Dr Stephanie Hirmer

BEng in Civil Engineering (Warwick); MPhil, PhD in Engineering for Sustainable Development (Cambridge)

I am a Senior Researcher in Climate Compatible Growth at the Energy and Power Group where I look at integrating community viewpoints into energy-related decision-making. As part of this role, I work on the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) Programme—a flagship £38 million UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-funded programme. Here, in my role as Deputy-Research Director, I lead the strategic direction of the research, and also leads a workstream on Advanced Geospatial Modelling. I am also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge where I completed her PhD and delivered a course on Energy, Development and Rural Livelihood.

My research interest involves investigating the sustainable and just delivery of infrastructure services in low- and middle-income countries under climate risks, and how they can be used to create value and build community resilience. This is done in tandem by investigating innovative technological solutions (e.g., H2 and electric vehicles) and, crucially, what is important to different marginalised groups (through perception-based surveys) rooted in the local context (e.g., social, political, physical and spatial).

Africa needs context-relevant evidence to shape its clean energy future. (Nat Energ) | Opportunities stemming from retrofitting low-resource East African dwellings by introducing passive cooling and daylighting measures(Energ for Sus Dev) | The resource curse in renewable energy: A framework for risk assessment (Energ Strat Rev) | The power of language: Exploring values, empowerment dynamics and communication strategies for gender-inclusive energy service design in rural Uganda (Energ Res & Soc Sci) | Can electric vehicles be good for Sub-Saharan Africa? (Energ Strat Rev) | Data needed to decarbonize paratransit in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nature Sust)

For a full list of publications, see Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-1HBX7gAAAAJ&hl=en