Are you interested in the social, economic and environmental implications of energy transitions? Would you like to represent the UK in the EERA Joint Programme on this important topic?
EERA is the European Energy Research Alliance, the foremost association of energy research institutes in Europe. It hosts numerous Joint Programmes (JPs) concerning different aspects of energy research, including a JP on the Economic, Environmental and Social Impacts of the Energy Transition (E3S).
UKERC represents the UK in EERA, our engagement fits within our dual role through which we not only run a research programme but also represent and support the broader UK energy research community. UKERC administers and pays the UK’s core EERA membership fee and those of UK representatives in various JPs. The UK’s EERA JP representatives come from the whole community and are not necessarily UKERC affiliated researchers.
An opportunity has arisen to represent the UK in the E3S Joint Programme. We are therefore inviting candidates who would be interested in becoming the UK rep to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI).
The E3S Joint Programme puts people and society at the heart of energy transitions that are required to solve our climate and ecological challenges. E3S aims to understand the complex interactions in socio-technical-economic systems, which include public engagement and social change, market dynamics, collective action, innovation and technological change, and policy frameworks. E3S is, therefore, a cross-cutting joint programme within EERA that complements and works with other technology-specific joint programmes.
E3S members carry out interdisciplinary research using a variety of methods including case studies, integrated assessment and energy systems modelling, statistical data analysis and policy analysis. They provide timely, high-quality and rigorous research results that supports policy making within member states, associated countries and across the European Union. The structure of E3S has been reformed recently, and comprises four working groups that focus on:
The UK member will have the opportunity to network with leading researchers from other countries in Europe with an interest in this agenda. This can be expected to lead to useful sharing of both research insights and opportunities for collaboration, e.g. in new consortia bidding for EC funds.
The UK representative in the new JP will be expected to attend JP management meetings which are held twice a year, represent the views of UK researchers with similar interests, and communicate developments of the JP, including opportunities, to the community in the UK. The representative can expect assistance from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) in communicating with the UK energy research community but will also be expected to access other UK networks.
The representative will also be expected to join meetings of all the UK JP reps (usually twice a year) in order that learning from across JPs can be shared. The UK reps’ meetings will be convened by UKERC.
The fees for the UK representative’s membership of the JP will be paid by UKRI via UKERC. The rep will be expected to pay their travel and subsistence costs for attendance of meetings, though the option of joining online is expected to be available in most, if not all, cases.
If you are interested in becoming the UK’s rep in this new JP, please contact UKERC’s Operations Manager, haiyan.wu@ucl.ac.uk by Tuesday 1st September 23.59. Please send a short CV and briefly outline, in no more than 500 words, why you are interested in becoming the UK rep and what you can offer in terms of representing the UK energy research community in the JP. In the event of there being more than one EOI, the UKERC leadership group will make a selection and let you know by 4th September 2020.
Though negotiations regarding the UK’s leaving the European Union are still ongoing, UKERC currently remains an active member of EERA and many of its Joint Programmes for the time being. Depending on the outcome of those negotiations, we hope that it will be possible for UKERC and UK researchers to continue membership of EERA once the transition period is complete.