Fourth call for proposals launched for SWEET funding programme
Bern, 31.03.2022 - The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) has launched the fourth call for proposals in the SWEET (SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition) funding programme. A research consortium will receive funding of CHF 10 million over 10 years for the lead topic 'Co-evolution of the Swiss energy system and Swiss society and its representation in coordinated simulations'. The deadline for pre-proposals is June 16th 2022.
Existing and future SWEET consortia will work with simulations of the Swiss energy system or individual sectors. In order to compare them and draw meaningful conclusions, the simulations must be coordinated. The four consortia that emerged from the first SWEET call for proposals 'Integration of renewables into a sustainable and resilient Swiss energy system' are already putting their simulations on a common footing via the CROSS activity (CooRdination Of Scenarios in SWEET).
The current call for proposals aims to expand this coordination. It will build on CROSS and incorporate findings from the social sciences and humanities to a greater extent. For this reason, researchers from the social sciences and humanities in particular are invited to investigate the co-evolution of the Swiss energy system and Swiss society and to incorporate the insights gained into the simulations. The consortium will submit a focus report on a specific topic every two years and present it to a broad audience.
With this call for proposals, the SFOE hopes to increase the informative value of the simulations and promote transdisciplinary cooperation on energy and climate-related issues. Therefore, funding will only be awarded to a consortium in which the natural sciences and engineering, economics and social sciences and humanities are equally represented.
The call will be conducted in two stages. Research consortia from universities, non-profit research institutions, the private sector and the public sector can submit pre-proposals by June 16th of this year. These will be assessed by an international panel of experts. The consortium whose pre-proposal is selected will be invited to submit a full proposal. The call budget of CHF 10 million will be awarded for a term of 10 years. The final contract award is expected to be announced in December, with research work starting in January 2023.
Details of the entry conditions are set out in the Call Guideline (attached to this press release, only available in English).
SWEET (SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition) funding programme
The SWEET programme issues rolling calls for proposals for consortium projects and will continue until 2032. Funding is provided only for consortium projects that address central research topics of the 2050 Energy Strategy and the long-term climate strategy in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner. SWEET focuses on solution-oriented research and on demonstrations of the results achieved. The SFOE has the lead for the SWEET programme.
Address for enquiries
Brigitte Mader, SFOE Communications, +41 58 485 60 46, brigitte.mader@bfe.admin.ch
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Swiss Federal Office of Energy
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