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The call aims at creating one consortium to be operative over a period of ten years. It should address a research challenge that is twofold:

First, to reach the goals of the Energy Strategy 2050, it is necessary to study the evolution of both the Swiss society and the Swiss energy system as one interwoven socio-technical system. This goes far beyond questions of acceptability and cost of renewable energies. As the Energy Research Masterplan of the Federal Government states: «[…] technological progress on its own will not suffice», but «behavioural changes, altered incentives, and – possibly – adjustments to governance structures and policies» are necessary. 

The second dimension of the challenge concerns the simulations of the Swiss energy system used to model energy transition. It is decisive that the social sciences and humanities co-develop the assumptions, scenarios, and narratives/storylines underlying these simulations. Furthermore, the various simulations carried out by different research groups should be better harmonized with each other. This allows gaining more meaningful results and deducing dependable and significative recommendations. 

This leads to the following two research questions that the new consortium is expected to address:

Research question 1: How will a transdisciplinary collaboration between the SSH, the natural sciences and engineering, the economic sciences, and stakeholders to study the co-evolution of the Swiss energy system and Swiss society be established and managed and how will this collaboration contribute to increasing the significance of conclusions derived from simulations?

Research question 2: How will assumptions, scenarios, and narratives/storylines be harmonized and how will the simulations be coordinated to increase the significance of conclusions?

A consortium is a network of several members that adhere to the rights and obligations set forth in their compulsory consortium agreement. It is managed by a host institution that represents the consortium to the SFOE and signs a subsidy contract with the SFOE. The host institution must be a Swiss higher education institution entitled to receive SFOE funding. 

The consortium further includes applicants who request funding from the SFOE through the host institution as well as cooperation partners who want to participate in the activities without receiving funding from the SFOE

The consortium must meet the following requirements:

1. It is led by one host institution,
2. It consists of at least 5 applicants from different legal entities.
3. It consists of at least one applicant from each of the following entities: Swiss university or institute of the ETH domain (ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, Empa, Eawag, PSI and WSL) and Swiss university of applied sciences.
4. Applicants from the SSH, the economic sciences, the natural sciences and engineering must be equitably represented in the consortium and its management.

Budget and funding rules

In the context of the SWEET Call 1-2022, the SFOE will support one consortium with a budget of CHF 10 million over a period of ten years. Supplementary funding of CHF 2 million may be granted in response to a request by the consortium or by the SWEET office, depending on the availability of additional funding.

The SFOE funds in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. To ensure that the overall funding is sufficient for the work programme of the consortium, members and cooperation partners contribute, each according to its abilities, with own and third-party contributions (cash or in-kind) to supplement the requested SWEET funding.

For more details and relevant documents, please visit the website of the SFOE.