Writtle University College and ARU have merged. Writtle’s full range of college, degree, postgraduate and short courses will still be delivered on the Writtle campus. See our guide to finding Writtle information on this site.

South East New Energy (SENE)

ARU is a strategic partner for the South East New Energy Project (SENE) whose primary goal is to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy.

SENE logo, EU Logo and HM Government logo

The project is led by the University of East London (UEL) and will work to develop the local energy economy across the South East of England. These activities will help build a stronger local energy economy where increasingly: regional SMEs grow and become more competitive; innovators are more able to bring new products and services to market; energy is increasingly generated, stored and consumed locally; and low carbon sector business activity and profits are retained in the East of England region.

ARU brings expertise in business management, organisational strategy, technology change and barriers to technology adoption. We also bring specific practical experience in the electric vehicle environment and significant business and public sector engagement experience.

ARU Project Team biographies

Dr Lewis Walsh – Principal investigator

Knowledge and experience

  • Research experience – qualitative, workshops, interviews, questionnaire design.
  • Theory application – formality and informality dynamics, structure-agency, decision making, application for social construction, technology analysis
  • Practical (engagement) – helping firms better exploit technology through workshop engagement (e.g. benefits realisation).

Research interests

  • Small business studies
  • visitor/consumer behaviour
  • Digital technology
  • Small business regulation
  • Mega event and festival impacts

Dr Chris Kerry

Knowledge and experience

  • Open innovation - theory, process and management of value generation across organisational boundaries
  • Local, regional and national innovation systems design
  • Individual, project and system level innovation management coaching
  • Business model development
  • Entrepreneurial mindset and competency coaching

Research expertise

  • Open innovation
  • Innovation intermediaries
  • Triple-Helix
  • Innovation systems
  • Business models

Paul Bourgeois – Industrial Lead

Knowledge and experience

  • Built environment (domestic) – new build and retrofit including Passivhaus standard and materials
  • Renewable energy technologies – installation and technical
  • Energy efficiency measures and energy conservation strategies – installation and technical
  • Energy infrastructure – local, regional and national (current state and gap analysis)
  • Business efficiency and resilience - energy, water, waste and carbon diagnostics
  • Project identification, conceptualisation, design and management including EU and domestic funding

Research interests

  • Electrification of the domestic sector including existing and new build, and transportation/e-mobility
  • National whole system data assessment and utilisation

Brendon Shaw – Industrial Lead

Knowledge and experience

  • Electrical vehicle – complete vehicle development (T1 OEM)
  • Smart city and clean air zones – integration of vehicle real time date to cloud storage and analysis, incorporating European city clean air strategy
  • Green vehicle fleet management – planning future vehicle fleets
  • Last mile delivery – supply chain strategy for last mile city delivery using smart cargo
  • Electrical vehicle charging infrastructure – current and future power usage profiles for commercial fleets
  • Air quality analysis – installation, data analysis and reporting on building environmental conditions
  • Project management – large scale end to end global project management

Research interests

  • Vehicle electrification and smart city infrastructures
  • Sustainability supply chains