Sally Caird
Dr Sally Caird is a Research Fellow (part-time) in the Department of Design, Development, Environment, and Materials and has worked for many years in several research and teaching posts, linking issues in low carbon technologies and entrepreneurship with social sciences and design and innovation management.
I work with Professor Roy and Professor Potter on several projects in collaboration with organisations in the private and public sector in the environment & pollution control, microgeneration technology and low carbon vehicle (LCV) industries. I have authored OU course materials on human resources and research methods within OU courses, contributed to entrepreneurship teaching, and academic transformation of OpenLearn courses.
There are four main themes to my academic interests at present. I am interested in the
(1) Design of domestic products and systems to be user-centred and energy saving. This reflects my interest in low carbon technologies (including microgeneration, renewable and energy efficient technologies) to support sustainable lifestyles and includes my work on the following projects
The Heat Pump Trial - I have worked in collaboration with the Energy Saving Trust, which is funded from the Higher Education Innovation Fund's UEA 'Carbon Connections' programme, with co-funding from industry, to conduct an investigation of the effects of user behaviour on the performance of domestic air and ground source heat pumps and the carbon savings likely to be achieved by their widespread adoption. This is part of a national heat pump technical trial to monitor and evaluate the performance of heat pump installations in-situ, in private and social housing sites. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11200063
Carbon Connections Project - I have worked with the Energy Saving Trust, with funding from the Carbon Connections initiative to research technical and user evaluations of solar water heating, heat pumps and biomass stoves and boilers and their potential for carbon savings. This followed on from the People Centred Eco-Design (PCED) project, which with the support of the National Energy Foundation, examined consumer experience of adoption and non-adoption of low and zero carbon (LZC) technological products and systems. A key question is how these products/systems might be improved through more user-centred design and innovation.
(2) Design of effective strategic pathways and inter-organisational networks to support the successful market diffusion of innovation, such as low carbon vehicles in the transport industry.
USTIR project (User-driven STImulation of Radical new technological steps in surface transport) - I am working with European partners on a transport innovation Framework 7 project to identify key transport innovation areas which offer greatest opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, such as Electric Vehicles (EV) innovation. The OU aim to identify the most effective mechanisms to engage users and intermediaries with radical transport innovation within the industry infrastructure to achieve successful market diffusion.
(3) This builds on earlier work on management systems to support the development of innovative products and processes within small and medium-sized enterprises. This refers to PhD research on innovation in the environment and pollution control industry.
(4) I am interested in knowledge transfer of research results to support the development of interactive multi-media e-learning materials and websites. I have designed and developed educational web-tools to support education on sustainable lifestyle, enterprise and innovation as follows:
(4.1) Research on household environmental impacts and sustainable lifestyles led to several interactive lifestyle e-learning materials for Postcards from the Future (http://www.open2.net/sciencetechnologynature/worldaroundus/postcards_interactive.html) linked to the OU/BBC Coast series, and a Student and Adult Eco-quiz developed for the soil education website www.soil-net.com.
(4.2) Research on enterprise and innovation led to the development of the General measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET) test which has been used internationally to facilitate self-assessment and enterprise education, developed as www.get2test.net.
(4.3) Transformation of several OU courses within the Open Content/Learn Initiative aimed at widening participation in higher education.
(4.4) Research with the U-STIR Surface Transport Innovation programme led to the creation of the Innovation Rater web-tool - Open2-Innov8ion Tool -to support reflection on organisational innovation http://www.u-stir.eu/index.phtml?ID1=2537&id=2639 or http://design.open.ac.uk/itool/.
I have published many refereed journal articles and several book chapters on research interests in low carbon technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Contact Information
Email: s.caird@open.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1908 654635
Fax: +44 (0)1908 654052
Room: N2053, Venables building
Selected Publications
Caird, S., Roy, R. and Potter, S. (2012) Domestic Heat Pumps in the UK: User behaviour, satisfaction and performance, submitted to Energy Efficiency, Accepted January 2012. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s12053-012-9146-x
Caird, S. and Roy, R. (2011) 'Yes in my back yard. UK householders pioneering microgeneration technologies' In Chapter 18 Public Engagement with Renewable Energy edited by Devine-Wright, P. (ed.) Earthscan. Submitted 14 Sept 2009, accepted, in press.
Caird, S and Roy, R. (2010) Adoption and Use of Household Microgeneration Heat Technologies. Low Carbon Economy Vol.1 No.1 December PP.61-70 http://www.scirp.org/journal/lce
Caird, S. and Potter, S. (2010) From Invention to Innovation:
A Guide to Developing and Evaluating your Inventive Idea U-STIR website
http://www.u-stir.eu/index.phtml?id=2537&ID1=2537&sprache=en ]http://www.u-stir.eu/index.phtml?id=2537&id1=2537&sprache=en
Potter, S. and Caird, S. (2010) Guide to Intellectual Property Rights in Transport Innovation U-STIR website http://u-stir.eu/docs/USTIRIPRadviceFinal2010-2.pdf
Caird, S. and Potter, S. (2009) Position paper entitled 'The Role of the USER in The diffusion of Sustainable Transport innovation' June 2009, U-STIR conference on Sustainable Transport Innovation, Valencia.
Roy, R. and Caird, S. (2008) Who Adopts Micro-Heating Technologies? Green Building, Autumn.
Caird, S. and Roy, R. (2008) User-Centred Improvements to Energy Efficiency Products and Renewable Energy Systems: Research on Household Adoption and Use, International Journal of Innovation Management, submitted March 2008. Vol. 12, No. 3 (September). http://design.open.ac.uk/research/documents/IJIMPaperfinalrevised5June.pdf
Roy, R. and Caird, S. (2008) Design Improvements from users’ experiences of low and zero carbon technologies, Paper for special issue on Sustainability of International Journal of Performability Engineering, Vol. 4 No. 4, October, pp. 357-370.
Caird, S., Roy, R. and Herring, H. (2008) Improving the energy performance of UK households. Results from surveys of consumer adoption and use of low- and zero- carbon technologies, Energy Efficiency Vol 1: June pp.149–166 Published online:Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008. http://design.open.ac.uk/roy/documents/CairdRoyHerringEnergyEfficiencyFinalRevised11Apr082.pdf
Roy, R., Caird S., and Abelman, J. (2008) YIMBY generators. Yes in my back yard! UK householders pioneering microgeneration heat, The Energy Saving Trust, London, June.
Roy, R. and Caird, S. (2008) Why do householders adopt or reject energy efficiency and renewables? Energy Action, No. 104, March, pp. 16-17.
Caird, S. and Roy, R. with S. Potter and H.Herring (2007) Consumer adoption and use of household energy efficiency products Report DIG-09, Dec. 2007.
Caird, S. and Roy, R. with S. Potter and H. Herring, (2007) Consumer adoption and use of household renewable energy technologies Report DIG-10, Dec. 2007.
Roy, R. and Caird, S. (2007) Memorandum submitted by the Design Innovation Group (CIT 09). House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee ‘Climate Change: the citizen’s agenda’ Eighth Report of Session 2006-2007 Volume 11. HC 88-11. Oral and Written Evidence Ordered by the House of Commons London: The Stationary Office Limited, 13 September 2007 pp413-418.
Caird, S. (2007) Website product, ‘General Measure of Enterprising Tendency Test’ http://www.get2test.net.
Caird, S. and Roy, R. (2007) Views of energy efficiency professionals. Adoption of Low and Zero Carbon products and systems: How may eco-designs be improved to be more people-centered? NHER E-info Newsletter, May.
Roy, R, Caird, S. and Potter, S. (2007) “People Centred Eco-design: Consumer adoption and use of low and zero carbon products and systems”, Chapter 3 in Murphy, J. (ed.) Governing technology for sustainability, London: Earthscan, pp. 41-62 ISBN 978-1-84407-345.
Herring, H., Caird, S. and Roy, R. (2007) Can consumers save energy? Results from surveys of consumer adoption and use of low and zero carbon technologies, In Proceedings European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy Summer Study 2007, ‘Saving energy – just do it!’ (La Colle sur Loup, Côte d’Azur, France, 4-5 June) Volume 4, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1885-95.
Roy, R and Caird, S. (2007) Designing low and zero carbon products and systems: improvements based on consumers’ experience of adoption and use, International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED07), ‘Design for society: Knowledge, innovation and sustainability’, Paris, 28-30 August, (Executive summary in Conference Proceedings pp. 863-864 + full paper on CD-ROM).
Caird, S. and Roy, R. (2006) “Household Ecological Footprints - Demographics and Sustainability” Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management Vol. 8, No. 4 December, pp.407-429.
Caird, S. (2006) General Measure of Enterprising Tendency Version 2 (GET2), Appendix in T. Mazzarol Entrepreneurship and Innovation Australia: Tilde University Press. May.
Caird, S. and Johnson, C. (2006) General Measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET), Appendix in P.Burns (2006) 'Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2nd Edition, England Palgrave Macmillan. See http://www.palgrave.com/business/burns/students/get/elsewhere.html.
Roy, R. and Caird, S. (2006) ‘Designing low & zero carbon products and systems – adoption, effective use and innovation’, In Proceedings Sustainable Innovation 06 international conference, Chicago 23-24 October, Centre for Sustainable Design, University of the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK, pp. 216-224.
Recent Projects
2009 onwards: USTIR project (User-driven STImulation of Radical new technological steps in surface transport) - This EU funded Framework 7 project aims to vision the key transport innovation areas which offer greatest opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, and focuses on supporting user-driven innovation in transport and the diffusion of radical innovations such as electric Low Carbon Vehicles. One output from this project is a webtool called the Innovation Rater - Open2-Innov8ion Tool to support reflection on organisational innovation http://www.u-stir.eu/index.phtml?ID1=2537&id=2639 or http://design.open.ac.uk/itool/.
2008 onwards: Heat Pump Trial: Evaluation of user behaviour and technical performance of ground and air source heat pump installations in-situ, in homeowner and tenant households. The OU in collaboration with the Energy Saving Trust, is funded from the Higher Education Innovation Fund's UEA 'Carbon Connections' programme, with co-funding from industry, to conduct an investigation of the effects of user behaviour on the performance of domestic heat pumps and the carbon savings likely to be achieved by their widespread adoption. Research team: Robin Roy, Sally Caird, Stephen Potter.
2007-2008 Carbon saving through commercialisation of domestic micro-generation technologies. A six month scoping project with the Energy Saving Trust, funded via a £50k grant from the Higher Education Innovation Fund's UEA 'Carbon Connections' programme, to conduct preliminary technical and user evaluations of solar water heating, heat pumps and biomass stoves and boilers. The aim is a major follow-up project to conduct detailed technical and user evaluations of micro-generation systems and to set up a knowledge dialogue with industry on this. Research team: Robin Roy, Sally Caird, Stephen Potter, Horace Herring, Derek Taylor.
2007: Measurement of Innovative Characteristics: The Identification and Measurement of Innovative Characteristics Of Young People. Advisory role with Kingston University research with funding from National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) under the Education for Innovation initiative The project aims to develop and test a measure of innovative characteristics in cohorts of young students within the context of different types of secondary schools, namely city academies, sixth form colleges, and specialist arts and science & technology schools.
2004 to 2006: People-centred eco-design: consumer adoption and use of low and zero carbon (LZC) products and systems. This OU-led project involves collaboration with Milton Keynes Energy Agency and the National Energy Foundation to provide access to consumers who have adopted low and zero carbon products and systems, ranging from low energy lighting and heating controls to solar water heating and micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems. The aim is to identify the factors influencing adoption and effective use of LZC products/systems and technical/design improvements that would make them more user-centred.
Research team: Robin Roy, Sally Caird, Stephen Potter, Georgy Holden, Horace Herring.
2001-2005: Assessing the ecological footprints of UK households (of different sizes and geographical locations) and exploring ideas for more sustainable lifestyles. This project gathered data from over 1000 Open University student households that had used EcoCal software to measure their household ecological footprint and to help generate and implement ideas for reducing their household's environmental impacts in the areas of transport, energy, waste, water and food. Building on this Dr Caird developed and successfully trialled an ‘ecological quiz’ for schools. This led to being commissioned to be an author of ‘Postcards from the Future’ on the website associated with the 2005 OU/BBC Coast series, http://www.open2.net/sciencetechnologynature/worldaroundus/postcards_interactive.html, as well as an adult and student ecoquiz on the educational website www.soil-net.com
Researchers: Robin Roy, Sally Caird.
Currivulum Vitae
Sally Caird has a BA(Hons) in Psychology (University College Dublin), M.Ed in Education (Trinity College Dublin) and a PhD in Innovation (Faculty of Maths, Computing & Technology, Open University). She worked at Durham University Business School researching enterprise education and assessment where she developed the measure of General measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET test), a test still popular for identifying enterprising potential. She then became a Management Teaching Fellow, first at the University of Stirling and then later at the Open Business School where she researched on enterprise and innovation, and authoring materials for diploma courses B751, B701 on human resource management. She then became a Research Fellow, Faculty of Technology at the OU doing research on multi-disciplinary teams developing innovations in environmental technology, leading to a PhD. During this time she contributed materials to the T840 Technology post-graduate course on Technology Management. Dr Caird now works part-time as a Research Fellow, pursuing interests in the area of sustainable design and innovation, on projects including: Environmental Impacts of Households, People-Centred Eco-Design, Carbon Connections: Adoption and Use of Microgeneration Heating Systems, U-Stir Transport innovation and the national Heat Pump Trial.
Teaching
I have experience lecturing and tutoring at Durham University, University of Stirling and the Open University, particularly in graduate education on M.B.A. programmes and with small and medium-sized firms and business start-ups.
I have authored OU course materials including: diploma courses B751, B701; contributed a set reading on T840; an activity to B201-09B; as well as working on the academic transformation of several OpenLearn courses in XML (e.g. B624_1, B700_3, K100_3, K100_6); and developed several interactive educational web-tools, as part of my interest in knowledge transfer to disseminate research benefits widely.
OU Course Publications
Caird , S. (2008) Activity 27.5: ‘Are you an entrepreneur? Take the test’ Business organisations and their environments B201-09B-a compulsory Level 2 course. UK: Open UniversityTeaching.
Caird, S. (2003) “Research Methodology, Chapter 4 of Team Approaches To Developing Innovative Products And Processes, 1996 Technology Faculty” Set Reading In Block 1 Innovation and Design T890 UK: The Open University.
Potter, S. Caird, S. and Earl, C. (2003) Block 1 Innovation and Design: Block Guide T890 UK: The Open University.
Mabey, C. and Caird, S. (1994) Managing Personal And Team Effectiveness: Book 5. B701/PTE. UK: Open University.
Mabey, C. and Caird, S. (1994) Building Team Effectiveness. B751/Unit 6. UK: Open University.Teaching
Page Last Updated: 9 February, 2012