Mar Rubio (left) and Joseba de la Torre, professors at UPNA

Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA) participates in the consortium for the newly funded Horizon2020 research project entitled History of Nuclear Energy and Society (HoNESt) that will launch on 1 September 2015.

Funded by Horizon 2020/Euratom, the collaborative research project HoNESt sets out to explain variety and change in European societies’ relations with nuclear energy on the basis of the historical experience.

HoNESt is the work of an interdisciplinary consortium of researchers in 23 partner institutions across Europe, many leading experts in their fields. It provides the first comprehensive comparative and transnational analysis of nuclear developments and their relations with society, offering novel explanations and arguments. The scope of the research is unprecedentedly broad in both time and space, covering the experience of 20 countries and international organizations over the past 70 years.

HoNESt sets out to develop an innovative interdisciplinary framework, combining insights from the history of technology, science and technology studies, environmental history, economic and business history, social movement research, and the study of societal engagement. Moving beyond disciplinary boundaries, the project embraces the complexity of political, technological, economic and environmental dimensions, issues of safety, risk perception and communication, societal acceptance and engagement and media framing.

Societal perceptions of and political responses to nuclear power differ widely between European countries. Public debates about nuclear issues have been characterised by mutual miscomprehensions. Against this backdrop, HoNESt takes seriously the roles and often contradictory perspectives of the actors involved – industry, policy makers, experts, civil society actors and the media –, as well as the rapidly changing societal, economic, political and technological contexts.

UPNA, a key partner

UPNA is a key partner in HoNESt consortium. Dr. Mar Rubio, Associate Professor at the Economics Department, is the person in charge of the Scientific Secretariat of the project that will assist the Project Coordinator in the task of monitoring the academic progress of the project, coordinating the scientific results, and guaranteeing the smooth internal and external communication of the academic achievements. Together with Professor Joseba de la Torre, and with the contribution of research assistants, UPNA’ staff will be responsible for the Spanish and Portuguese case studies with particular emphasis on the economic and industrial implications of the nuclear program in Spain. Staff at UPNA will conduct the interviews to the relevant stockholders and key policymakers relevant for the understanding of the Spanish nuclear moratorium. UPNA will be also present with a coordinating role in the interdisciplinary working package between historians and social scientist (WP3).