Pablo Salas

Dr Pablo Salas Bravo is the Deputy Director of C-EENRG and Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellow in Radical Innovation and Disruption at CISL, University of Cambridge. He is an Economists and Electrical Engineer by training, with degrees from the University of Cambridge (PhD in Land Economy), the University of Hamburg (MSc in Economics) and the University of Chile (Electrical Engineering). Dr Salas interdisciplinary background combines extensive training in physics, mathematics, computing sciences, dynamic systems modelling, economics and public policy.

Dr Salas has plenty of experience in research projects as Principal Investigator (BRIDGE-TESC and B2I), Co-Investigator (EEIST, FRANTIC) and Researcher (BRIDGE, LINKS2015) on various grants. Under the Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme, Dr Salas’ research brings together contributions from the fields of complex theory, macroeconomics, dynamic systems modelling and technology/engineering, to study the potential for radical innovation in technology and business models to disruptively catalyse the transition to a sustainable economy.

Over the last decade, Dr Salas has worked closely with teams at C-EENRG, Cambridge Econometrics, Open University and University of Exeter in the development of FTT (Future Technology Transformation Models), a family of bottom-up evolutionary simulations of technology diffusion based on cross-sectional discrete choice models. FTT is part of the integrated assessment model E3ME-FTT-GENIE, a modelling suite currently being used to support policy assessment in several world regions, including Europe (European Commission, at DG ENERGY and DG CLIMA), Asia and America.

In parallel to his academic career, Dr Salas has engaged in the development of international programmes on innovation and technology transfer. Some of the partners in this area include the International Outreach Programme at Cambridge Enterprise (the commercialisation arm of the research and intellectual property of the University of Cambridge), Cambridge Cleantech (a network of more than 500 cleantech companies in the UK) and several technology transfer offices in Brazil and Chile.

Before doing his PhD, Dr Salas led the development of large engineering projects in Chile, including the first large scale system for automatic detection of wildfires (covering an area of 20,000 km2), and the radiocommunication system for the lines 4/4A of the Subway in Santiago.

Career

• Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellow in Radical Innovation, CISL.
• Deputy Director of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance - C-EENRG
• Teaching Associate, MPhil in Environmental Policy, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
• Research Associate, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
• Senior Business Manager and Project Manager, Interexport Ltd.

Qualifications

• PhD in Land Economy, University of Cambridge
• MSc in Economics, University of Hamburg
• MEng & BEng in Electrical Engineering, University of Chile

Other affiliations

• Research Fellow, C-EENRG
• 2019-2020: Co-I of ‘FRANTIC: Financial Risk and the Impact of Climate Change Policy’, C-EENRG & CISL. Grant awarded by NERC to identify policy pathways towards increased resilience in the face of economic and financial transition risk related to climate change.

Funding and awards

• 2018-2019: PI of ‘Technological Empowerment for family-farming agriculture in Santa Catarina’ (BRIDGE-TESC), C-EENRG. Grant awarded by the University of Cambridge under the Global Challenges Research Funds (GCRF) initiative.
• 2018-2019: PI of ‘Bridge to Impact (B2I)’, C-EENRG. Grant awarded by the University of Cambridge under the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, to enhance the impact of ‘BRIDGE’.
• 2016-2019: PDRA of ‘BRIDGE: Building Resilience In a Dynamic Global Economy - Complexity Across Scales in Brazil’. Grant awarded by ESRC and the Newton Fund to study the nexus between food, water and energy in Brazil. The project includes a consortium of five institutions, led by the University of Cambridge.
• 2018: Senior Policy Advisor on project ‘Design of a Climate Policy Analysis Modelling and Simulation Tool for Chile’, C-EENRG and Cambridge Econometrics. Project awarded by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Chilean Ministry of Energy, to support the Chilean government in the design of a climate policy analysis tool.
• 2014-2015: Researcher of ‘LINKS2015: Linkages between energy, food and water consumption for Brazil in the context of climate change mitigation strategies’, C-EENRG. Networking grant awarded by EPSRC and the Newton Fund.