Peter Healey

Peter Healey

Research Affiliate

Peter Healey trained as a sociologist and researched on criminology and education before a period working at the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Over the past thirty years he has developed and managed research programmes and networks on science and technology (S&T) and innovation policy for a variety of funders including the ESRC and the European Commission, initially through the Science Policy Support Group.  His interests are in science and technology governance, especially in relation to democratisation, S&T indicators, and international and distributional aspects of S&T.

Between 2001 and 2004 he coordinated a European Thematic Network Science, Technology and Governance in Europe (STAGE) under FP5 which looked at the experience of public engagement with emerging S&T in a range of European countries.

Peter joined the James Martin Institute (the predecessor to InSIS) in 2004 and between 2006 and 2009, he coordinated a 10-country EU-funded project - Researching Inequality through Science and Technology (ResIST) which looked at how S&T policies and practices distribute benefits and the ways in which harms can be made more transparent and accountable. Subsequently he was closely involved in the development of a new area of InSIS's research, Changing Ecologies of Knowledge and Action (CEKA).

Since 2011 he has worked on. the governance of climate engineering with emphasis on greenhouse gas removals.  From 2012 to 2014 coordinated the Climate Geoengineering Governance (CGG) research project and worked as a researcher on the projects Greenhouse Gas Removal Instruments & Policies (GRIP) and GGRs: Governance and Standards for Carbon Neutrality (GASCON). He contributed to the development of the Principles and Protocols approach to the assessment and governance of climate engineering techniques as full sociotechnical propositions. He is now working to develop an international network in which policymakers and researchers collaborate to develop portfolios of climate action which include the maximum responsible contribution of greenhouse gas removals.

Selected publications:

(2021) Lezaun, J., Healey, P., Kruger, T., and Smith, S.M. Governing Carbon Dioxide Removal in the UK: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead Front. Clim., 10 August 2021 https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.673859

(2021) Healey, P., Scholes, R, Lefale, P., and Yanda, P. Governing net zero carbon removals to avoid entrenching inequities. Front. Clim. 3:38. https//doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.672357

(2020) Markusson, N., Balta-Ozkan, N., Chilvers, C., Healey, P., Reiner, D., and McLaren, D. Social Science Sequestered. Front. Clim., 02 June 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2020.00002

(2018) Steve Rayner and Peter Healey.  ‘Institutional challenges of climate geoengineering’ in Theresa Scavenius and Steve Rayner (eds) Institutional Capacity for Climate Change Response: A New Approach to Climate Politics.  Abingdon, U.K. and N.Y., N.Y: Routledge

(2018) Rob Bellamy and Peter Healey.  ‘Slippery slope’ or ‘uphill struggle’?  Broadening out expert scenarios of climate engineering research and development. Environmental Science and Policy, 83, 1-10.

Email: peter.healey@insis.ox.ac.uk 

Telephone: +44 (0)7776 144789