ETH Zurich's
Energy and Technology Policy Group (EPG) is seeking two doctoral researchers in the field of Innovation and Policy of Energy Storage. Led by Prof. Tobias Schmidt and Prof. Bjarne Steffen, EPG is an interdisciplinary research group investigating the role of public policy in technological change.
Project background The positions are part of the project "Grid-scale Energy Storage: Imperatives for Accelerating the Green Transition (RESTORATIVE)", under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Grant Agreement No. 101227219. The RESTORATIVE consortium trains 17 PhD students at 7 universities and 4 companies. The project has a total of 16 beneficiary and associated partners from 10 different European countries.
All 17 PhD projects fall within the overall theme of grid-scale energy storage technologies, but investigate the topic from different perspectives, including technological development, reliability and security, integration and coupling, socioeconomic and environmental assessment, as well as policy and regulation.
Job description - The doctorates will be conducted within the Einstein School's doctoral program. The positions are for three years, starting in September 2026.
- Content and methods: While it is clear that energy storage technologies are key to enabling a low-carbon energy system, it remains open which technologies will become competitive in which applications. In applications with a storage duration of up to eight hours, Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have become dominant. However, these technologies are much less competitive in longer-duration applications.
- The two PhD positions at ETH Zurich will therefore focus on the competitiveness of various long-term stationary energy storage technologies. To this end, they will apply and further develop innovation theory-based frameworks and system dynamic modelling.
- Using these tools, they will also analyze the role of potential trade disruptions to inform energy policy, industrial policy, and geopolitical strategies.
- As part of the MSCA program, the students will be interning with Siemens Energy's storge division and participate in an academic exchange with the Energy Systems Lab at Imperial College London.
Profile - Applicants should hold a Master's degree in industrial engineering, energy engineering, innovation studies, technology management, or economics/public policy with an energy/technology focus. Interdisciplinary candidates are welcome.
- You should be dedicated to scientifically rigorous work that at the same time is relevant to decision makers in the public and private sectors.
- Your working style is team-oriented and you are proficient in English.
- IMPORTANT: The MSCA supports researchers' mobility. Therefore, according to the MSCA rules, only candidates who have spent less than 12 months in Switzerland in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date.
We offer - Entrepreneurial research atmosphere within a dynamic team at continental Europe's leading research university. The students will be supervised by Prof. Schmidt (main supervisor) and Prof. Bjarne Steffen (second supervisor).
- Candidates will have the opportunity to contribute to EPG's research agenda and are encouraged to co-advice master's students and potentially doctoral students.
- As a member of ETH's Albert Einstein School of Public Policy and ETH's Energy Science Center, our group benefits from frequent interactions with leading scholars in other energy- and policy-related fields.
- Furthermore, we collaborate with other national and international academic and policy institutions (e.g., CMCC, the MIT, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the World Economic Forum).
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