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CenSES annual report 2011
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CenSES in 2011
CenSES will develop fact based knowledge for strategic decisions, relevant both for government and
industry. The focus is knowledge for a national energy policy, for national and international climate policy
and for strategies of innovation and commercialization.
The CenSES consortium includes research groups from Institute for Energy Technology, Institute for Re-
search in Economics and Business Administration, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Admin-
istration, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, SINTEF, Sogn and Fjordane University College,
Vestlandsforsking and University of Oslo. CenSES research integrates the following disciplines: energy
system and market, industrial ecology, economics, political science, sociology, innovation studies, and sci-
ence and technology studies.
The main focus in CenSES in 2011 has been to establish the consortium and to start up the research teams
in our five Research Areas:
RA1. Policy making and transition strategies
RA2. Energy systems and markets
RA3. Economic analysis
RA4. Innovation, commercialization and public engagement
RA5. Scenario development
For each of these we have produced a 5-year research plan, as well as more detailed yearly work plans. Also
we have established a coordinating mechanism across the research areas, in form of user cases. These user
cases have a focus on coordinating deliverables in 2012 and 2013, within selected topics of high impor-
tance for the user partners. Meetings were held in Trondheim, Oslo, Bergen and Sogndal to define these.
The CenSES consortium has been established with the research partners mentioned above, 21 user part-
ners and the international partners. Our board has been constituted with 5 members from the research
partners and 5 from industry. We are in the process of initiating the cooperation with our international re-
search partners. In 2011 cooperation with Tsinghua, University of Maryland, Joint Global Change Research
Institute, ETSAP, Lancaster University and DIW Berlin has been particularly strong, with joint research ac-
tivities, educational training and research visits.
When it comes to dissemination events, the two main activities were the opening conference in June
and the annual conference in December. FME CenSES was formally opened by Minister of Petroleum and
Energy, Ola Borten Moe in June, and the opening conference had contributions from researchers, public
bodies, industry and the research council. CenSES annual conference was held in December in Oslo over
two days with 70 participants. In addition, a set of centre activities has been started: a newsletter, a web
site, a blog, FME Innovation forum. A joint dialogue forum with Technoport is under planning.
A strong focus in CenSES is recruitment and education. By the end of 2011 CenSES had recruited 25 PhD
candidates and 4 post docs. During the year, 28 master students wrote their thesis in the centre and related
projects. We established a PhD network for the young researchers. The PhD network also includes 22 PhD
candidates in related projects where CenSES researchers participate. An international PhD winter school
with 100 participants was arranged on “Managing uncertainty in energy infrastructure investments”.