Dr Sally Caird

Professional biography

Dr. Sally Caird, Senior Lecturer ‘Technological Innovation and Sustainability, BA (Hons) MEd PhD FHEA.

Sally joined The Open University (OU) first as Teaching Fellow in 1991, then as Research Fellow, completing a doctorate on the management of innovation products and processes in 1996. Before joining The OU, Sally worked in various research and teaching roles mainly focused on innovation and entrepreneurship at Durham University and the University of Stirling.  Subsequently, as OU Research Fellow she carried out research in areas including the adoption and use of low carbon energy systems in residential buildings and the design of sustainable higher education teaching models. Her research interests address sociotechnical issues associated with the design, evaluation and impact of low carbon products and systems in built environments, and a current focus is the evaluation of smart city innovation programmes.

Sally became Lecturer in ‘Technological Innovation and Sustainability’ in the School of Engineering and Innovation in 2017 and a Senior Lecturer in 2019. She was Production Chair of TB801 'Technology and Innovation Management '  2019-2021, also lead-authoring several blocks of module materials, including Block 1 'Technology and innovation management fundamentals', Block 5 'Defining and evaluating added value' and Block 6 'Innovation Strategy'. She also took on a significant role in the production of T803 'Research in Context'  2022-2023, as lead-author of Block 2 'Research design and delivery' and Block 3 'Research analysis and reporting'. She has contributed to the production of B209 'Entrepreneurchip and Innovation' with a reversioned tool for students - the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) test - from her open educational website, GET2test.net. 

As well as working on OU module production, she has worked as Module Presentation Chair for the postgraduate capstone module T847 ' The MSc Professional Project' , and currently is Presentation Chair of the modules  TB801 'Technology and Innovation Management ' and  T319 'Environmental Management 2'. She also works on the module presentation teams for the postgraduate modules T849 ' Strategic Capabilities for Technological Innovation' and T803 'Research in Context'.  She has been the OU-Lead on the University Alliance Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA3) PhD Fellowship programme beginning in 2018, funded by the EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSC) COFUND scheme.

Research interests

Sally's research interests lie in innovation and sustainable development. Her research interests address sociotechnical issues associated with the design, evaluation and impact of low carbon products and systems in built environments, and a current focus is the evaluation of smart city innovation programmes. Her research encompasses social, environmental and economic themes, spans different stakeholder perspectives, and involves collaborations with the public and private sector.

Sally has strong interests in designing and developing research-informed open educational resources and tools derived from her research. This includes: the OpenLearn teaching course 'Introducing Technology and Innovation Management', the OpenLearn course unit ‘The environmental impact of teaching and learning’; ‘Postcards from the Future’ ecoquiz accompanying the BBC/OU Coast series. It also includes the popular online, open educational website, GET2test.net with the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) test, which has nearly 2,000 users per month and has been widely adopted by over 80 institutions across over 30 countries for education, research, development and training.

For more details on the research projects:

2018- 2024 University Alliance DTA3 programme –  Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA) in Energy, Applied Biosciences for Health and Social Policy (DTA3) PhD Fellowship programme funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND scheme

2014 SmartDframe (OU Smart Cities Open Challenge Competition funding linked to the OU flagship MK:Smart initiative). This examines city approaches to the evaluation of smart city projects and programmes and their outcomes for cities and citizens. This led to the report  A Tale of Evaluation and Reporting in UK Smart Cities which includes an analysis of smart city case studies in the UK – Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. http://www.open.ac.uk/research/main/news/evaluating-smart-city-success 

2011-2013 SusTEACH (Sustainable Tools for the Environmental Appraisal of the Carbon Impacts of Higher Education (HE) Teaching Models using ICTs) (Jisc-funded). This features analysis of environmental audit data gathered via online surveys and energy databases to analyse carbon impacts of 30 HE courses in 15 HE institutions, and examine the transformative impact of ICTs on sustainability, plus development of online tools. This led to the ‘Green Gown Award 2012 - Research & Development Finalist’. Several research papers followed, including a research paper published in International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, which was selected as Winner of the ‘Outstanding Paper Award in the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2016.’ http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/literati/awards.htm?year=2016. This work also led to a publication in The Conversation, with the article ‘'Plug the university finance gap by turning teaching greener’, which contributed to debate on financial sustainability of England’s Higher Education System.

2008 -2011 Heat Pump Field Trial User Evaluation (HE Innovation Fund/Carbon Connections and EST funded): features investigation of UK domestic user experiences and influence on heat pump performance. Data sources included user questionnaires, focus groups, buildings energy performance assessments, and monitored technology performance. Consortium included 3 government departments; 7 energy suppliers and 7 manufacturers.

2009- 2011 U-STIR Sustainable Surface Transport (U-STIR, FP7 funded): features workshops and customer engagement to support infrastructure for Low Carbon Electric Vehicles in UK, and contributed surface transport innovation case studies with partners in 7 European countries.

2007-2008 Household Adoption and Use of Microgeneration heat (HE Innovation Fund/Carbon Connections and EST): features online surveys with 900+ consumers to investigate household adoption, non-adoption and experience of using solar thermal, heat pump and biomass heating systems.

2004--2006 People-centred Ecodesign (OU funded): features interviews and online surveys on consumer adoption, non-adoption of low carbon technologies, including insulation, energy efficient lighting, solar thermal and photovoltaic systems and micro-wind turbines. Collaboration with the National Energy Foundation, EST, Energy Agency and the BBC.

2001-2005 Household Ecological Footprints (OU funded): features data analysis of over 1,000 households using EcoCal software to determine ecological footprint based on transport, energy, waste, water and food consumption.

Teaching interests

Sally's teaching at The Open University includes the production of the following modules:

• TB801 'Technology and Innovation Management (Production Chair)
• TB801 'Technology and Innovation Management (Lead author of Block 1 'Technology and innovation management fundamentals', Block 5 'Defining and evaluating added value' and Block 6 'Innovation Strategy')
• T803 'Research in Context' (Lead author of Block 2 'Research design and delivery' and Block 3 'Research analysis and reporting'  addressing both quantitative and qualitative research) 

Sally's teaching at The Open University includes the presentation of the following modules:

• TB801 'Technology and Innovation Management (Presentation Chair)
• T319 'Environmental Management 2' (Presentation Chair)
• T847 ' The MSc Professional Project'  (Presentation Chair)
• T803 'Research in Context' (Module Team)
• T849 'Strategic Capabilities for Technological Innovation'​.(Module Team)
• T317 'Innovation: Designing for change' (Module Team, Monitor-In-Charge)

Impact and engagement

Sally's research has contributed to curriculum development in HE modules, OpenLearn, public education resources, external enterprise and innovation programmes, and to government consultations. She has designed and developed research-informed open educational resources, including:

• The OpenLearn teaching course 'Introducing Technology and Innovation Management'
• The OpenLearn teaching unit ‘The environmental impact of teaching and learning’ and the SusTEACH HE toolkit in 2013 linked to the SusTEACH project 
• The widely-adopted GET2test  enterprise website, which has an average of 2,000 users per month, and has been adopted by over 80 institutions and organisations across over 30 countries for educational, training, development and research purposes.
• The eco-lifestyle quiz that accompanied the BBC/OU Coast series completed by 9,000 people
• The eco-tool for schools on the DEFRA-funded soils education website;
• The organisational innovation tool  Open2-Innova8ion Tool;
• The academic transformation of Open University courses for the OpenLearn platform (B624_1, B700_3, K100_3, K100_6) .