Our iGEM project, "Solar Hunter", is highly relevant to developing a sustainable and scalable strategy towards hydrogen production by integrating the power of synthetic biology and materials science. Our project is about an energy topic of broad interest. <strong>To better understand the energy issues from a broader perspective, and to figure out the current relationship and major differences between academic research and real industrial applications in the context of energy issues, our team carried out a wide range of social investigations. Our social investigations mainly consisted of two main parts, public questionnaire and personal interviews.</strong>The public questionnaire was implemented to be familiar to the general public attitudes. We carefully analyzed the data collected. Based on the main concerns and opinions we found through the data analysis, we invited several field experts from different walk of to participate in a series of theme interviews. Our interviewees included scientists working at the cutting-edge in energy field, industrial representatives dedicating to the energy conservation, as well as from representatives from the administrative government.<p></p>

Our iGEM project, "Solar Hunter", is highly relevant to developing a sustainable and scalable strategy towards hydrogen production by integrating the power of synthetic biology and materials science. Our project is about an energy topic of broad interest. <strong>To better understand the energy issues from a broader perspective, and to figure out the current relationship and major differences between academic research and real industrial applications in the context of energy issues, our team carried out a wide range of social investigations. Our social investigations mainly consisted of two main parts, public questionnaire and personal interviews.</strong>The public questionnaire was implemented to be familiar to the general public attitudes. We carefully analyzed the data collected. Based on the main concerns and opinions we found through the data analysis, we invited several field experts from different walk of to participate in a series of theme interviews. Our interviewees included scientists working at the cutting-edge in energy field, industrial representatives dedicating to the energy conservation, as well as from representatives from the administrative government.<p></p>

Through these social investigations, we found out that yet they shared common interests and goals,  academic research are more interested in putting forward new solutions to  increase energy efficiency without necessarily connecting to scalable production, while real industrial applications mainly care about costs and how a new strategy can lead to large-scale production. Our social investigations helped us to gain a better view about the developing background of the energy issue in China,  and to brainstorm how our project would contribute to energy issue not only from academic perspective, but also in an industrial context.<p></p>

Through these social investigations, we found out that yet they shared common interests and goals,  academic research are more interested in putting forward new solutions to  increase energy efficiency without necessarily connecting to scalable production, while real industrial applications mainly care about costs and how a new strategy can lead to large-scale production. Our social investigations helped us to gain a better view about the developing background of the energy issue in China,  and to brainstorm how our project would contribute to energy issue not only from academic perspective, but also in an industrial context.<p></p>

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When investigated on public awareness of the energy issue, as many as 78% respondents laid strong emphasis on the issue. They considered the energy issue as an extremely urgent social problem that needed to be solved, which strongly illustrated the huge potential and prospect for our project.<p></p>

When investigated on public awareness of the energy issue, as many as 78% respondents laid strong emphasis on the issue. They considered the energy issue as an extremely urgent social problem that needed to be solved, which strongly illustrated the huge potential and prospect for our project.<p></p>

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<h4><strong>5. About Our Project</strong></h4>

<h4><strong>5. About Our Project</strong></h4>

In the questionnaire, we briefly described the idea and mechanism of our energy-conversion platform, gaining about 63% of the positive feedback. Therefore, the real application of our platform in a big productive scale is relatively promising and deserved. However, we also notice the 37% with a relatively negative feedback, which also reminds us of further improvements on our ideas, especially with regard to the safety, cost, and efficiency based on the feedback from previous questions. And we believe that as long as the technologies are more mature and their main concerns are eliminated, people would hold a more positive point of view. <p></p>

In the questionnaire, we briefly described the idea and mechanism of our energy-conversion platform, gaining about 63% of the positive feedback. Therefore, the real application of our platform in a big productive scale is relatively promising and deserved. However, we also notice the 37% with a relatively negative feedback, which also reminds us of further improvements on our ideas, especially with regard to the safety, cost, and efficiency based on the feedback from previous questions. And we believe that as long as the technologies are more mature and their main concerns are eliminated, people would hold a more positive point of view. <p></p>

To assist our further integration of our project into real social application, further questions on the necessity of collaborations with industrial partners, academic research groups, and the government were asked.<p></p>

To assist our further integration of our project into real social application, further questions on the necessity of collaborations with industrial partners, academic research groups, and the government were asked.<p></p>

<img class="pic3x pic3" alt="Click to see big picture" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/c/c5/Stu_%2817%29.png">

<img class="pic3x pic3" alt="Click to see big picture" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/c/c5/Stu_%2817%29.png">

About 62% of the participants demonstrated the strongest necessity to cooperate with some green energy related enterprises. Near 87% supported to acquire more technological assistance from the academics. More than 62% of participants thought the supportive policies from the authority would be very important for the real application. In responses to these results, further interviews from these three aspects were then scheduled.<p></p>

About 62% of the participants demonstrated the strongest necessity to cooperate with some green energy related enterprises. Near 87% supported to acquire more technological assistance from the academics. More than 62% of participants thought the supportive policies from the authority would be very important for the real application. In responses to these results, further interviews from these three aspects were then scheduled.<p></p>

For the next step of the social research, our team got connected with people working with the energy issue in industry community, at academic groups, and administrative government. A series of further social activities were then carried out to make our project more adaptable to the real industrialization.

For the next step of the social research, our team got connected with people working with the energy issue in industry community, at academic groups, and administrative government. A series of further social activities were then carried out to make our project more adaptable to the real industrialization.

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