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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, and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College. She co-leads the Oxford University Climate Leadership Research Centre, conducting interdisciplinary research to understand and empower leaders across society to act and advocate for climate action. 

Emilie also contributes to EDOL (Energy Demand Observatory and Laboratory), a major five-year study generating high-quality longitudinal data from UK households. Her current work uses time-use methods to investigate how digital automation shapes household flexibility and patterns of energy use.

Previously, Emilie worked on the ERC-funded iDODDLE project, examining the mechanisms through which digital technologies shape everyday practices and their implications for energy demand and climate change. Her research combined quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyse how digital low-carbon innovations are adopted and integrated into daily life.

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.
 

Featured Publications

Vrain, E.  “Me or the machine, who decides? Acceptance spillover of digital automation for a sustainable transition”, in European Network of Living Labs. Google Scholar   ORA

Vrain, E. and Wilson, C.  “Automation acceptance for sustainable digital daily life” ORA

Vrain, E. and Wilson, C. (2024) Energy Demand Detectives. Can you uncover the secrets of household automation?. ECEEE Summer Study poster.

Publications

Wilson, C. et al. (2020) “Potential climate benefits of digital consumer innovations”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 45(1), pp. 113–144.
Cooper, R. et al. (2020) “Conservation tillage and soil health: lessons from a 5-year UK farm trial (2013-2018)”, Soil and Tillage Research, 202.
Cooper, R. et al. (2020) “Temporal hydrochemical dynamics of the River Wensum, UK: Observations from long-term high-resolution monitoring (2011–2018)”, Science of the Total Environment, 724.
Vrain, E. and Lovett, A. (2019) “Using word clouds to present farmers’ perceptions of advisory services on pollution mitigation measures”, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 63(6), pp. 1132–1149.
Rose, D. et al. (2018) “Beyond individuals: toward a ‘distributed’ approach to farmer decision-making behavior”, Food and Energy Security, 7(4).
Inman, A. et al. (2017) “An exploration of individual, social and material factors influencing water pollution mitigation behaviours within the farming community”, Land Use Policy, 70, pp. 16–26.
Vrain, E. and Lovett, A. (2016) “The roles of farm advisors in the uptake of measures for the mitigation of diffuse water pollution”, Land Use Policy, 54, pp. 413–422.
Collins, A. et al. (2016) “Tackling agricultural diffuse pollution: what might uptake of farmer-preferred measures deliver for emissions to water and air?”, Science of the Total Environment, 547, pp. 269–281.
Vrain, E. (no date) “Me or the machine, who decides? Acceptance spillover of digital automation for a sustainable transition”, in. European Network of Living Labs.