Partnering for Innovation and Impact: Collaboration for Net Zero Emission, Circular Agriculture and Bioeconomy
18 November - 2 January 2024
Biography
Dr Halog is a research academic at the University of Queensland, Australia and has been a Fellow of the Institutes of Advanced Studies in Western Australia, Warwick (UK) and Waseda (Japan). His knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, drawing on complex bodies of knowledge to address sustainability challenges. He completed his Ph.D. in Industrial Environmental Economics at the French-German Institute of Environmental Research of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. He was a recipient of the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowships and had been a Visiting Professor/Scholar at the University of Tokyo, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan. He had been awarded twice an Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) Fellowships to conduct research projects in agri-food systems in Finland and the UK. He was also a recipient of the USA’s Department of Energy/National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Faculty Fellowship.
His current research focuses on the sustainability of human-nature complexity through understanding the nexus of material and energy systems. He has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and supervised at least 20 research students and postdoctoral researchers to successful completion in Australia and the USA. He has served on different grant review panels in the USA, Europe, and Asia as well as on technical and scientific committees in conferences over the past years, and member of editorial boards in peer-refereed journals. In the USA, he was one of the chief investigators of US government-funded projects of ~$7.7 million, out of which $841,281 was awarded to his specific research on life cycle sustainability assessment. Currently, he is leading a 4-year $406,569 project funded by Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Environment and Water on "Optimization of Refuse-Derived Fuels to Decarbonize Electricity Sectors and Achieve Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Targets in Indonesia".
Research summary
His proposed project aims to initiate collaborations between UoB and UQ in developing the next-generation blue-sky innovative research projects and prepare relevant grant/funding proposals related to transitioning to net zero emission, circular agriculture, and bioeconomy.
The objectives of his visit are:
1. To develop partnerships between researchers and groups that have an interest in net zero emission, green hydrogen, circular agriculture, and bioeconomy.
2. To catalyse trans-institutional and crossâdisciplinary collaborations in learning, discovery, and engagement endeavours for Climate Smart Agriculture, Green Hydrogen, and Circular Bioeconomy
3. To develop strategic linkages with industries and governments for Net Zero Emission, Circular Economy
4. To support graduate students and academic staff collaborations in Food, Water, Waste, and Energy Nexus for Low-Carbon Circular Bioeconomy
The expected outcomes and benefits are:
• Jointly proposing innovative solutions and policies to reduce biomass waste and carbon emissions and address food and energy security while providing economic opportunities for creating value-adding biochemicals and fuels.
• Identification of funding pool through leveraging industry investment as well as accessing international funding streams and grants through collaborations
• Production of innovative publications and relevant research output that address pressing global challenges in net zero emission, circular economy, and clean energy.
The key expected outputs are:
1. Systematic review article in high impact ISI journal (i.e., Nature Sustainability) with co-authors from UoB
3. Grant proposal (with relevance to the production of circular agriculture, and bioeconomy) to be submitted to ARC Discovery or UK funding schemes
3. Two open seminars/lectures in the following topics.
Dr Halog is hosted by Professor Guy Howard, Director of the Cabot Institute for the Environment.
Planned activities include:
Life Cycle and Systems Thinking Methods to Support Policy Design and Evaluation when Transitioning to a Decarbonised, Circular Economy
Dr. Halog will introduce the different methods of life cycle and systems thinking methods to support the modelling and analysis of products and technologies in different industrial sectors (i.e., agri-food sector) when transitioning to net zero emission, circular economy.
Holonic Thinking for Transitioning to Net Zero Emission, Circular Economy in Post-COVID Era: Its Vital Role in Training the Next Generation of Researchers, Policy Makers, and Business Leaders
This lecture discusses how students from different academic backgrounds must alter their mindsets from reductionist/myopic/mechanistic thinking to systems, holonic, and cross-disciplinary thinking for strategic sustainability transition and effective implementation of UN SDGs and achieving the targets by 2030.
