Call for Proposals: The Economics of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS)

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Published:
December 1, 2021

Deadline: Feb. 11, 2022

Long-run climate change mitigation projections made by institutions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to national and sub-national governments suggest that carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) may play a key role in achieving mid- and late-century decarbonization goals. Despite the important role envisioned for CCUS by institutions and researchers, however, development has been slow for industrial emissions and power sector applications considered potentially well-suited for CCUS. Recent work by the National Academies suggests that geologic sequestration is ready for large-scale deployment from a physical science perspective. However, research in economics, operations research, political science, and the other social sciences seeking to understand the likelihood of deploying CCUS at scale, the barriers to doing so, and the tradeoffs involved in public policies promoting CCUS, remains thin.

With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wyoming are engaged in a three-year research project on these topics. The project is directed by Sheila Olmstead (UT Austin), Ben Leibowicz (UT Austin), Chuck Mason (Wyoming) and Andrew Waxman (UT Austin). One important goal of our project is to increase the number and diversity of scholars in economics and the other social sciences conducting work on CCUS.


Learn more about the three-year project

Call for Proposals: The Economics of CCUS (PDF)


Specs

Toward this goal, we are issuing this call for proposals on CCUS economics and policy. We invite prospective authors to submit proposals for new, original research papers on any aspect of CCUS economics and policy by Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, sent by e-mail to Sheila Olmstead: sheila.olmstead@austin.utexas.edu.

Proposals should not exceed five pages in length (12-point font, single-spaced). Each five-page proposal should include:

  • the intended research question(s);
  • a brief discussion of likely contributions to the existing literature;
  • the research design and approach; and
  • the data available (or data collection planned) to answer the research question(s).

All submissions must include a conflict of interest (COI) statement indicating whether any members of the research team have ties to the energy industry or any other potential conflicts that might bear on their proposed research. References and the COI statement are not included in the five-page limit.

We are able to support honoraria of $12,000 for up to six selected papers. Our main focus is on the United States, but we will consider proposals with a theoretical or empirical focus on other countries, as long as the research seeks to draw general conclusions that would be applicable to the U.S. context. Authors of selected papers will be expected to participate in up to four one-hour virtual workshops per academic year on different aspects of CCUS technology and policy in Spring 2022–Fall 2024 as part of a network of scholars working on these issues, and to present their research paper at a conference held in Spring 2024 at The University of Texas at Austin. Our budget will support travel to the Spring 2024 conference for at least one author per sponsored paper (in addition to the honorarium). We will seek to publish the supported papers and others by the UT and UW researchers in a special issue of a peer-reviewed economics or policy journal, though authors may choose to publish their papers elsewhere.

Timeline

Authors of selected papers will be notified by Friday, March 18, 2022. Full draft papers will be due by Feb. 9, 2024, and the CCUS economics and policy workshop at UT Austin is tentatively scheduled for May 2024. Co-authored submissions are welcome, though only one honorarium will be paid per paper.

We would appreciate your circulating this RFP to anyone who might be interested in submitting a proposal. Early-career scholars, women and scholars of color are especially encouraged to apply.

We invite prospective authors to submit proposals for new, original research papers on any aspect of CCUS economics and policy by Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, sent by e-mail to Sheila Olmstead.

 

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