Aberdeen VPR Catalyst Grant

Wind farm off the coast of Aberdeen

Lab co-director Dr. Sabrina Perić and lab faculty associate Dr. Douglas Robb recently received a VPR Catalyst Grant for a transdisciplinary energy workshop to support collaborations with researchers from the Interdisciplinary Institute and the Just Transitions Lab at the University of Aberdeen. 

UCalgary and UAberdeen researchers during a 2025 trip to Scotland

Calgary and Aberdeen are two of the world's most important energy hubs. Both cities rose to prominence as global centers of oil and gas extraction, shaping not only their economies but also their social fabric, community identities, and urban development patterns. Scotland and Alberta sit on the precipice of change, however. They are both proposing ambitious and expansive new energy projects and their residents are fiercely debating energy pathways, and questions of energy transition, justice, and politics. The goal of this UAberdeen-UCalgary workshop will be to establish a long-term cooperative research partnership between the two institutes that will focus on the energy futures of Alberta and Scotland. The VPR Catalyst Grant will bring together 18 transdisciplinary scholars for a 5-day UCalgary-UAberdeen Catalyzing Energy Futures Research Workshop in Calgary to define a transdisciplinary research agenda on comparative energy transitions in Alberta and Scotland and begin planning and writing collaborative research grants.