Matthew works as Director of Research and Senior Lecturer at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, within the University of Strathclyde’s Business School. His research examines the policy and market conditions necessary to accelerate low-carbon energy technology and business model innovation. He is a co-investigator on UKRI’s £10m EnergyREV consortium on smart, locally led energy systems, and the UK Energy Research Centre’s Community Energy Finance project.

Matthew has published ‘Financial Times 50’ ranked journal papers, written a book on accelerating low-carbon innovation, as well as commentary for national newspapers (e.g. i news) and reports for the World Energy Council. His work has received international prizes, been referenced in Parliamentary reports and covered by mainstream media (e.g. BBC, Forbes).

He holds a number of external positions too including:

• Member of Scottish Power Energy Networks' RIIO-ED2 Customer Engagement Group
• Visiting researcher at Imperial College London
• External examiner for SPRU, University of Sussex
• Elected council member of the British Institute for Energy Economics
• Chair and trustee of the sustainability community organisation South Seeds
• Honorary Fellow of the Green Angel Syndicate
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Prior to joining Strathclyde he worked at Imperial College’s Centre for Environmental Policy (2012-2016) examining the effectiveness of energy innovation policies both in the UK and overseas (e.g. China, Finland). He completed his PhD at the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) at the University of Leeds (2009-2012), examining the role that business model innovation plays in driving a low-carbon energy transition.

Projects:

• Co-Investigator for the UKRI £8m Energy Revolution Research Consortium to support a smart, locally led energy system. Co-I for work packages on: (1) business and finance; and (2) policy and regulation (commenced Dec 2018). Primary Investigator for 4 month project examining Smart local energy systems for a ‘just transition'.
• Co-Investigator for the UKRI Strength in Places HotScot project to develop plans to tap into the geothermal energy contained within disused, flooded coal mines in Scotland. Lead on business models and finance (seed funding stage).
• Co-Investigator on UK Energy Research Centre funded Community Energy Finance project (2017-2019). Lead on community energy case studies work package.
• Co-Investigator for the Centre for Energy Systems Integration funded project on Interdisciplinary research for energy systems integration: understanding and promoting good practice (commenced Jan 2019)
• Co-Investigator on Political hyping of new energy technologies project to explore how parliamentary processes fuel or deflate expectations surrounging low-carbon technology innovations. We focus in particular on tipping-points between political support or opposition to new technologies.

PhD supervision:

• Josh Oxby - Jobs, innovation and the net-zero energy transition: employment opportunities for Scotland and their equitable distribution
• Kirsten Brown - Low-carbon heat for low-income communities: Locally owned business models to capture mine water geothermal heat for Scotland’s ex-mining communities (ETP Industrial Doctorate, co-funded by Scottish Enterprise).
• Horacio Gonzalez - Scaling up Scotland’s emerging low-carbon energy industry.
• Rui Hu - The Chinese innovation system for wind energy: structure, functions and performance (completed 2017).

Selected publications:

• Braunholtz-Speight, T., Mander, S., Hannon, M., Hardy, J., McLachlan, C., Manderson, E. & Sharmina, M. (2020) Business Models and Financial Characteristics of Community Energy in the UK, Nature Energy 5 pp: 169–177
• MacKenzie, N., Knox, S., Hannon, M. (2020) Fast Reactor Technology and the Entrepreneurial State, Business History
• Skea. J., Hannon, M. J., van Diemen, R., Rhodes, A., Gazis, E., Hu, R. (2019) Energy Innovation for the 21st Century: Accelerating the Energy Revolution. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham
• Hannon, M. J., Topham, E., MacMillan, D., Dixon, J. Collu, M. (2019) Offshore wind, ready to float? Global and UK trends in the floating offshore wind market, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
• Hannon, M. J., van Diemen, R., Skea. J. (2017) Lost at sea or a new wave of energy innovation? Examining the effectiveness of UK wave energy innovation policy since 2000, University of Strathclyde
• Hu, R., Skea, J., Hannon, M. (2017) Measuring the energy innovation process: An indicator framework and a case study of wind energy in China, Technological Forecasting and Social Change 127 pp: 227-244
• Bolton, R. P. G., Hannon, M. (2016) Governing sustainability transitions through business model innovation: The case of UK local authority application of the energy service company model, Research Policy 78 (9) pp. 1731–1742