UUniCORN Insight Series
The reports for download below build on the institute's projects and/or (network) workshops facilitated within them. They provide valuable resources for those interested to learn more about the topic or looking for suitable collaborators working on the topic. Both the network's research and key external sources are cited, providing a solid starting point to explore the topic.
Reach out to Marie-Louise Olsen if you have any questions or would like to write a report within the series. We welcome a wide variety of topics, hoping that this series can serve as a platform for sharing and amplifying knowledge.
Public Attitudes and Acceptance in the Energy Transition
December 2025
Climate change requires a rapid shift away from fossil fuels, and while technical solutions for decarbonisation have advanced rapidly, they are no longer the main barrier to progress. The central challenges now lie in the social and political realm, where questions of fairness, trust, lifestyle change and the distribution of costs shape how societies respond to proposed measures. Without addressing these societal concerns, even the most effective technologies cannot deliver the scale of transformation needed, making public acceptance and effective governance essential to the success of the energy transition.
UUniCORN’s research network on Public Attitudes and Acceptance in the Energy Transition (UPA) brings together researchers from nine different disciplines to understand people’s attitudes and sentiments and shed light on how policies can be designed in ways that are seen as legitimate, equitable and broadly supported. UPA’s research framework identifies five themes—policy support, fairness principles, communication, historical insights, and preference formation—and applies them across key sectors such as buildings, transport, industry, and energy production. Together, these strands aim to build an integrated understanding of how public acceptance can be strengthened to enable a just and effective energy transition.
Conflicting Perspectives on Technology for Transformation towards Sustainable Societies
September 2025
Technological solutions for sustainability offer significant opportunities but also entail inherent risks and paradoxes; for example: the rebound effect, emerging new resource dependencies, and limited control over the consequences of technological development.
An interdisciplinary workshop, supported by UUniCORN catalyst funding, explored these tensions, resulting in six proposed research projects to break new ground in goal conflict research. Themes include AI and ethics, ideologies underpinning digital transformation, conflicts in health technologies, and resilience in vertical farming. These projects aim to deepen our understanding of the complex goal conflicts involved in leveraging technology for sustainability, and to lay the groundwork for future research proposals.
Strategies for Managing Competing Interests in Land Use and Access
June 2025
The project Governing goal conflicts in sustainability transformation held a first network meeting, in the form of a full-day workshop, on 19 May 2025 at the Department of Government, with the aim to establish contacts and identify common denominators around research interests that could lead to future collaborations. Researchers from different departments and disciplines presented their research and future research ideas related to the broader topic of the network. Discussions centred on commonalities and differences across cases with regard to conditions for, processes of, and effects of modes of governance.
Making sense of Nature-based Solutions: Governance, Knowledge and Justice Issues
June 2025
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly promoted as responses to interconnected climate, biodiversity, and societal challenges. This report explores what NbS are, clarifies where conceptual confusion arises, and outlines their benefits and limitations, focusing on decision-making, knowledge and justice. The themes in the report were shaped at a workshop held in May 2025 with a newly established NbS network.
The NbS network, supported by UUniCORN catalyst funding, is investigating how the use of NbS might help mitigate conflicts related to biodiversity protection and natural resource use. Its vision is to develop new research collaborations within UU that contribute to healthy, resilient, and biodiverse landscapes while also meeting diverse societal needs. Insights from network members are featured throughout the report.