Dr Femke Nijsse
Principle Investigator, EEIST II
Femke is a lecturer in Energy, Climate and Innovation. She has been working on improving the representation of electricity production in the E3ME-FTT model, in specific the modelling of renewables and storage technologies. Her current focus is on the potential of triggering cascading tipping points to accelerate decarbonisation.
Dr Cormac Lynch
Cormac is a social scientist and modeller researching climate policy design and economic change. His work includes modelling structural change in the low-carbon transition, policy appraisal and decision-making frameworks, stranded assets, and modelling sector-specific positive tipping points. He uses and contributes to the development of the Future Technology Transformations (FTT) suite of models and the macroeconomic model E3ME.
Dr Amir Akther
Amir is a Research Fellow at the Global Systems Institute, specializing in computational economics to accelerate the transition to net-zero. His work focuses on optimizing climate and energy policy using system dynamics and data-driven analysis. He contributes to the development of integrated assessment tools such as the E3ME-FTT model, helping to identify effective strategies for scaling low-carbon technologies and supporting evidence-based climate policy.
Dr Rishi Sahastrabuddhe
Rishi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, specializing in climate science and hydrometeorology. His research focused on developing physics-guided data-driven models through statistical and machine learning techniques. His current research includes integrating climate change impacts into Future Technology Transformations (FTT) models, contributing to a better understanding of technology transitions in the context of climate policy.
Ian Burton
Ian is a transdisciplinary researcher focusing primarily on Uncertainty Quantification and policy robustness within system transitions using machine learning and incorporating critical STS methods to inform my research and understand what perspectives current modelling work neglects and the arising epistemological and justice implications.
Hannah Fujita
Hannah is Project Manager. She joined the University of Exeter in 2021, following a varied career over 20+ years, mainly in the private sector, including in business analysis and development and later contracting and supplier management, as Category Manager and Data Insights Advisor. She is now part of the university’s Research & Innovation Project Delivery Team, supporting externally funded projects, working closely with academic leads and researchers.
Simon Sharpe
EEIST Policy Impact Lead, S-Curve Economics CIC
Simon is Managing Director of S-Curve Economics, a new non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing understanding of the economics of the low carbon transition. He is also Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team, and author of Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change, which was listed by the Times and Financial Times as one of the best environment books of the year 2023. Simon was previously Deputy Director of the UK government’s COP26 Unit, where he led international campaigns on energy, transport, land use, science and innovation. His other roles in government included leading international climate change strategy, developing the approach to clean growth in the UK’s industrial strategy, and serving as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change. He also served on diplomatic postings to China and India. Simon has published academic papers on climate change science and economics, and policy reports on climate change risk assessment, economics, and diplomacy.
Anna Murphy
Anna has a background in climate strategy consulting and has delivered climate-related strategy and research projects for start-up, industry, government and development finance clients with the Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition (EEIST) project, as a Research Fellow at Exeter University, a Research Analyst at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose, and Senior Consultant at Nordic Sustainability. She currently works at the World Bank and holds a Masters’ in Public Administration from the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London.
Joe Morrisoe
Joe is a former-UK Civil Servant with expertise in climate policy, trade policy, strategy, and diplomacy. Most recently, he worked at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, where he led the UK’s international engagement on industry decarbonisation. During the UK’s Presidency of COP26, he was responsible for the design and diplomatic delivery of the Breakthrough Agenda, a world leader-level agreement to accelerate the innovation and deployment of clean technologies globally. Joe recently completed a Masters in Public Administration at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL. His research has focused on how decisions to decarbonise the UK steel sector have been influenced by dominant economic theories, examining this through the lens of evolutionary economics. He has also worked for Professor Mariana Mazzucato as a researcher on industrial policy.
Dr Simone Cooper-Searle
Simone is the Head of the Global Environment Division at CE. She has 15 years’ experience directing research and policy teams and delivering research projects related to industrial decarbonisation, energy transition and the circular economy. Simone joined CE in May 2024. Prior to this this she spent 5 years working in DESNZ, leading the design and delivery of the UK’s Hydrogen Strategy. Simone’s career has been at the intersection of different disciplines (engineering, economics, policy), stakeholder groups (government, industry and civil society) and policy topics. Simone held a variety of research roles in the first 10 years of her career and has contributed to ~30 reports and publications. Her interdisciplinary PhD investigated the business and policy case for greater material efficiency in the UK steel supply chain, with a focus on the automotive and construction sectors.
Jamie Pirie
Jamie is a Managing Economist at Cambridge Econometrics, specialising in development and application of the CE’s suite of models to the assess the impact of potential climate policy and technology pathways, as well as the development of data visualisation/modelling tools and interfaces for interacting with CE’s suite of models. He has recently been involved in projects for the world bank modelling the impact of climate damages and decarbonisation policies on the Pakistan economy and for DG REFORM modelling the impacts of Italy’s long-term strategy to transition to a green economy. He also has expertise in modelling the impact of electromobility with multiple projects for the various clients (European climate foundation, Greenpeace & World bank) studying the environmental and economic impact of decarbonising road transport across Europe for cars and road freight.
Pim Vercoulen
Pim Vercoulen is a Senior Economist at Cambridge Econometrics and a PhD student at the University of Exeter. His responsibilities include data processing and analysis, and maintaining and operating the E3ME model, including the suite of evolutionary technology diffusion models, collectively called FTT. Over the past years, he has developed an FTT model to simulate decision-making in the iron & steel sector and updated several of the other FTT models, most notably FTT:Power. His recent work at Cambridge Econometrics has had a particular focus on applying E3ME-FTT to investigate the socio-economic impacts of various contemporary policy questions. Of particular interest are the development of scenarios to explore net zero targets, the impacts of achieving zero carbon housing in Europe, and the impacts of stranded fossil fuel assets. Future work will involve developing diffusion models to simulate decision-making in the agriculture sector and the hydrogen supply sector, to expand our analytical power and explore additional policy relevant questions.
Barnabás Benyák
Barnabás is an Economist within the Environment Division of Cambridge Econometrics, who specialises in data processing, data analysis and modelling as well as compilation and interpretation of qualitative evidence. He has contributed to developing an integrated socio-economic model for the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and has been involved in the development of FTT:Hydrogen, an evolutionary technology diffusion model.
Arpan Golechha
Arpan is Program Manager – Climate, Economics and Finance Program at WRI India. He is a climate policy researcher with over 6 years of experience in the field of climate adaptation, mitigation, and finance. In his current role, Arpan is working on climate-economy modelling to understand the different low-carbon pathways through which India can decarbonize in a just and equitable manner. He has also been involved in conducting a Political Economy Assessment on climate action at the city level and in helping deliver capacity building for city level officials. Previously, Arpan has worked as a Researcher at Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) where he worked on measuring resilience impacts of adaptation interventions and tools, adaptation finance requirements, valuation of ecosystem services and mapping systems of agriculture and adaptation finance.
Varun Agarwal
Varun is a Program Manager – Climate, Economics and Finance Program at WRI India where he contributes to the organization’s research on carbon markets, low-carbon development pathways, linkages between climate policy and sustainable development, and climate action in the corporate sector.
Shruti Dayal
Shruti is Senior Program Associate with the Climate, Economics and Finance Program at WRI India. In her current role, she works on climate and energy modelling to examine possible decarbonization pathways for India, compatible with just transitions. She has over five years of experience in Sustainability, Low Carbon Technologies, and Industry Transitions. Before joining WRI, Shruti worked at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) with a focus on the decarbonization of India’s Heavy Industry. She examined scenarios for industry transitions, particularly for the iron and steel sector. She was also a contributing author to a first-of-its-kind comprehensive report on the potential role of hydrogen in decarbonizing India’s energy system and industry.