As this is my first post on this network, I should start by introducing myself. My name is Daan Vegter and I am an undergraduate at the University of Leeds studying Economics and History. The research project I am working on, together with @Aditi T R Murali, aims to cross-reference the environmental benefits of certain changes in behaviour with their respective acceptability amongst consumers. Our narrow goal is to isolate what we are calling 'low-hanging fruit', i.e. behavioural changes with a high willingness to accept relative to their environmental benefit. However, more broadly, we also hope it contributes to wider analyses of the role of consumer behaviour on climate change, a relatively unexplored topic.  

Next, a quick update on where we are on the project. The first few weeks proved fairly bliss. Following two enjoyable weekends of socialising, occasionally interrupted with a bit of leadership training ;), and a conference on discrete choice modelling, the initial weeks were spent simply trying stuff out and understanding what on earth we had gotten ourselves into. Then followed a period of actually doing stuff, inevitably, wrong. Finally, we've just had a couple of days with false senses of achievement as we completed things we aimed to have finished a week prior.  And this brings us to today: the day we realised we have just 19 days to more or less complete the entire project. So I guess the question I am reflecting on is; how did we get here?

After careful deliberation of this question, my overarching answer is as follows; academia is a merciless and thankless field. I can imagine that as Baron Laidlaw reads the above paragraph, which he justifiably will not, he may wonder why on earth he's paying for this. However, I want to assure him at no point were we sitting on our hands. Trialing and eliminating ideas, reading never-ending literature and pestering our supervisors all appear to be the accepted approach. Furthermore, we had the horrific task of applying for ethical approval. There was something painfully paradoxical about applying for permission to do something that could only be understood by doing it, to avoid being unable to do it later. In fact, the only reason we are even able to start our actual work now is because of what we've done over the past three weeks. 

It is at this point that I want to compliment the academics. Whilst our timeframe is uniquely short, it is also reflected in the accuracy and complexity of our research. For every hurdle we've jumped, academics will have had to jump 10 and at twice the height. Moreover, they do so thanklessly. I was shocked to discover that only 5% of choice modelling studies done will be implemented into policy. The rest are done purely to progress the fields they are produced in. This all feels rather backward given the importance of the work they do. Specifically in sustainability, researchers are rushing to fill vast gaps in the relatively new field's literature as the clock on the issues they seek to address ticks ever louder. 

However, I should also point out some reflections on my reflections. Namely, I come at this from a very self-pitying point-of-view and am confident that by the end of my project, I will have a more optimistic view of academia. Furthermore, I have thus far also learned a lot. Most notably, I have had to train myself to seek out-of-the-box solutions when unable to find the necessary secondary research. This has taught me to look at problems granularly; addressing their small components rather than as a whole. Finally, I am also very much enjoying the experience. The opportunity to explore a topic in this depth and without the pressure of grades has allowed me to scratch a new type of curious itch.