Introduction
The Energy Transition: Opportunities for Geoscientists webinar series convenes leaders from academia, industry, and government to spotlight where geoscientists can help to accelerate a responsible, investable transition. Each one-hour session (with brief audience Q&A) focuses on career pathways, transferable skills and the practical collaborations needed to deliver impact at scale. The series builds on our 2021 webinars and the 2022 Energy & Material Transition Discussion Meeting, linking those insights to today’s projects and markets.
Overview: across the series we will:
- Discuss existing and future opportunities for geoscientists across renewable energy, subsurface storage, geothermal, heat management, infrastructure re-use, minerals and nuclear industries
- Explore career transitions and skills transfer, highlighting routes from legacy sectors into growth areas.
- Share examples of data gathering, methods and monitoring advances that de-risk projects.
- Strengthen multi-disciplinary working with engineering, policy, finance, and communities.
- Introduction: Opportunities for Geoscientists in the Energy Transition; Transferable skills between Oil & Gas, Mining & Renewables
- Geothermal — Deep & shallow geothermal energy, district heat networks, mine-water & ground source heat pumps
- Wind & Subsea Cables — geohazards, foundations, data acquisition, ground models, subsea cables
- Green and Natural Hydrogen & Helium — natural hydrogen & helium exploration, industrial hubs, green hydrogen production & storage, green ammonia
- Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) — opportunity screening, active projects, offshore licensing, monitoring & verification, capture & mineralisation
- Energy Storage — subsurface energy storage, low carbon heat, thermal storage, pumped hydro
- Critical Minerals & Materials — exploration, responsible extraction, growth areas, lifecycle impacts, circularity
- Nuclear — siting, waste repositories, geotechnical stability, environmental baselines
- Integrated Energy - Oil & Gas, basin maturity, infrastructure re-purposing, emissions management, skills transfer
- AI & Machine Learning - applicability to renewable energy sectors & geoscience, pace of change, big data, compute energy requirements
- Wrap-up : Look-back over the series, cross-sector learnings, common threads, outlook for the future,
(Each session will feature short talks plus a moderated discussion; speaker questions will touch on Education & Career, Career Transition, Skills Transfer, and the Future.)
- Raised visibility & clarity on geoscience’s pivotal roles across CCS, H₂, geothermal, storage, nuclear, and responsible resources
- Actionable near-term priorities (data standards, risk reduction, permitting inputs, monitoring & verification)
- Skills pathways outlining transferable skills, upskilling needs, and routes into growth areas
- Stronger partnerships between researchers, industry operators, technology providers, finance, and policymakers
- A living resource hub capturing talks, references, and exemplars to support teaching, bids, and decision-making
- A forward plan to shape subsequent webinars and related meetings (with options for curated write-ups, e.g., ES3 community notes)
