ETH PhD Academy on Sustainability and Technology 2026
Energy Research in a Changing World
Please find the Download Call for Papers (PDF, 738 KB) here
31st May to 5th June 2026, ETH Zurich
Against a backdrop of geopolitical shifts, economic uncertainty, and the accelerating impacts of climate change, the transition to sustainable energy systems continues to unfold worldwide. The turbulent geopolitical landscape is shaping climate and energy policy priorities, industrial strategies, and citizens’ concerns, creating new challenges and opportunities for energy researchers seeking to inform decision-making. Understanding how technologies diffuse in a more fragmented world, how shifting policies reshape markets, how infrastructure evolves as multiple sectors become entangled, and how diverse actors respond to changing conditions requires insights from engineering, economics, innovation studies, policy analysis, and more, often in combination.
The 2026 ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology invites early-career researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) engaged in energy research with a background in engineering, economics, innovation studies, and public policy to present their work to an audience of scholars with diverse backgrounds working in related areas and an international faculty with a record of accomplishments in research on climate and energy policy and modelling. Participants submit a full manuscript and obtain detailed feedback on their research design, theoretical approaches, and methodology. In addition, we provide plenty of room for informal discussions and network with the other early-career researchers and professors. Early-career researchers in previous years have come from, among others world-leading institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford University, Stanford University, and the University of Cambridge.
Research of the participants should focus on – but is not limited to – the following topics:
- Modelling of macro (system) and micro (companies, individuals) dynamics of the energy transition
- Socio-technical and techno-economic assessment of energy technologies
- Energy technology and innovation policy in the context of sustainability
- Innovation systems, institutional and technological change for sustainability
The ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology will take place in a beautiful location near Zurich, in a hotel in the midst of the Swiss Alps. To guarantee an intensive learning process, attendance is limited to 15 participants. Third-party funding allows us to offer a participation fee of only CHF 500 (ca. USD 650), which covers five days of accommodation, meals, and excursions. Travel expenses are not covered.
Please send your application to Caterina Croci () and include (i) a cover letter explaining your motivation (max. 1 page), (ii) an extended paper abstract (max. 2 pages including references), and (iii) your CV. The deadline for applications is 13 March 2026. We will send out notification of acceptance by 27 March 2026. Deadline for full paper submission (10-15 pages, around 8,000 words) is 8 May 2026. For additional information, you can find the programs of previous academies on our website or contact Caterina Croci. We look forward to receiving your application!
Inês Azevedo is Professor of Energy Science Engineering at the Energy Science & Engineering Department at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institude for the Environment and a Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy.
Prof. Azevedo is passionate about solving problems that include environmental, technical, economic, and policy issues, where traditional engineering approaches play an important role but cannot provide a complete answer. In particular, she is interested in assessing how energy systems are likely to evolve, which requires comprehensive knowledge of the technologies that can address future energy needs and the decision-making process followed by various agents in the economy.
Varun Rai is Professor of Public Affairs in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He directs the Energy Systems Transformation Research Group, and in the Mechanical Engineering department. His interdisciplinary research at the interface of energy systems, behavioral sciences, complex systems and public policy focuses on enabling a broad diffusion of sustainable energy technologies globally. Dr. Rai has published numerous journal articles, including in Applied Energy, Energy Policy, Energy Research & Social Science, Environmental Research Letters, Global Environmental Change, Nature Climate Change and PLOS ONE.
His research has been presented at several important forums, including the United States Senate Briefings, Global Economic Symposium and Climate One at Commonwealth Club, and has been discussed in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Bloomberg News, among other venues. He serves on the editorial boards of The Electricity Journal and Energy Research & Social Science, for which he is also an associate editor. Dr. Rai was a Global Economic Fellow in 2009 and, during 2013–15, he was a commissioner for the vertically integrated electric utility Austin Energy (~$1.4 billion revenue in 2015). In 2016 the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) awarded him the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, which "was established to honor persons who, at under the age of 40, have made a distinguished contribution to the field of public policy analysis and management." Dr. Rai is the former director of the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at ETH Zurich, where he leads an independent research group within the Chair of Sustainability and Technology. His research examines how energy and innovation policies can accelerate technological change, using both qualitative analysis and modeling. In 2024, he was awarded an SNSF Ambizione grant to develop an advanced agent-based model to simulate policy mixes for net-zero technologies. He serves as Academic Editor for PLOS Climate. His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals like Research Policy, Energy Policy, Energy Research and Social Science, Applied Energy, Environmental Research Letters, iScience, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, and Policy Sciences.
Dr. Nuñez-Jimenez was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School until 2022. He completed his PhD at ETH Zurich in 2020, and he also holds an MSc degree in Energy Management and Sustainability from EPFL (with honors) and a BSc in Energy Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid (with honors). Before his academic career, he worked in the solar industry.