DECRA funding awarded to examine Australia’s hydrogen hub model and its impact on regional communities
Author Kathy Nickels
Date 26 August 2024
Dr Kari Dahlgren, an Associate Investigator at the ADM+S at Monash University will critically examine the hydrogen hub model and its impact on regional communities with funding received through the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme.
The DECRA scheme supports innovative and high-impact research and is awarded to Australia’s leading early-career researchers with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research and emerging capability for leadership and supervision.
The project Hydrogen Hub aims to assist Australia’s developing hydrogen industry deliver its potential decarbonization, economic and social benefits, by critically examining the hydrogen hub model and its impact on regional communities.
“The hydrogen hub model is seen as a key way to quickly scale hydrogen’s development, but this model also promises significant concentration of benefits and impacts within regional communities,” said Dr Dahlgren.
This research will generate new knowledge by being the first ethnographic study of Australia’s emerging hydrogen industry.
Key outcomes of this project include enhanced understanding of the consequences of the hydrogen hub model and its impacts for regional communities, theoretical development in the social sciences of industrial decarbonisation, a documentary film for research dissemination, and policy recommendations for hydrogen development planning that take into account community concerns and desires.
“Too often community consultation happens too late in the development process to significantly influence it. This research aims to generate diverse possibilities early on in hydrogen’s development, so that it can better align with communities’ visions for the future of their regions,” said Dr Dahlgren.
