Sally Caird
Dr Sally Caird is a Research Fellow (part-time) in the Department of Design, Development, Environment, and Materials and has worked at the Open University in several research and teaching posts since 1991. She is presently working with Professors Roy and Potter on a collaborative project with the Energy Savings Trust funded by 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 has followed on from the People Centred Eco-Design (PCED) project which looks at consumer experience of adoption and non-adoption of low and zero carbon (LZC) technological products and systems and how they might be improved through more user-centred design and innovation.
She is interested in the knowledge transfer of research results into interactive multi-media e-learning materials and websites. Recent 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 soil education www.soil-net.com. She has also conducted research on enterprise and innovation and is an author of the General measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET) test which has been used internationally to facilitate self-assessment and enterprise education, which she developed as www.get2test.net this year. She has also recently worked on the Open Content Initiative aimed at widening participation in higher education and has authored materials on human resources and research methods for OU courses. She has published many refereed journal articles and book chapters on her research interests including eco-design and innovation management.
Contact Information
Design Innovation Group, Sustainable Technologies Group
Department of Design, Development, Environment, and Materials
Faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology,
Email: s.caird@open.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1908 654635
Fax: +44 (0)1908 654052
Room: N2015, Venables building
Selected Publications
Roy, R. and Caird, S. (2008) Low and Zero Carbon Pioneers: Expanding the UK household market for microgeneration heat 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, Paper for Special issue on user-centred innovation of International Journal of Innovation Management, submitted March 2008. Vol. 12, No. 3 (September)
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
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.
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.
Caird, S. and Hallett, S. (2005) Website product, ‘Postcards from the Future’, in collaboration with OU team linked to the 2005 OU/BBC Coast series open2.net http://www.open2.net/coast/postcards_interactive.html.
Caird, S. and Hallett, S. (2005) Multi-media website product, Eco-lifestyle Quiz for the environmental e-learning ‘SoilNet’ web portal “http://www.soil-net.com/cms_home/” due for launch in collaboration with Cranfield University this year.
Current Projects
2008 onwards: Heat pump monitoring and 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, Horace Herring, Derek Taylor.
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). From 1991-1992 she was a Management Teaching Fellow, OU Business School continuing research begun at University of Stirling on enterprising innovators and authoring materials for diploma courses B751, B701 on human resource management. Prior to that, 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. Then from 1992-1994 she was a Research Fellow, Centre for Technology Strategy (CTS), Faculty of Technology doing research on multi-disciplinary teams developing innovations in environmental technology, leading to a PhD. She also contributed materials to the T840 Technology post-graduate course on Technology Management. From 1995-2006, Dr Caird has been a part-time Visiting Research Fellow, working as part of Design Innovation Group, continuing research on the projects, Environmental Impacts of Households and People-Centred Eco-Design, and pursuing interests in the area of sustainable design and innovation.
Teaching:
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.
OpenLearn (2006): Academic transformation of the following courses:
B624_1 - Managing relationships
B700_3 Strategic view of performance
K100_3: Care Relationships
K100_6 Life Stories from Understanding Health and Social Care
Other Course Writing
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: 15 September, 2009