About Us
Providing a world with an ever growing and developing population with energy in a sustainable way is one of the most challenging tasks for the future. All three universities have significant activities in sustainable energy technology, in research, education and entrepreneurship and all three acquired international recognition in this field.
The ambition of the European Graduate School on Sustainable Energy Technology is to establish a leading 'School of Thought' which fosters the development of excellent young scientists who are used to thinking and working in an international environment of experts. The Graduate School aims at scientific excellence through fundamental understanding as a basis for others to be used in applied science and engineering. The school has focus and critical mass on coherent themes that serve as an umbrella for a number of coherent diverse projects.
Participants meet regularly in Summer and Winter Schools, and engage in research collaborations. PhD students and postdoctoral students have the opportunity to spend time at the partner locations, and make use of the facilities there. The participating professors will contribute to educational activities at the partner locations, e.g. by presenting special guest courses, serving as opponents in PhD Committees, etc. This approach places emphasis on forming a true community in which people meet frequently and exchange knowledge and experience.
The Molecular Approach
The Molecular Approach to Sustainable Energy Program within the European Graduate School represents a unique collaboration aimed at fundamental research and education on a subject of great societal relevance. The program is based on the reputation of internationally well recognized scientists at the three partner universities. With a coherent and focused research program consisting of 21 new and 42 existing research projects, the Graduate School represents a unique and internationally unparalleled research effort in which more than 60 young scientists will be educated by leading experts and work on challenging projects on the molecular basis of sustainable energy technology. We strongly believe that this Graduate School is a role model for future research and education in Europe.
In short :- Scientific excellence through fundamental understanding as the basis for applied science and engineering
- Focus and critical mass on a coherent theme that serves as an umbrella for a number of coherent projects, such that all participants speak the same scientific language and have the opportunity to interact fruitfully
- Professors, PhD students and postdocs
- Participants meet at least twice per year in a Summer & Winter School
- Many opportunities for student exchange
The Research Program of the European Graduate School
Sustainable energy is an umbrella which includes a very broad range of activities, from the atomistic description of how to store more electrons inside a battery material to the in-house climate management in the zero energy house of the future.
In the "The Molecular Approach to Sustainable Energy" we focus on fundamental understanding based on insight at the molecular level. The research program consists of two general themes:
Educational Program for PhD and Postdocs
Aim of the program is to train PhD students and postdocs to become qualified researchers in one of the Sustainable Energy themes of the Graduate School. The main way to achieve this is "learning by doing", in the sense that a PhD student works on a pre-defined, supervised research project from the start. Furthermore, PhD students take high-level PhD courses at the three participating universities.
The Graduate School will offer short in depth courses at their Summer and Winter Schools, which the PhD students may use to (partially) satisfy the course requirements of the individual universities, who in all circumstances bear the full responsibility for the PhD programs of their students. Students who successfully complete the educational program of the Graduate School as taught at Summer and Winter Schools, will be given a certificate of the Graduate School in addition to the PhD Degree they receive from the respective universities.
