This is project is funded by FPRN as part of the EPEC programme for early career 2020-21 round.
This project is a collaborative work between two PhD students from the Energy Poverty Network in Chile to show and disseminate qualitative research findings of social housing households’ energy culture, living in an energy poverty setting in Coyhaique city, Chile. This project aims to link two research findings to advance knowledge and to collaboratively promote policy impact by producing audio-visual material and a Spanish language scientific paper. The outcomes will be released through an online seminar (Covid-19 safe) with local and national stakeholders and policy makers and through the Energy Poverty Network (RedPE) webpage and associated social media.
‘The EPEC fund is a great opportunity for us to strengthen qualitative research collaboration and disseminate results in a format that can impact policymakers. Our country needs to have a better understanding of the lived experience of social housing households energy poverty. We are convinced that, as researchers, we need to find better ways to communicate research findings, so that everyone can participate in the discussion on how to achieve a sustainable energy transition without leaving anyone behind.’
‘As researchers, we face many difficulties to spread the knowledge we produce. Especially, when it comes to qualitative data. The EPEC fund is an excellent opportuny for us to keep working on facing air pollution and energy poverty in our country. This fund will allow us to make sinergies among our research work to better understand how culture shapes our way to use energy in households. Understanding this is fundamental in order to build better policy able to change deeply rooted sociocultural structures on everyday lives in a short time. This is a must for a just energy transition in southern Chile.’
‘As early-career researchers from South America, we face significant barriers to transfer knowledge to policy makers and disclose findings from qualitative research. Although energy poverty has been discussed in public policies in Chile, there are still no policies tackling the problem from a holistic perspective. The EPEC grant will allow us to cross the boundaries of academia and to innovate in the way we can raise awareness of policy makers on energy poverty associated with the air pollution problem in south Chile. It will also help us show the singularities of the lived experience of energy poverty in Chile and the relevance of understanding local energy culture as a fundamental dimension to evaluate energy poverty, which must be addressed in all countries. We highly encourage young researchers to participate in the EPEC grant as it is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen research skills and broaden the investigation boundaries.’
Alejandra Cortes; Catalina Amigo 2023
Report
Alejandra and Catalina provide a summary of their FPRN-funded research, including context, methodology, findings and implications.