“Sustainability assessments should be fact-based, value-driven and change-oriented.”

I am an Assistant Professor in assessment for decision-making and learning in transitions. As such, my research is fact-based, value-driven, and change-oriented. I am working on emerging technologies (e.g. batteries, hydrogen technologies, heat pumps) for the energy transition and circular economy. My research is problem-based, often resulting in interdisciplinary and mixed-method approaches, starting from stakeholder perspectives and empowerment, being action-oriented.

I am particularly interested in bridging approaches, like critical sustainability assessments. These build on assessing ‘hard’ criteria related to sustainability (e.g., people, planet, and profit dimensions) while also dealing with subjectivity (e.g., stakeholder preferences and conflicting views or framing). It is about being fact-based while addressing inherent deep uncertainties. It requires combining an analytical mindset with a decision-making perspective and a designer approach (what can be alternatives or solutions, how to optimize stakeholders’ value). It involves a focus on short-term action and feasibility while targeting radical, long-term changes to reach sustainability transitions.

My work is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on transition studies, technology and sustainability assessment, industrial ecology, design science, and systems engineering. It often involves Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), Multi Criteria Assessment (MCA), feasibility studies and Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), and scenario studies.

Throughout my career, I have been working passionately on interdisciplinary education with a focus on technology for sustainability, industrial ecology, and assessment. I believe in skill-based learning and empowerment of students, with a focus on 21st-century skills and challenge-based learning. I constructed and taught over 20 courses, often using innovative teaching methods. I supervised over 100 students for their thesis work, and over 100 interdisciplinary student groups. I (co)authored 4 textbooks and 7 publications on education innovation.

I am supervising: 
* Huiying Liu (PhD candidate) – Contributing to the transition towards circular maritime batteries by combining LCA and RRI approaches
* Prapti Maharjan (PhD candidate) - Prospective LCA of emerging technologies using experience curves
* Rishi Bhatnagar (PhD candidate) - Sustainability assessment in Sustainable Business Model Innovation
* Seyed Mousavi (PostDoc) - Role of SMEs in the development of the hydrogen economy.

Arjan Kirkels works at the Technology, Innovation, and Society (TIS) group at Eindhoven University of Technology. He studied Technology and Society at TU/e and initially started working as a lecturer at the TU/e Centre Technology for Sustainable Development. Subsequently, he did his PhD in the TIS group on technological trajectories of biomass gasification. From 1995 onwards, he has been involved in sustainability and technology assessment in both research and education, on a variety of technologies, sectors, and countries. Arjan also publishes regularly in key international journals, including Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.