Description of Research Area

The graduate school program Energy and Resources is hosted by the research institute Impact. Based on a SWOT analysis and the input of scientific staff of all research groups participating in Impact, the research theme Sustainable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions has been explicitly recognized as one of the three key strategic research orientations of the institute. It is exactly this strategic research theme that is addressed in the proposed graduate school program Energy and Resources. The research focus of Impact and the position of the proposed graduate school program in this context are schematically represented in figure 1.

Figure 1 - Position of graduate school program in scientific institute Impact

The research domain of the research orientation Sustainable Energy and greenhouse Gas Emissions includes a broad spectrum of topics and several major focal areas that are directly connected with the strengths of the participating research groups in the institute have been defined. The graduate school program Energy and Resources explicitly aims at educating scientists and engineers in these focal areas to benefit from the strengths of the involved research group and the integrated structure offered by Impact to the largest possible extent.

The importance of the proposed graduate program is well recognized by the participating groups of Impact and has the strong support of the scientific director of Impact. The participation of the scientific research group of the scientific director of Impact in the graduate program Energy and Resources emphasizes the relevance of the program and the support of the scientific director.

Next to fundamental understanding and related to the focal areas of the SRO Sustainable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Impact, the graduate school program Energy and Resources is explicitly connected to the major focal areas defined by Impact (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Thematic overview of Next Generation Energy and Resources