MIOIR & SCI Joint Seminar with Dr Lili Jia

Exploring sustainability pathways with action research

The world’s understanding of sustainability is rapidly evolving. So is our appreciation of the need for sustainable solutions in every aspect of our lives. Understanding our direction of travel does not, however, always tell us how to reach our destination. If many people in the world today agree on the ‘why’ of sustainability, there are plenty who also struggle with the ‘how’. This presentation aims to explore sustainability pathways from an action research perspective. By ‘action research’, it means to bridge gaps between theories and practices with knowledge across disciplines here. The presentation covers three areas, namely sustainable behaviours, technological innovations, and policy strategies. It will discuss how to identify novel sustainability pathways through modelling sustainable behaviours, design scalable pathways with cutting-edge technologies, and develop systemic pathways with innovative strategies.

About Lili Jia:

Dr Lili Jia leads Sustainable Innovation Lab at Centre for Inspired Artificial Intelligence, the University of Cambridge. She is interested in discovering real-world solutions to social, environmental and economic sustainability through modelling sustainable behaviours, designing scalable technologies, and developing systemic strategies. Lili has published 20 high-impact articles ​and ​reports ​that ​changed ​our ​understanding, ​design, ​and ​development of ​sustainability ​solutions. Three of her ​publications have received journal awards. Notably, her article on "Motivating actions to mitigate plastic pollution [nature.com]" was among the Top 50 Earth and Planetary Sciences Articles 2019 in Nature Communications. Her article in Harvard Business Review [hbr.org] helped both food companies and policymakers understand how to improve the measure of sustainability in food industry systemically with digital traceability technologies. Her research findings have provided scientific evidence for the Environment Agency to officially commit to supporting industrial sustainability in its Regulatory Statement 2022 [gov.uk] and ​​were ​included in the UK’s Green Finance Strategy 2023 [gov.uk] and the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs’ Food Data Transparency Partnership roadmap [gov.uk]. Lili has raised over £1.5mn of research funding since 2017 and serves on the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports.

This event is in person for AMBS and UoM staff and students, with an online option available. Please feel free to share this invitation with your internal networks. External participants are welcome to join online via Zoom:

https://zoom.us/j/98206452994

Meeting ID: 982 0645 2994 | Passcode: 162581

Host or Publisher Alliance Manchester Business School