Part-time with 75.00 percent of the regular working time of a full-time employee. The position in the field of “agent-based modelling” is initially limited until June 30, 2025 within the project “WÄRMER” (§ 2 Abs. 2 WissZeitVG). A longer-term cooperation is intended. The position offers the opportunity to do a PhD.

Supporting the thermal energy transition within the urban building sector:
Achieving German climate protection targets by 2030 requires stronger incentives for energetic renovation as well as a significant increase of renewable energy for heat provision. The latter can be achieved by switching to heat pumps as well as extensions of local and district heating grids which are fed by a high proportion of renewable energies. In the project “WÄRMER”, requirements for a successful transition of the urban building stock shall be identified by an innovative syntheses of local energy system optimisation and modelling individual investment behaviour.

Simulating individual investment decisions:
The group Communication and Coordination in the Energy System (COOKIES) at the section Integrated Energy Systems (INES) develops and applies agent-based models to analyse individual investment decisions. This enables investigations about the impact of changes in the regulatory framework and other measures on dynamics of acceptance and investments of individual actors and their interaction. Results provide stakeholders and decision makers in policy, economy and civil society with evaluations and impact assessment of technical, regulatory and business options.

Your Tasks:

In the context of the project “WÄRMER” the successful applicant will develop models of future urban heating infrastructure with respect to the energy economic framing and climate protection targets in cooperation with Fraunhofer IEE. The focus is on the identification and mitigation of obstacles for individual investors under consideration of relevant stakeholders such as municipality, public utility companies, plumbers, and energy advisors. The successful candidate develops further a framework for agent-based simulation and tailors it to the project context. She will consider findings from stakeholder workshops and integrate the model into a common simulation cycle with planning tool for heat provision.

The successful applicant profits from current projects at the section Integrated Energy Systems comprising modelling and simulation of urban heating infrastructure and associated investment decisions. In general, the work environment is team oriented and favours being proactive and creative.