Vera Kools
Enabling participation of all European stakeholders in the digital energy market
Technology, Innovation and Society Group, Department Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, [email protected]
Supervisors: Prof. dr. Heleen C. de Coninck, Dr. Johanna Höffken
Background
After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology, I completed the master Innovation Sciences also at Eindhoven University of Technology. During the master program I specialized in Global Sustainability. In my master thesis I gained my first experience with STS, as I investigated what a STS perspective on public participation means in the context of European Union energy projects.
Summary PhD Project
The digitalisation of the energy system is not only created by technology, but also by knowledge and capabilities of stakeholders to apply the technologies. Therefore the Every1 project (Horizon Europe), to which I will contribute during my PhD, aims to develop capacity building material for all stakeholders in the digital European energy market, to enable all stakeholders to participate in the digitalised energy system. Within the project, I will work on the identification of the different stakeholders and ecosystems in the digital renewable energy landscape. I will contribute to insights in the characteristics, (potential) roles and needs of different stakeholders and ecosystems, to see how they can participate in and contribute to a just energy transition. I will work on the analysis on what makes effective stakeholder ecosystems and which contextual factors affect the success.
My PhD research will be related to the TU/e work in the Every1 project, therefore taking the different roles, characteristics and needs of stakeholders and ecosystems in the digital energy system as starting point. Research directions that I am interested in include energy literacy, energy poverty and gender in just energy transitions, energy citizenship and energy democracy.
