Feasibility filtering in the funding arena: how techno-economic expectations shape research agendas at the chemistry/energy nexus

Jorrit Smit

No eqbaw_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Increasingly, funding programs in Europe seek to align scientific research agendas with societal challenges. A promissory regime results around emerging science and technology, in which researchers seek to present their work in line with the expectation of disruptive but feasible technological innovation. In the fields of energy, materials and chemistry research, many turn to (prospective) techno-economic assessments as to respond to this demand. Based on fieldwork and an interview study, I show how these quantitative anticipations can function as ‘feasibility filters’ in the process of agenda-setting that implicitly translate the interests, infrastructures and imaginaries of large-scale industries into technical targets for laboratory science. Non-economic considerations come second, after the rate-determining step of the feasibility filter. Finally, I argue that the resulting, paradoxical dynamics of techno-economic alignment is at odds with calls in STS to open up sustainable transformation and innovation pathways via socio-political and economic alternatives.

Date: 2026-01-16
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/696a4efaeb91bb184250cc8d/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:eqbaw_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/eqbaw_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().