Workshop // "Energy-Water-Climate Change Nexus (EWCN) in a Transitional Economy: Sustainability and Resilience"

Energy and water are both the foundation of human society and economy. The production and consumption of energy are closely integrated with that of water, and vice versa. In the past few decades, the rising demand for both energy and water has led to several crucial sustainability issues, such as climate change, renewable energy, urbanization, and responsible trading. Meanwhile, the changing natural, economic and political environment in both the United Kingdom and China brings much uncertainty around energy and water issues, especially at this transitional period for both countries. The workshop will bring together approximately thirty early-stage researchers who are interested in the energy-water-climate change nexus (EWCN) among different research areas. It will offer a platform for those researchers to exchange research ideas and methods extensively, thus discover further collaborative opportunities together. In the longer term, the workshop would hopefully establish formal academic communications among universities and research centers from UK and China, facilitate publications, and create various funding proposals.

Where and when

Week commencing 22nd May, 2017 at Nanjing University, Jiangsu, China

Hosted by

• Nanjing University
• Lancaster University

Research themes and topics

We encourage participants to present quantitative and qualitative analysis on the following questions:

1. How are the energy, water and climate challenges influencing our systems?
2. How can the transitioning economy facilitate solutions that make our systems more sustainable and resilience?

The workshop aims to encourage communication among different research questions and state-of-the-art methodologies of EWCN related research. We hereby call for research ideas, frameworks and working papers from both countries. The key themes and topics include:

• EWCN & Energy innovation and transition: nexus challenges and solutions regarding to renewable energy, climate mitigation, energy policy, etc.
• EWCN & Water management: water efficiency, pollution, climate adaptation.
• EWCN & Business, management and finance: nexus challenges and solutions in the global value chains, green manufacturing, and sustainable finance issues.
• EWCN & Cities and reurbanization: air pollution; transportation; water or climate risks at city level or during urbanization.

Each of the four sessions will include the presentations of 6-8 junior researchers from both countries. Two professors from Lancaster University and two professors from Chinese Universities will join the sessions to provide insights and advices for participants.

Eligibility

Applicants must hold a PhD (or have equivalent research experience) and have less than 10 years of post-doctoral research experience. Applicants must submit a research summary or paper proposal no more than 500 words before 26th April of 2017. UK researchers are encouraged to contact Dr. Lingxuan Liu through Lingxuan.liu@lancaster.ac.uk for inquiries. Chinese researchers are encouraged to contact Dr. Beibei Liu through lbeibei@nju.edu.cn. Selection of paper proposals will be based on a peer review process, but there are also invited participants based on previous publication and academic activities. The round-trip international flights from UK to China will be covered by British Council who has kindly sponsored this workshop. The workshop is also open to students and non-academics at their own costs.

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Workshop flyer