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Emilie Vrain

Profile

Dr Emilie Vrain is a Senior Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford, and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College. As a social scientist, her research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, analysing factors which influence the adoption and use of digital low carbon innovations. Emilie currently works on the iDODDLE project funded by the European Research Council and is investigating the underlying mechanisms of digital daily life and the impacts on climate change. 

Prior to joining ECI, Emilie was based at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA, where she was working on the ‘Social Influence and disruptive Low Carbon Innovations’ project (SILCI). Her work focused on social networks, communication behaviour and the role of social influences related to a range of consumer-facing low carbon innovations.

Emilie has a PhD in sustainable agriculture from the University of East Anglia (UEA). Her thesis explored the role of farm advice in the adoption of water pollution mitigation measures amongst farmers in the UK. Emilie has also worked on multiple projects funded by Defra to inform UK agri-environmental policy and post-Brexit strategies for sustainable land management and farmer engagement. She has delivered a variety of policy reports on farmer behaviour change, farm advice, natural capital, and community collaborations, and led a national knowledge dissemination project as part of the Demonstration Test Catchments – a 10-year multi-disciplinary project which assessed the effectiveness of on-farm water pollution mitigation measures.

Publications

Palacios-Fenech, J. and Vrain, E. (2023) “Measuring the adoption and discontinuance of low carbon digitally-enabled innovations: exploring repeat survey quality”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 434.
Vrain, E. and Wilson, C. (2023) “Smart sustainable daily life: Insights from across the social sciences”, in. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 1–6.
Vrain, E., Wilson, C. and Andrews, B. (2022) “The discontinuance of low carbon digital products and services”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 185.
Wilson, C., Andrews, B. and Vrain, E. (2022) “Consumer uptake of digital low-carbon innovations”, in 2022 International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S). IEEE, pp. 109–118.
Vrain, E., Wilson, C., Kerr, L. and Wilson, M. (2022) “Social influence in the adoption of digital consumer innovations for climate change”, Energy Policy, 162.
Vrain, E., Wilson, C. and Andrews, B. (2022) “Rejection of innovations: The discontinuance of low carbon digital products and services”, in Eceee Summer Study Proceedings, pp. 1145–1154.
Vrain, E. and Wilson, C. (2021) “Social influence in the adoption of digital consumer innovations to mitigate climate change”, in Conference Proceedings - BEHAVE 2020-2021: the 6th European Conference on Behaviour Change for Energy Efficiency. Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency, pp. 85–88.
Vrain, E. and Wilson, C. (2020) “Social networks and communication behaviour underlying smart home adoption in the UK”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 38, pp. 82–97.
Wilson, C., Kerr, L., Sprei, F., Vrain, E. and Wilson, M. (2020) “Potential climate benefits of digital consumer innovations”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 45(1), pp. 113–144.
Cooper, R., Hama-Aziz, Z., Hiscock, K., Lovett, A., Vrain, E., Dugdale, S., Sunnenberg, G., Dockerty, T., Hovesen, P. and Noble, L. (2020) “Conservation tillage and soil health: lessons from a 5-year UK farm trial (2013-2018)”, Soil and Tillage Research, 202.