The mission of the Technology, Innovation and Society (TIS) groups is to perform research on innovation and social-technical transitions from an economic, transitions studies and history of technology perspective, to understand socio-technical transitions from a systems perspective. Although transitions are generally perceived as furthering sustainability, assessments of the intendent and unintended consequences for humans and planet are not standardly included in transition studies. I believe, prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) is well suited to contribute to gaining insights in these consequences by providing a better understanding of the environmental benefits and trade-offs of innovations. However, LCA originates from the product chain perspective and as such does not provide a full system perspective. I aim to contribute to a research field within TIS at the interface of systemic transitions and environmental assessment. This must be transdisciplinary and bring together methods from different fields.

To achieve this, I structure my ambitions in three interacting lines: 1. Systemic accelerated transitions that builds on socio-technical transition studies and system dynamics and aims to identify the conditions for accelerating transitions. I strongly belief that integrating my expertise on quantitative environmental assessement with expertise on transitions and agency within TIS generates a unique contribution to transition modelling on the one hand as well as system-level impact assessment on the other. 2. Inventory modelling and circularity, that builds upon LCA research and aims to provide understanding on the physical interactions (synergies or conflicts) between climate and circular transitions. I believe my current experience in the field of photovoltaics provides good basis for intensifying this research field within TU/e. 3. Impact assessment that depends on the other two because transitions states and environmental profiles of technologies influence one another. I cooperate with former, current, and possible future colleagues to develop impact assessment that takes this mutual interdependence into account, includes the most up-to-date scientific knowledge and reflects societal concerns.

Mara Hauck graduated with Masters in Environmental Sciences form the Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany and the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. After contributing to the development of a new master program, she started an employment at the Radboud University which she finalized in 2011 with a PhD Thesis entitled ‘Uncertainties in environmental exposure modelling of persistent organic pollutants’. The years after she performed life cycle assessment research in the field of energy generation and other technologies at EIFER (European Institute for Energy Research, Karlsruhe, Germany) and the Radboud University. From 2015 onwards she was part of TNO focusing on prospective LCA, photovoltaics and system integration in the North Sea. In 2021 Mara started part time as a senior research at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), where she is now an assistant professor at Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences (IE&IS). Mara is currently (co-)supervising three PhDs and one successfully defended in 2018.