Capacity building of Early Career Researchers to support a future thriving and sustainable CCS sector

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Blunt, Carys and Gibbins, Jon and Roberts, Jennifer J. and Steward, Elise and Bray, Rachel (2024) Capacity building of Early Career Researchers to support a future thriving and sustainable CCS sector. In: 17th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference, 2024-10-20 - 2024-10-24, TELUS Convention Centre Calgary. (https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5043787)

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Abstract

Building the skills and workforce required to deploy Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at scale continues to be an underpinning challenge to the commercialisation of CCS, alongside the upskilling and cross-skilling of existing workforces required to meet the needs of industry to deliver CCS in a sustainable and just way. The UK government’s Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) ambitions envision 50,000 jobs (including in utilisation) in CCUS by 2030i : more jobs than in the current UK offshore oil and gas industry. However, as at-scale CCS remains an emerging sector in the UK and Europe, many of the roles that will be available do not yet exist. This context means that policy and action from a range of stakeholders within and beyond CCS is required to ensure an effective workforce is in operation to meet the UK’s climate ambitions. The UK CCS Research Centre (UKCCSRC) has operated an Early Career Researcher (ECR) programme since 2012 and has worked closely with other key stakeholders across the CCS sector to enhance the value and extent of the opportunities provided to ECRs. The programme supports an international community of UK based researchers, and offers networking and development activities intended to build capacity. Here we examine the UKCCSRC experience to understand whether and how the UKCCSRC’s ECR programme has supported skills development and opportunities for career progression, and how these experiences have been taken forward into the range of career pathways taken by UKCCSRC ECR alumni. To achieve these aims, we mapped and analysed UKCCSRC activities supplemented by a survey of ECR Alumni: a) The programme developed by the UKCCSRC to enable its ECRs to gain the wide range of skills, networking and collaboration opportunities needed to support their future careers. b) The progression routes and roles that UKCCSRC ECR alumni have taken since 2012, and how this is supporting the current deployment of CCS at different levels. c) What has worked well, what has proven challenging, and key learnings for institutions looking to support ECR opportunities and skills development to enable a flourishing CCS sector. Our findings shed light on the role of research networks and institutes in working alongside the CCS stakeholder community to nurture the workforce of the future. Our analysis highlights how established and new partnerships have been, and will continue to be, crucial for delivering a meaningful multidisciplinary programme for supporting ECR development. We pose recommendations for research networks such as UKCCSRC to continue to build an inclusive and flourishing environment for ECRs, and to play a role in supporting a connected pipeline of talent ready to deliver the CCS sector of today and tomorrow, and ultimately to ensure a sustainable transition to net zero.

ORCID iDs

Blunt, Carys, Gibbins, Jon, Roberts, Jennifer J. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4505-8524, Steward, Elise and Bray, Rachel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5620-4577;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)