Stories from the Subsurface

Geosolutions Leeds has important and necessary stories to share about the subsurface. But what does a compelling story about the subsurface and energy transition look like?

Working collaboratively with Geosolutions Leeds, researchers in SEE, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Culture, and professional storytellers, the project team will learn how to tell compelling, impactful, and research-informed stories about the subsurface.

Geosolutions members will be invited to work with the project team to produce three interdisciplinary subsurface stories (e.g., documentary-style film, virtual reality experience, 3-D artwork).

Professional storytellers will provide storytelling skills training and expert advice to Geosolutions members as they develop their subsurface stories. We will engage with communities affected by the subsurface (e.g., miners involved in the repurposing of coal mines for thermal energy) to co-create the stories.

The proposed subsurface stories will educate audiences about the energy transition, highlight Geosolutions Leeds' research and teaching programmes, and inspire the next generation of scientists interested in this field. The project will produce a ‘Storytelling and Stakeholder Engagement Tool’ which Geosolutions members can use to develop new subsurface stories in the future.

This research takes an innovative approach to exploring how to communicate subsurface research stories most effectively. By combining the evidence-based sustainability storytelling framework developed by Dr Padfield and Dr Dales (the CRISS Tool, https://criss.org.uk/) with storytelling expertise from creative industry professionals, the project aims to enhance the visibility and impact of Geosolutions Leeds through compelling narratives about the energy transition and the subsurface.