The project will use both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research process is set out below:
1. Literature review of factors affecting adoption of and perceptions toward energy innovation, ensuring the review looks across all energy vectors.
2. Characterise the two areas proposed for the public trials, using the socio-demographic variables found to be most pertinent to the study. This will be accomplished via a desk based study of the areas using 2011 census data, official labour market statistics , indices of deprivation data , and the ONS towns and cities analysis data .
3. Create a sampling frame to build a sample for HyDeploy2 that is representative of the proposed trial areas in consultation with partners.
4. Survey participants via two methods to balance scale of the sample and quality of the data.
a. Slow Survey Methodology – face to face surveying in a public place using both a structured survey and unstructured questioning. This approach guarantees the quality of the data. Target sample size is 100 participants.
b. Online Survey of between 500 and 1000 participants. This uses the same survey questions but expands the sample size to improve robustness and accuracy of findings. The results of the two approaches are carefully compared. Where the findings are sufficiently similar we are able to benefit from both the confidence that comes with face to face research with the scale and statistical significance of the online approach.
5. The results of surveys will be reported and presented to the project partners.
The research team at Newcastle University may also seek to publish these findings in order to expose the work to peer review and thus further enhance confidence in and profile of the research.

Objectives

1. To gain a valuable insight into the customer ‘perceptions’ of hydrogen held by members of a sample of households which is – as far as is possible – representative of the proposed trial areas.
2. To be able to determine which demographic, geographic and / or socio-technical contextual factors, if any, affect these ‘perceptions’.