Recent activity from Mariana Mazzucato

Mariana Mazzucato joined SPRU as RM Phillips Professor of Science and Technology in November 2011. Here is a selection of her recent activity:

FINNOV: Finance, Innovation and Growth

Mariana's three-year FP7 EC FINNOV project had its final event in UK Parliament on February 1-2. David Willetts (Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills) spoke, as did many other very high profile speakers.

• Conference details
• Press release
• Final policy brief

Media

Mariana has also recently contributed to various pieces in a range of print, broadcast and online media:

• FT Weekend Magazine, 18 February: 'Science's own financial crises' [PDF 810.05KB]
• FT.com, 18 February: 'Science's own financial crisis' [PDF 892.66KB]
• The Independent, 5 February: 'Margareta Pagano: The unknighting of Fred Goodwin can only be redeemed by genuine reform'
• Financial News, 3 February:  'EU economists call for ban on share buybacks'
• FT.com, 3 February:  'Back job creators, government urged'
• BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, 2 February
• New Statesman, 1 February: 'Explaining rising income inequality'
• Bloomberg, 31 January
• Appearances on BBC Newsnight:
• 24 January 2012
• 12 January 2012
• 29 November 2011

More information and news on Mariana's recent activities can be found on her website, www.marianamazzucato.com

Sussex Energy Group: Leading the way to a low-carbon future

What needs to happen to put us on a sustainable energy path? Answering this question is a key challenge of our time - and it is the passion that drives the researchers at the Sussex Energy Group (SEG), one of the UK's top energy research groups.

Everyone knows about climate change but there are many additional reasons for moving away from fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas, such as ensuring our energy needs can be securely met and preventing prices from skyrocketing so high that they create economic crisis or more widespread fuel poverty.

Making the change to a sustainable energy path is one of the most complex tasks society has ever faced, requiring technical ingenuity, behavioural change and virtually unprecedented political commitment - and all ways that achieve economic efficiency. The complexities and uncertainties involved are similarly great, and conflicts of interest abound.

To meet these challenges SEG undertakes academically excellent research that is also directly relevant to the needs of policy-makers and practitioners. Working together with groups in government, business and civil society, SEG provides comprehensive research and consulting services to those involved in energy provision and energy policy. Its work covers three main areas:

• identifying and evaluating routes to sustainable energy
• understanding how technological change happens and how it can be managed
• understanding how government can regulate and direct complex and uncertain transition processes.

SEG has a staff of 16 full and part-time specialist researchers, and 14 doctoral students. Led by Dr Jim Watson, it is a core partner in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and is part of the UK Energy Research Centre. The Group receives support from a range of government departments, agencies and private sector firms as well as core funding in the form of a 5-year grant from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council.

For further information go to the Sussex Energy Group website.