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Up Close and Policy: Advancing net zero through evidence and collaboration

19 February 2025, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

An image of wind turbines on hills and mountains

UCL Public Policy brings you Up Close and Policy, providing insight into the way the research community informs policy-making. You will hear from UCL researchers who have worked with UK policymakers in various capacities, ranging from Policy Fellows within government departments, to serving as Chief Scientific Advisors. These experts will share their firsthand experiences, detailing the dynamics of navigating diverse cultural landscapes to produce more evidence-informed policies.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

UCL Public Policy

About the online session

Policy making is a multifaceted process that involves a broad spectrum of actors, each navigating and reconciling competing perspectives, pressures, and interests. Furthermore, the gap between policy formulation and practical implementation—whether at the national or local level—can often seem vast and insurmountable. This challenge is particularly pronounced in areas like climate change, net zero goals, and sustainability.

The What Works Network seeks to bridge these divides by supporting more effective and efficient public services at both national and local levels. However, a similar network dedicated to Net Zero is currently lacking. In response, the UCL Net Zero What Works (NZWW) Group was established in 2021 with the goal of fostering coherent and impactful policy, practice, and capability development. This is achieved through the creation, collation, synthesis, analysis, evaluation, translation, and cross-sector dissemination of evidence on "what works" across social, economic, technological, and environmental domains.

In this session, Dr. Penny Clark and Polina Pencheva, members of the NZWW Group, will discuss the formation of the group and explore how systems thinking shapes their approach. They will share insights into how they nagivated the complex and crowded field of climate change and net zero. Additionally, they will outline the methods and strategies they use to develop networks and partnerships at both the national and local levels.

The UCL Net Zero What Works Group is based within UCL’s Department for Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy and was founded with support from a UKRI EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account grant.

About the Speakers

Dr Penny Clark

Dr Penny Clarke is a social scientist with MSc in Social Research Methods and a specialism in shared housing and environmental evaluation. She has held post-doctoral sustainability related roles alongside being a Director of a real estate consultancy with a focus on impact and sustainability.

Polina Pencheva

Polina Pencheva is an architect with over 12 years of experience of leading the design and delivery of large-scale built-environment projects. A champion of collaborative practice, stakeholder engagement and transdisciplinary working with an expertise in project delivery, procurement and supply chains, policy and ESG.