PhD position on energy citizenship for inclusive decarbonization

We are offering a PhD position at the interface of science, civil society and policy as a part of the Horizon 2020 Energy Citizens for Inclusive Decarbonization (ENCLUDE) project. You will become part of an international consortium of researchers and practitioners that across 13 institutions within the EU and beyond (including Greece, Switzerland, Romania, Belgium, Macedonia, Canada and among other countries). We are interested in expanding the countries of analysis, including but not limiting to Ukraine, with the intention to support potential scholars who have been forced to flee due the invasion of Ukraine. You will be expected to assess and consolidate the social and environmental impact of bottom-up decarbonization activities across the EU. You should have an interest in the energy transition, the role of the individual and collective in social transformation and open to working with both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Motivated by achieving an equitable and sustainable future and the fulfillment of individual
potential, ENCLUDE will contribute to the upcoming transformation of energy use by: 1)
Assembling, aligning and adapting disparate energy citizenship concepts for diverse
communities of citizens and for different scales of policy making, lowering the barrier for
action, 2) Operationalizing the energy citizenship concept at all scales of policy making for
decarbonization, and 3) Catalyzing a chain reaction of decarbonization actions across the
EU. The PhD position will be focused on bringing together objectives 2 and 3 and contribute to assessing a program to support citizens from around the EU and internationally in realizing local initiatives for the energy transition. In support of these objectives, the ENCLUDE Academy for Energy Citizen Leadership seeks to create a network of “decarbonization ambassadors”, who will spread the knowledge of energy citizenship to seed future collective action. You will assess the impact of social learning processes relevant for supporting energy citizenship that are a part of the Academy, define the main barriers in the implementation of bottom-up decarbonization actions and identify methods of collaborative decision making most effective for addressing these barriers.

This research will take place within the the Policy Analysis section within the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. The section focuses on innovative concepts and methods to improve public decision making under uncertainty in complex multi-stakeholder situations. This section is a part of the Multi-Actor Systems (MAS) Department and focuses on socio-technical systems’ governance. By governance, we mean the use of instruments, strategies, and structures to shape or change socio-technical systems or parts thereof. Research at MAS addresses how, in such an environment, decision-making, change and coordination of and in socio-technical systems happen. We are actively working in application domains such as water, climate change, energy, cyber security, transport and logistics, and resilience. MAS provides education to students in all the master and bachelor studies taught at the Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management.

Please check our web page for further information on the department and our work.
https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tpm/about-the-faculty/departments/multi-actor-systems/