Climate and sustainability transitions require transformative research that integrates technical innovation, governance, justice, wellbeing, and financing strategies. This BrIAS programme welcomes international scholars whose work engages with sustainability transitions from disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary perspectives.

The SWIFFT Collective programme is structured around four thematic axes, reflecting the four research topics currently pursued by the Collective. Together, these axes capture four interrelated dimensions of decarbonisation and climate transitions. While each constitutes a distinct area of research, their intersections provide opportunities to explore the complex and interconnected nature of climate transitions.

Sustainable transformations, transdisciplinary research and wellbeing
This axis of the programme seeks projects that engage with or take as its starting point the idea that the contemporary ‘sustainability crisis’ is, in part, an ontological crisis. Under this topic, the programme will explore which and how non-dominant knowledge-making practices can be relevant for understanding and practicing ‘sustainability’.

Sustainable engineering
Focused on the energy side of decarbonisation, the scope of this research axis is to move beyond the traditional techno-economic optimisation of energy systems, by integrating considerations of fairness and sustainability. This research topic aims to leverage machine learning tools, alongside interdisciplinary collaboration, to develop more comprehensive and less biased energy models that can better support decarbonisation – and through it, the broader energy transition.

Decarbonisation and Justice
Building on the acknowledgement of a profound asymmetry between vulnerability and responsibility which  characterises climate injustice, this research axis focuses on “polluter elites”. This concept stems from an observation widely documented in the literature: the privileged populations contribute disproportionately to ecological degradation through their consumption, investments, and political influence. This topic looks to examine which regulatory, fiscal, and normative measures can contribute to aligning urban polluter elites’ practices with the principles of sufficiency, and how these elites engage with, resist, or shape such norms.

Decarbonisation and finance
Bringing together geographical and management approaches to finance, this research axis aims to develop a comprehensive approach to financing sustainability transitions. The goal is to help understand, reshape, and reimagine the strategies and barriers to financing the decarbonisation of economies and societies. This research topic aims to address the various barriers to funding the transition, question dominant theories, and engage with fundamental societal debates, such as public and private financial strategies, the financing of regenerative economies, and social justice in financial decarbonisation policies.

This programme welcomes BrIAS fellows whose research fits within one or more of these thematic axes. Research which touches upon multiple thematic axes is particularly welcome, though not a requirement. Throughout their stay, we expect from fellows an openness to engage with the other research topics and engage in an interdisciplinary approach.

Fellows interest/research topics may be anchored in one or more of the programme’s thematic axes. Cross-axis contributions are particularly welcome, for example on:

• Just and sustainable energy-system transformations;
• Finance, sufficiency, and post-growth transition pathways;
• Governance of responsibility, consumption, and polluter elites;
• Non-dominant knowledge practices and human-nature-technology relations (e.g. art and science);
• Modelling, data, and AI tools for equitable decarbonisation.