This seminar will advance your research in energy systems and climate change (with emphasis on data-intensive aproaches science or systems models). The seminar provides a forum to shape your research by discussing the state of your work, related scientific works, and their implications for scholars and practitioners.

With group meetings, presentations, and individual sessions, you will advance your PhD research with specific emphasis on defining the research question and framing the problem relative to state of the art (and pressing societal issues) while working on the research design, data or model development and analysis, visualizing complex results, and writing for high-impact peer-reviewed journals (depending on the stage of the research). 

The seminar will focus on interdisciplinary research for transforming energy systems* to align with European net-zero or global climate change goals that involves many aspects, including innovation, investment, finance, markets, business strategies, economics, public policy, supply chains, geopolitics, trade and competitiveness. Addressing these complexities requires scholars to understand the systemic changes necessary to achieve meaningful emissions reductions and to communicate research findings with businesses, governments, and society.

*See below for an illustrative list of topics that fall within the scope of energy systems and climate change (see IPCC for an extended definition):

• Energy supply and transformation (e.g., electricity, renewables, fossil fuels, low-carbon fuels, grid infrastructures)
• Energy use (e.g., in transport, industry, buildings)
• Energy demand and emissions (e.g., energy efficiency, carbon capture and utilization, carbon removal)
• Technological change in energy systems (e.g., innovation, entrepreneurship, digitalization, manufacturing)

The seminar will focus on the following, depending on the state of participants' research:

• Framing your research and placing it in the scientific discourse as well as for practitioners, especially in the context of interdisciplinary issues in energy and climate change. 
• Shaping and defining research questions and hypotheses
• Identifying and refining appropriate methods with foundations in systems models and data science that are used for energy systems and climate change analysis
• Preparing research for high impact scientific publications that are also accessible to (and useful for) practitioners in business, government, and society -- including through training in the following:
  • preparing visualization of data or complex modeling output 
  • presenting research results
  • writing clearly depending on the targeted audience
• Giving and receiving concrete and constructive feedback on research to colleagues

This is a discussion-based seminar with mutual feedback expected, hence attendance is required in all group sessions and scheduled individual consultations. If you are sick, please email Prof. Surana.

Group sessions will tentatively be held once a month. Individual sessions / additional or alternative consultation times will be determined in the initial meeting.

Joint seminars with informal presentations for group work, as well as individual meetings with the supervisor to advance your specific research and get feedback. Additional talks (and discussions) by guest speakers, visiting scholars etc. may be includded.

The following will be assessed:

• active participation in class and contribution to group discussions (30%)
• the quality of the individual research question / hypothesis / framing (relative to research progress shared at the beginning of the course) (30%)
• presentation of your own work (30%)
• value of feedback given to other researchers (10%)

Each student is expected to present in joint sessions along with enaging in individual discussions with the supervisor.

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