Research project
Productive & Inclusive Net Zero (PRINZ)
- Start date: 1 July 2022
- End date: 26 June 2025
- Funder: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Value: £1.6M total, of which £235k to Leeds
- Partners and collaborators: Imperial College Business School, London School of Economics, University of Oxford, University of Leeds University of Surrey NESTA
- Primary investigator: Dr Alice Owen
- External primary investigator: Ralf Martin, Imperial College
- Co-investigators: Dr Jonathan Busch, Dr Luba Pirgova-Morgan
- External co-investigators: At other partner institutes: Imperial College Business School: Esther Boler NESTA: Catherine Sleeman LSE: Anna Sivropoulos-Valero LSE: Misato Sato Oxford: Francois Lafond Oxford: Sam Fankhauser University of Surrey: Sandra McNally
PRINZ links productivity and two other important government priorities: phasing out greenhouse gas emissions (net zero) and improving economic prospects at the regional level (levelling up). Bringing these objectives together emphasises that the UK's productivity challenge is as much about the quality of economic growth as it is about the amount of growth.
We are trying to answer questions such as:
• How can we achieve the transition while ensuring equitable economic growth?
• How can we ensure there are good jobs for all?
• Which skills are needed to facilitate the transition and how can we provide for the necessary vocational training?
• Is it possible to make the economy cleaner while levelling up? What kind of industrial policy is needed to facilitate the transition?
PRINZ adopts a broad, multi-disciplinary perspective, nested in the social sciences. It features statistical analysis, qualitative social science methods and mathematical modelling as well as insights from innovation, finance, education, labour market and climate change policy. The team is located in business schools, economics departments, geography departments, environmental research centres and innovation think tanks.
We look at the impacts on and interactions between main drivers of clean and equitable productivity growth:
- Innovation:
- Jobs and skills
- Finance:
This project establishes new connections between researchers and research institutions that have previously not collaborated. We expect that this is an opportunity to trigger new insights and mutual exchange of ideas that will be fruitful beyond the lifetime of this project.
The Leeds team brings a variety of qualitative data and methods to the project, including case studies of whisky production and cement manufacture.
Publications and outputs
Publications by PRINZ team as submitted by research team are here
Blog contributions are in the “Recent Posts” part of the project website: https://www.prinzproject.io/