Professor Tavis Potts

Biography

Professor Tavis Potts is a Personal Chair in Sustainable Development and Environmental Governance. Prof. Potts interests include understanding just transitions and the social dimensions of climate and energy; marine resource governance and planning; participatory and community-based approaches to managing natural capital; and the political economy of environmental policy and decision-making. 

Research Overview

Professor Tavis Potts research includes: 

• Understanding the relationships between people, place and planet. 
• Understanding, evaluating and progressing social, environmental and energy justice. 
• Critically evaluating 'Just Transitions' within Net Zero and deepening societal engagement around energy transition. 
• Applying participatory approaches to natural capital and ecosystem services. 
• Developing participatory and survey-based approaches to understanding social values on the environment;
• Critical perspectives on the emergence and effectiveness of the blue economy from international to local scales

Funding and Grants

Selected Grants 

• Interreg EU. SEATRACES 2019-2021 (£250k). 
• University of Aberdeen Impact Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation award (2017 10k)
• British Council Peru - Researcher Links Grants. Advancing Green Growth in Peru: A spotlight on tourism, transport and the blue economy (2016, £32k).
• Royal Geographic Society of Edinburgh and Natural Science Foundation of China. Mapping Coastal Ecosystem Services in Scotland and China. Scientific Exchange Network. (2015-17, £13k)
• NERC Knowledge Exchange: Cooperative Participatory Evaluation of Renewable Technologies on Ecosystem Services (CORPORATES) (2014-16, £110k – Co-Investigator.
• World Bank: Review of STAP Marie Litter Program (2014 , £1500)
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Implementing an ecosystem service approach in the UK (2013, £40k).
• EU FP7 IDREEM (Increasing Industrial Resource Efficiency in European Mariculture)(Co-Investigator & Work Package leader on Social and Policy Analysis (2012-2014; £200 000)
• EU LIFE+ Celtic Sea Partnership (Policy Network Analysis and community engagement) (2013, £110k).
• MSP-LED (Local Economic Development and Marine Planning) Centre of Expertise in Water (CREW) (2012-13, 50k)Centre of Expertise in Water (CREW) Coasts and Catchment Integration. £22 k
• ECOBAR: Environmental and Benthic Indicators for industrial development in the Barents Sea. Norwegian Funding Council. (WP Leader) £35k 2009-10
• Knowledge Based Development of Europe’s Seas (KNOWSEAS) EU FP7 2009-2013 Co-Investigator & Work Package leader (£150k) overall project €9 million).