Dr Alycia Leonard one of Skoll Centre’s 2025–2026 Early Career Research Fellows

Each year, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School selects exceptional early career academics from across Oxford whose research generates knowledge to accelerate social impact.

The Centre brings together researchers and practitioners to generate insights on how to lead, organise, finance, measure, and scale impact, and incorporates these insights into learning programmes for entrepreneurial leaders at Oxford and worldwide.

Their Early Career Research Fellows (ECRF) programme cultivates a community of changemakers, deepens research engagement across Oxford, and amplifies fellows’ work through collaborative platforms. This year’s cohort of ECRFs brings interdisciplinary expertise in energy access, climate justice, gender health equity, sustainable mobility, and urban innovation.

Dr Alycia Leonard is an expert in inclusive energy systems and AI in science. As a Senior Research Associate in Energy Systems at Oxford, her research focuses on the spatial design of sustainable and inclusive energy systems which account for both large-scale economic opportunities and local community needs.

She says, “This fellowship will be hugely beneficial to my research. The Skoll Centre community is an unparalleled group of applied, impact-driven researchers and practitioners, and I’m excited to learn from their experience. Their perspectives will help to inform the practical application of my research on AI-based energy intervention targeting within developing off-grid areas, with an eye to the business cases and policy implications of the work. I’m honoured to be part of this year’s cohort.”