Interdisciplinary

This Symposium brings together doctoral researchers from multiple disciplinary backgrounds in order to develop an understanding of the complex social impacts and effects of fuel poverty, as well as the technical implications and challenges of measuring fuel poverty. It is envisioned that attendees will come from a range of scientific fields, including health, law, social policy, economics, engineering and technology and geography (amongst others).

International

As a social issue, fuel poverty is not specific to one country. This Symposium is open to doctoral researchers from across the UK and Ireland. It is one of the first postgraduate fuel poverty research events to include attendees from different countries. This is key in developing a more holistic understanding of the current state of fuel poverty research.

Building a research network

Bringing together researchers with a diverse range of expertise will provide opportunities for attendees to develop interdisciplinary collaborations, spanning international boundaries. It will build on a previous event for young fuel poverty researchers, which was held in Sheffield in November 2012. It will strengthen a growing network of young fuel poverty researchers across the UK and Ireland, as well as a providing a platform for regular events in the future.

Discovery

This Symposium, and others which are hoped to follow, will provide a new platform for disseminating and promoting the findings of fuel poverty research to academia, practitioners and policy makers. 

Publication

Participants will be given the chance to submit 3000 word articles on their presentations for a special fuel poverty edition of the Queen's Political Review
http://queenspoliticalreview.wordpress.com 

Careers

The Symposium will also feature presentations from those involved in fuel poverty advocacy and policy-making, as well as established academics, in order to build knowledge on fuel poverty research in practice, as well as to promote discussion on the range of career opportunities available to fuel poverty researchers.