sustainability and society. 

This lecture from Prof Chris Foulds will include reflections on: 

• how researchers can, do and should work together
• the relationships needed for good social science research to feed into sustainability policymaking
• expectations for delivering and learning from truly cutting-edge initiatives
• how ideas of responsibility, inclusiveness and diversity should be accounted for. 

Prof Foulds will, in particular, draw on his experiences of coordinating numerous large-scale, international low-carbon energy/sustainability projects, where he has worked with a range of stakeholders to better understand the roles of (and implications for) society in the drive for sustainability.