Dr Celine Maistret reflects on her experience of working in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
In 2017, the Royal Society launched a fully-funded Science Policy Secondment scheme offering its Research Fellows the opportunity to gain policy experience at the heart of government. Below, we hear about Dr Celine Maistret's experience of the secondment. Dr Maistret is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer at the School of Mathematics, University of Bristol.
Report
As a number theorist working on abstract mathematical problems, my work has little connection to real life situations. Although I very much enjoy the rigorous realm of pure mathematics, as a scientist I was also eager to experience how science plays a role in our society via policy making. Sensitive to climate change related issues, I was glad to be given the opportunity to join the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to work with their hydrogen demand team.
Background
Low carbon hydrogen production is critical for meeting the UK’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2050. To do so, the government has set a target of 10GW low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. The role of the hydrogen demand team at DESNZ is to evaluate the current and future demand for hydrogen from various sectors such as industry, transport and energy, and to make sure that the necessary policies are in place to facilitate the development of the hydrogen economy as planned.
My role as a secondee
The demand team is composed of about ten members who warmly welcomed me. After a short period of acclimatisation where I caught up on the essentials, they set me up to work with the industry demand sub-team, focusing on the niche sector of Non-Road Mobile Machineries (NRMM). Examples of such machineries are forklifts, cranes and bulldozers which can be found on construction sites, ports and mining sites. NRMMs are responsible for a significant amount of carbon emissions in the UK and it is therefore necessary to understand whether they can and will transition to hydrogen powered engines. My work on this project was two-fold. Based on an NRMM database, I first estimated the potential hydrogen demand for NRMMs over the next 30 years based on different conversion scenarios. Later, I was asked to research and report on the possible hydrogen supply and distribution model options for NRMMs. While completing this project, I interacted with various members of DESNZ such as analysts, engineers and policy makers who guided me through the lingo and procedures.
My experience as a policy associate
I very much enjoyed the concrete goals with set short deadlines that I was given as a secondee. This was challenging and motivating, and very different from the long and uncertain achievement rates that we face in academia. It was very satisfying to receive quick feedback, act on it and witness how goal achievements would fit into a more global agenda. The dynamic inside the demand team was impressive with highly motivated and professional members. I found the work as a policy maker to be more diverse than I had previously envisioned, ranging from policy reading and writing, collecting and analysing data to interacting with the industry via policy related events and meeting with stakeholders. Overall, I learnt a lot from my experience as a policy associate and will certainly use this knowledge when managing my own research programme and team in the future. I would highly recommend applying for this scheme to whomever would like to witness first-hand how science contributes to societal change via policy making and how nation-wide challenges are handled by a collective of policy makers.
