Researcher-Led Development of E-Research in the Social Sciences: The Case of an E-Social Science Pilot Demonstrator Project

The introduction and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the process of research is extending beyond research management into research practice itself. This extension of the use of ICT in research is being termed as e-research. The characteristics of e-research are seen as the combination of three interrelated strands, which are: the increased computerization of the research process; research organized more predominantly in the form of distributed networks of researchers, and a strong emphasis on visualization. E-research has become established in the natural sciences but the development of e-research in relation to social sciences is variable and less pervasive. The richness of the social sciences and their variety of practices and engagement in diverse fields of study mean that e-research as utilized in the natural sciences cannot be easily migrated into the social sciences. This paper explores the development of e-research for the social sciences. The paper is based on an ESRC funded e-social science demonstrator project in which social scientists sought to shape the use of Grid ICT technologies in the research process. The project is called: \'Collaborative Analysis of Offenders\' Personal and Area-based Social Exclusion\': it addresses social exclusion in relation to how individual and neighbourhood effects account for geographical variations of crime patterns and explores the opportunities and challenges offered by e-research to address the research problem. The paper suggests that if e-research is driven from the needs of social research then it can enhance the practice of social science.E-Research; Social and Area-Based Exclusion; Young People at Risk of Crime; Information and Communication Technologies; Collaborative Research; Interdisciplinary Research

Do technical improvements lead to real efficiency gains? Disaggregating changes in transport energy intensity

Fuel economy standards are a key measure to increase the rate of efficiency improvements in passenger cars. The fuel consumption of vehicles can be improved in three ways: incremental technical efficiency improvements within powertrain technologies, market shifts to more efficient types of powertrains and by limiting increases in the size and performance of vehicles. This study quantifies the effect of each of these three drivers on the fuel consumption of British vehicles between 2001 and 2018 using driver-reported data on real-world fuel consumption. Analysis shows the introduction of EU fuel economy standards in 2008/09 had little effect on the rate of real technical efficiency improvements in British vehicles. Instead of adopting technical improvements at a higher rate or limiting the size and power of vehicles, these results suggest vehicle manufacturers met emissions standards by increasing the divergence between laboratory tests and real-world fuel consumption. This study adds to the growing literature calling for official test procedures to be representative of real-world driving

The role of technical improvements in decarbonising passenger transport

Passenger vehicles are a leading driver of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The majority of efforts to reduce vehicle GHG emissions focus on technical improvements, due to difficulties in reducing travel demand and shifting to alternative modes of travel. However, the rate at which technical improvements can be deployed is highly uncertain. Furthermore, the benefits of technical efficiency improvements may be offset by consumer trends towards larger and more powerful vehicles, filled with a greater number of accessories. Similarly, efficiency improvements can lower running costs, which may stimulate drivers to travel more. These consumer trends create further uncertainty about the impact of technical improvements. The aim of this thesis is to estimate the extent to which future technical improvements might be offset by consumer trends, and the risks they pose to reducing CO2 emissions. Firstly, technical efficiency improvements in vehicles over the past two decades are quantified, using driver-reported data for the first time. This is important as vehicle fuel consumption reported by drivers on the road is found to be ≈35% higher than official tested values in 2017-18. The analysis shows that technical improvements had the potential to reduce fuel consumption by 1.8 L/100km between 2001 and 2018. However, two thirds of this potential was offset by the increasing size and power of vehicles. Finally, the introduction of new EU vehicle efficiency regulations in 2008/09 is found to have had little effect at stimulating the rate of real technical efficiency improvements in British vehicles. If efficiency improvements stimulate drivers to travel more, due to lower running costs, potential emissions reductions from technical improvements may be further offset. Past estimates of the magnitude of this effect, known as the Rebound Effect, have varied widely, partly due to data constraints and a reliance upon highly aggregated government statistics. The analysis of this thesis instead uses a novel dataset of over 275 million vehicle road-worthiness tests. Results show that the Rebound Effect in Great Britain is small, with magnitude 4.6%, meaning efficiency improvements are unlikely to greatly stimulate increased mileage. Having quantified the extent to which technical efficiency improvements in vehicles have been offset by consumer trends in the recent past, the analysis then explores their future role. A range of technology and policy actions can be put in place to reduce carbon emissions, this thesis aims to prioritise between them, based upon their likely impact and uncertainty. Formal sensitivity analysis techniques are used for the first time to determine the relative importance of factors affecting future emissions from passenger vehicles. The findings show that over 80% of the uncertainty in future cumulative CO2 emissions can be attributed to uncertainty in electric vehicle uptake and vehicle size and power. These variables are therefore of primary importance for transport policy makers. The analysis also highlights variables of comparatively low importance; these include the carbon intensity of the electricity grid, the share of hybrid electric vehicles, the magnitude of the Rebound Effect and the rate of incremental improvements within powertrain technologies. The core contribution of this thesis is to compare efforts to improve the technical efficiency of vehicles, with the impacts of consumer trends and factors affecting future transport emissions. The majority of potential emissions savings from engineering improvements in the past two decades have been lost, strong policy action is required to avoid this trend continuing in future.This work was funded under EPSRC grant numbers: EP/M506485/1 and EP/M508007/1

Modelling transport emissions in an uncertain future: What actions make a difference?

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd A range of technology and policy actions can be put in place to reduce carbon emissions from passenger cars, this paper aims to prioritise between them, based on their likely impact and uncertainty. Formal sensitivity analysis techniques are used for the first time to determine the relative importance of factors affecting future emissions from passenger vehicles in Great Britain. The two most important actions to limit future life-cycle CO2 emissions involve shifting to electric vehicles and limiting trends towards larger and more powerful vehicles. According to our analysis over 80% of the uncertainty in future cumulative CO2 emissions can be attributed to uncertainty in electric vehicle uptake and vehicle size and power. These variables are a priority for transport policy makers. The analysis also highlights variables of comparatively low importance; these include the share of hybrid electric vehicles, the Rebound Effect and the utilisation factor of PHEVs

Do vehicle efficiency improvements lead to energy savings? The rebound effect in Great Britain

Fuel efficiency improvements in vehicles reduce the cost of travel, which could stimulate drivers to travel further limiting energy savings. Estimates of this effect, known as the rebound effect, have varied widely, partly due to data constraints and a reliance upon highly aggregated government statistics. This paper instead uses a dataset of over 275 million vehicle roadworthiness tests. The high level of detail in our dataset can reveal, for the first time, how the response to changes in travel costs may differ across types of vehicles and socio-economic areas in Great Britain. We find that the rebound effect in Great Britain is just 4.6%, meaning efficiency improvements are unlikely to stimulate increased mileage in the short-run. We find that larger, less fuel efficient vehicles are more responsive to fuel price changes than smaller vehicles and that drivers in urban areas are more responsive to fuel price changes than drivers in rural areas. Our findings shed light on the effects that policies such as fuel taxation and fuel economy standards may have on vehicle mileage. This has implications for both CO2 emissions savings and social equity

Citizen Science and Smart Cities

The report summarizes the presentations, discussions, and conclusions of the Citizen Science and Smart Cities Summit organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre on 5-7th February 2014. In the context of the Summit, the label Citizen Science was used to include both citizen science projects, and others that are about user-generated content, not necessarily addressing a scientific process or issues. The evidence presented by 27 different projects shows the vitality and diversity of the field but also a number of critical points: • Citizen science project are more than collecting data: they are about raising awareness, building capacity, and strengthening communities. • Likewise, smart cities are not only about ICT, energy and transport infrastructures: Smart cities are about smart citizens, who participate in their city’s daily governance, are concerned about increasing the quality of life of their fellow-citizens, and about protecting their environment. Technology may facilitate, but is no solution per se. • Unfortunately to date there seems to be little synergy between citizen science and smart cities initiatives, and there is little interoperability and reusability of the data, apps, and services developed in each project. • It is difficult to compare the results among citizen science, and smart cities projects or translate from one context to another. • The ephemeral nature of much of the data, which disappear short after the end of the projects, means lack of reproducibility of results and longitudinal analysis of time series challenging, if not impossible. • There are also new challenges with respect to the analytical methods needed to integrate quantitative and qualitative data from heterogeneous sources that need further research. • Building and maintaining trust are key points of any citizen science or smart city project. There is a need to work with the community and not just for, or on, the community. It is critical not just to take (data, information, knowledge) but to give back something that is valued by the community itself. The development of citizen science associations in Europe and the US are important developments that may address some of the points above. There are also actions through which the European Commission Joint Research Centre can make an important contribution: • Map citizen science and smart cities projects, and generate a semantic network of concepts between the projects to facilitate search of related activities, and community building. • Provide a repository for citizen science and smart cities data (anonymised and aggregated), software, services, and applications so that they are maintained beyond the life of the projects they originate from, and made shareable and reusable. • Develop regional test beds for the analysis and integration of social and environmental data from heterogeneous sources, with a focus on quality of life and well-being. • Undertake comparative studies, and analyse issues related to scaling up to the European dimension. • Support citizen science and smart cities projects with the JRC knowledge on semantic interoperability, data models, and interoperability arrangements. • Partner with the European Citizen Science Association, and contribute to its interoperability activities. • Work towards making the JRC, and the European Commission, a champion of citizen participation in European science.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

The quality rebound effect in transportation

© 2019 European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. All rights reserved. Energy is needed in society to provide energy services. Reducing the energy to deliver these services is at the core of energy efficiency. Energy services have both a quantitative and qualitative value. In the case of transportation, the quantity of service can be expressed simply in passenger kilometres, whereas quality aspects are affected by several vehicle attributes such as size and performance as well as travel times and comfort. Improving energy efficiency can stimulate consumers to travel more and thus consume a greater quantity of transportation. This phenomenon is known as the 'rebound' effect and has been well studied. Less studied are rebound effects in quality of service; how reductions in travel costs, due to fuel price changes and technical efficiency improvements, can stimulate people to increase the quality of transport, for example by purchasing a larger vehicle. Consumers continue to buy larger and more powerful vehicles in many countries. These purchasing trends mean that technical improvements in vehicle fuel consumption are undermined by shifts to larger vehicle segments. New hybrid and electric powertrains entering the market promise large improvements in fuel consumption. However, if these efficiency improvements stimulate shifts to even larger vehicles through quality rebound effects, the full potential energy savings may not materialise. Understanding and quantifying these quality rebound effects is therefore of paramount importance for energy modellers and policy makers. This paper uses a unique dataset of vehicle sales in the UK between 2001 and 2017, to investigate the effects of fuel price, income and technical improvements on stimulating a shift to larger and more powerful vehicles. Econometric regression techniques are used to show increasing income and the growing share of diesel and hybrid powertrains partially explain the shift to large vehicles. This suggests vehicle taxes in larger segments have not been sufficiently high and need to be rectified

Socio-Economic Benefits from the Use of Earth Observations

This report summarizes the outcomes of the discussion of the workshop on Socioeconomic Benefit from the use of Earth Observation workshop held at JRC from 11 to 13 July 2011.JRC.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure

Exploring the market potential for geo-ICT companies in relation to INSPIRE

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.The implementation of INSPIRE can bring new and interesting business opportunities to European geo-ICT companies. Until now, little information has been available on the participation of geo-ICT companies in the implementation of INSPIRE. This paper seeks to explore the market potential for geo-ICT companies in relation to INSPIRE, presenting the results of a large-scale survey among geo-ICT companies in Europe. The paper shows that the majority of geo-ICT companies in Europe is not actively involved in the implementation of INSPIRE. Having knowledge and understanding of the technical details of INSPIRE seems to be a key requirement for companies to get involved in INSPIRE. Companies that fulfil this requirement and have supported public authorities in implementing INSPIRE, have experienced an impact of INSPIRE on their innovative performance

The Use of Spatial Data for the Preparation of Environmental Reports in Europe

This report presents the findings of an online survey on the use of spatial data to produce environmental reports conducted by the European Commission Joint Research Centre in 2009. The objectives of the survey were twofold: on the one hand, to understand how easy it is for practitioners to obtain the spatial data they need to carry out Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and/or Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) and on the other hand, to provide information to the European Commission (EC) on the developments made in the use of spatial data to undertake EIAs and SEAs. The 2009 survey represents, in fact, an update of a similar survey conducted in 2002 by DG Environment and provides where relevant a comparison of results. A significant increase in the number of respondents was registered since the original survey, however it should be noted that the sample does not represent all practitioners that carry out EIA/SEA reports in Europe. Nevertheless, the results give an indication of the trends and problems in the market of EIA and/or SEA. The main outcome of the survey is that practitioners still face problems in using spatial data for the preparation of environmental reports. Issues mainly relate to finding and accessing data of the quality needed for the purpose. As a consequence, there is an increase in cost and time to produce environmental reports. The estimate of such additional burden is quantified as well as potential savings that could be achieved if problems connected with the use of spatial data were removed.JRC.DDG.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure