Energy economics research can be a starkly solitary endeavor. Training is rarely team-based, leaving energy economics students with little experience working in large groups or across disciplines, even as demand is rising for the sort of interdisciplinary scholarship that can meaningfully addresses complicated questions about the interconnections between energy, the environment, and climate change. The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) has developed a collaboration-oriented, team-based, two-year research experience and training program for predoctoral students—those with undergraduate or Master’s degrees—that looks to engage researchers early in their career and introduce them to a more integrated, interdisciplinary approach to scholarship. Selected students work with University of Chicago economics faculty on a wide variety of research projects. In addition to receiving high-quality research experience, predoctoral fellows receive dedicated faculty mentorship, cutting-edge data science training, and networking opportunities. EPIC has designed an extensive orientation program for the fellows, along with a series of professional development activities that provide guidance and assistance to help them determine potential next steps in their careers. Funds from this grant will provide stipend and administrative support for four fellows in the EPIC program over the next two years.

This grant provides funding for the continuation and expansion of a doctoral fellowship program focused on training an interdisciplinary cohort of early career researchers to conduct scholarship in energy data analytics. Implemented by Duke University’s Energy Data Analytics Lab, the program provides participants from multiple fields with opportunities to work on extended research projects involving the collection and analysis of data related to the energy system. In this expanded program model, fellows will be drawn from six participating universities from the region, including Duke, University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina A&T State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Fellows are drawn from a diverse variety of institutional backgrounds, including computer science; environmental policy; earth and ocean sciences; and electrical, civil, computer, and environmental engineering.  Fellows work with a team of advisors to develop original data-driven research projects that they work on during the summer months.  Past participant projects include using satellite imaging to asses energy loss at solar energy facilities, constructing neural networks for use in predicting energy demand, modeling the energy consumed in the production of consumer products, and enhancing image datasets to allow for the identification of buildings with poor insulation. Six fellows will be supported in each year of the three-year grant period. Grant funds will primarily support student stipends, with additional funds devoted to various support activities, including mentorship, periodic workshops for student participants, and a conference allowing students and other researchers to showcase their work and allowing for networking opportunities with practitioners

This grant provides support to organize an annual, intensive, week-long training program at the University of California Berkeley introduces second- and third-year doctoral students interested in energy and environmental economics to state-of-the-art research in the field.  Each year approximately 60 doctoral students from universities across the country arrive in Berkeley to receive rigorous training in energy and environmental economics and have the opportunity to interact with leading faculty in the field. Nearly a semester’s worth of content is presented in a condensed period of time, helping students participants gain the knowledge necessary to undertake more in-depth research when they return to their home institutions. Grant funds will provide support for a number of student scholarships, with a specific focus on increasing the number of women and underrepresented minorities participants and strengthening mentorship activities over the course of the training program.

Individual states play a significant role in setting and implementing energy policies of all kinds, yet no comprehensive database exists of state-level energy policy initiatives and projects.  Without such a database, it is very difficult to understand how state policies harmonize, augment, or conflict with one another (or with federal policy), how state policies could be altered to better achieve overall energy goals, or how state policies differ (or do not) by region, geography, culture, industrial composition, and much more besides. This grants funds an initiative to address this information gap by creating an inventory that makes systematic information about state energy policies available to the research and policy communities. It will also engage scholars and decision-makers to use this new resource and begin to rigorously analyze the connections, overlaps, and relationships between different state energy policy regimes. After constructing the inventory, the team will analyze state policies across across four dimensions: emissions reduction targets, economic outcome targets, resilience planning, and cross-governmental coordination. Research findings will be published as reports and articles and disseminated at a final workshop and shared broadly, with a focus on engaging state and federal decision-makers.