TIPC's Open Learning Series brings together the knowledge community - researchers, funders, policy practitioners, consultants and other agents of transition - for practical insights, shared learning and enquiry. It is delivered in partnership with AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. We welcome diverse perspectives from people around the world working on transformative change. Sessions often include a short networking component, so please ensure you can join in, with cameras on if possible. This event will be in English.

The pentagonal map is a systems mapping tool developed by TIPC to help identify the actors, materials (technologies, products and infrastructures) and rules within a system, in order to surface a dominant soco-technical 'regime'. It is available to use through the TIP Resource Lab.

What do we mean by systems dimensions, or actors, materials and rules?
What is a system regime?
And how might we use these concepts to think about sustainability challenges in finance?

In this session, Rob Byrne (Senior Lecturer at SPRU) will provide an introduction to some of the foundational transitions principles adressed by the tool.

We will learn from Manuel Laranja (Associate Professor at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management - ISEG, University of Lisbon) how the tool has been used in Sustainability Finance teaching at ISEG, with course participants from within and outside of the finance sector.

In this example, the pentagonal map helped participants to consider the need to change how the finance system funds sustainability. It facilitated a shift in mindsets, from a focus on using capital in innovative projects and activities yielding the highest rate of return - adjusted for measurable risk or on initiatives that comply to regulations such as ESG or PRI - towards grand challenges and the need to tackle system level change.

In this community-led event, we will discuss practical application of the tool, the lessons drawn from this, and share insights on the challenges for finance sector in moving towards sustainability.

Manuel Laranja has a DPhil from SPRU at the University of Sussex, UK. He was Director of the National Innovation Agency in Portugal and worked for more than 10 years as an innovation policy advisor at the Prime Minister’s Office and at the Ministry of Economy in Portugal. He is currently Associate Professor for Management and Policies for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at ISEG. Manuel is also a participant in TIPC's Network of Coaches for the TIP Resource Lab, and has worked with other coaches from around the world to test and shape the tools in the Lab.

Rob Byrne is Senior Lecturer at SPRU and Sussex lead for the Trilateral Chair, a TIPC-related programme of research on transformative innovation, the fourth industrial revolution and sustainable development, working with partners in Kenya and South Africa. Rob's work draws on a range of academic approaches including, amongst others, transitions theory, innovation systems, political economy and science and technology studies.

Financing sustainability transitions: Lessons from system mapping exercises