The Sustainability Research Group at the University of Basel is seeking a PhD candidate to investigate the societal dimensions of AI-enabled energy sharing within energy communities. This position is part of the Horizon Europe project FAIR4COMMUNITIES, which unites 18 partners across Europe to develop next-generation, AI-driven tools for fair, human-centric, and grid-friendly energy sharing.
The project aims to develop and validate advanced AI forecasting and optimization tools that enable fair, value-oriented, and grid-friendly energy sharing across consumers, Energy Communities, and multi-community ecosystems, integrating Social Sciences and Humanities to ensure social acceptance and alignment with societal values.
Tasks
- Contribute to the development and implementation of a Societal Readiness Framework (SRF) that integrates social, institutional, and regulatory considerations into the design and implementation of AI-based energy-sharing tools.
- Investigate psychological, socioeconomic, and social factors influencing the uptake of AI-enabled energy sharing.
- Conduct quota-representative national surveys, semi-structured interviews, and participatory workshops to examine attitudes, acceptance, trust, perceived fairness, and other determinants of participation in AI-enabled energy-sharing schemes.
- Collaborate with stakeholders, including technology developers, Energy Community organisers and members, to design, test, and refine user-centred tools, dashboards, and interfaces.
- Evaluate usability, trust in AI-supported decisions, and perceived fairness of developed tools.
- Contribute to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of behavioural and trust-building field experiments in pilot sites across Europe, including Greece, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands.
- Examine how different intervention strategies influence technology adoption and participation.
- Produce academic research papers and contribute to the development of a PhD thesis.
Requirements
- Academic qualification (MSc/MA) in the social sciences, psychology, or a related discipline, ideally with a focus on sustainability.
- Experience with relevant empirical research methods.
- Strong quantitative research skills and experience with surveys.
- Qualitative research skills, including experience with interviews, workshops, and thematic analysis, are desirable.
- Proficient level in English.
- Excellent analytical and academic writing skills.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
- Willingness to collaborate.
- Comfortable engaging with diverse stakeholders, including citizens, community leaders, industry representatives, technology developers, and technical experts.
- Experience with participatory research and co-design methodologies is desirable.
- Knowledge of the energy sector and Energy Community policies is desirable.
- Proficiency in another European language would be an advantage.
- Strong interest in energy transitions, sustainability, Energy Communities, artificial intelligence, and the societal implications of emerging technologies.
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Das Team
The Sustainability Research Group serves as the main Social Sciences and Humanities partner in the project, collaborating with a diverse range of stakeholders and partners across Europe.