ANDY STIRLING

SUMMARY

I'm an emeritus professor in the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, honorary prof in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at UCL, visiting prof at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University and visiting senior researcher at the Research on Research Institute (RORI). My work is on issues of uncertainty, diversity and power in and around science and technology. 

Co-director for sixteen years of the Sussex-based ESRC 'STEPS Centre' and playing a lead role in many other externally funded projects, my efforts in research, teaching and policy advice try to contribute towards struggles for equal societies, democratic politics and a flourishing Earth. Links in the left hand panel give some examples of what this means. 

I've served on a number of UK, EU and wider governmental advisory processes on issues around nuclear power, military infrastructures, energy policy, toxic chemicals, science advice, GM foods, environmental science and biodiversity. A Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Science (AcSS), I'm on the Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and on the sociology sub-panel for the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 and 2029.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

Growing up in southwest England and Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s, my undergraduate efforts at the University of Edinburgh started out in astrophysics, then shifted thro' 'science studies' to an MA in archaeology and social anthropology. Through the early 1980s, I worked in the UK and Germany as a field archaeologist and ecology and peace activist. In 1985 I joined Greenpeace as a volunteer, going on to co-ordinate their international nuclear, disarmament and energy campaigns and serving between 1994 and 2016 on their international and UK boards. I’ve also worked variously as a building labourer, laboratory technician, hospital porter and factory, farm and mental health care worker.

I bowled up in SPRU in 1990, completing a doctorate in 1994 on UK and international policy and innovation in nuclear and renewable energy - and somehow stayed working from this base for more than 30 years. Most of this time has been spent in scores of externally-collaborating projects as a transdisciplinary 'publicly-engaged' researcher, teacher and policy advisor on the politics of science, technology and innovation. Although never enough, I try to ensure these efforts contribute to movements for 'democratising progress' towards equal societies, distributed power and a flourishing Earth. In real life, three grown-up offspring leave me (when not glued to a screen) most likely to be found wandering the Downs with my partner, or beavering away in our vegetable garden.

PROFESSIONAL DETAILS

Finishing a doctorate in SPRU in 1994 on technology choice in the energy sector, I’ve been a professor since 2006, co-directing the ESRC STEPS Centre from then until 2021. I served as SPRU Science Director from 2006-2012, with other roles including Research Director for the Sussex University Business School from 2009-2012. Elected a fellow of the UK Academy of Social Science in 2017, I was appointed a member of the CIFAR Research Council in 2022 and in 2020 as a member of the sociology sub-panel for the UK Research Excellence Framework (renewed in 2025).

Since I started as a SPRU research fellow, my position has been largely externally-resourced, by funders including the ESRC, AHRC, EPSRC at UKRI, as well as the Wellcome Trust, businesses and charities and agencies and ministries of UK and other governments and the EU. With detailed topics and outputs summarised under the ‘research’ tab of this profile, I’ve played lead roles in numerous other projects – including as deputy director for the DEFRA/ESRC Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (2010-2014) and Sussex PI for the ESRC Nexus Network (2014-2017).

A key part of my work has also been in policy advisory roles. I served 2 terms on the ESRC Research Committee (2009-2015) and on 9 UK government advisory committees (eg: the Advisory Committee on Toxic Substances; the BIS GM Science Review Panel, the DIUS Sciencewise Steering Board and the DEFRA Science Advisory Council).

I was Rapporteur for the EC Science in Society Advisory Committee and a member of EU expert committees on Energy Policy, ‘Science and Governance’, ‘Making Sense of Science’ and ‘Technology Foresight’. I've also served (in an unpaid capacity) as an advisor for a number of commercial firms (eg: Shell, Unilever, Scottish Nuclear) and public interest organisations (eg: Global Energy Observatory, Demos, Green Alliance, Nuclear Education Trust, Nuclear Consulting Group and Nuclear Information Service).

Other advisory roles in the UK include for the Royal Society (on neuroscience policy) and Nuffield Bioethics Council (on emerging biotechnologies) as well as for agencies in 5 other countries and 10 intergovernmental organisations (eg: as a lead author for the International Panel on Social Progress; and as a member of OECD, UNESCO, US Hastings Bioethics Centre, UN IHDP, EEA and European Science Foundation bodies concerned with various challenges in energy, environment or science and technology policy).

Collaborative research has won awards for publications on the politics of transformation, diversity in pathways to sustainability and science in society. Work on precaution has been picked up in EU legislative initiatives and some novel diversity metrics adopted as part of an international UNESCO convention on cultural diversity and by various official bodies as measures of energy diversity. There has been media and policy attention now and then to work on hidden dynamics of power in science, technology and innovation - for instance around GM technologies in agriculture and concealed links between military and civilian nuclear infrastructures.

KEY CURRENT PROJECTS

The accompanying 'research' tab summarises key motivating questions in work with many colleagues. See the blue panel to the left of my profile for links to different projects I have worked on, including a general overview, STEPS Centre work on 'pathways to sustainability' is described here: https://steps-centre.org/

Developed in order to help 'open up' complex policy controversies, the 'multicriteria mapping' web-based software tool; major neglected links between military and civil nuclear infrastructures; Belmont Forum GOST project on transformations to sustainability; and the UKRI-funded STRINGS project in collaboration with the UNDP on 'steering research and innovation towards the global goals'.