Seminar
The politics of anticipation in the funding arena: disclosing the techno-economic alignment of chemistry research for the energy transition
- Jorrit Smit
- Date
- Friday 14 February 2025
- Time
- Series
- CWTS Research Seminars
- Location
-
Willem Einthoven
Kolffpad 1
2333 BN Leiden - Room
- CWTS Common Rooms
In this seminar, we will have a presentation by Jorrit Smit on the topic outlined below. The presentation will be followed by a commentary from an interdisciplinary discussant, Dr. Nicolas Magnard (Leiden Institute of Chemistry). Concluding, we will have a general discussion.
Abstract of presentation
Increasingly, quantitative anticipations of emerging technologies are embedded in processes of science and innovation governance, such as funding. By discussing project proposals with chemical and material scientists at Dutch and Belgian universities, I explore how prospective techno-economic assessments shape the direction of chemistry research in the context of the energy transition. The analysis explicates a process of anticipatory ‘techno-economic alignment’: research questions, material choices and collaborations in universities converge with industrial and market concerns. At the same time, the interviews demonstrate that prospective studies and data are uncertain, actively contested and implicitly political. Thus, techno-economic anticipation does not neutrally explore potential functioning of emergent technologies, but also reproduces status quo economic and societal relations. Although this might appear effective from a pragmatic policy perspective, this use of prospective techno-economics also risks reproducing hegemonic closure of policy pathways. Instead, I call for pluralization of political-economic assumptions in the direction of research.