Dear colleagues, please find below an announcement of three openings (two PhD and one MSc) that may be of interest to students in your networks (especially those interested in community level/multistakeholder approachers to decarbonization):
Drs. Adriane MacDonald (Department of Management) and Ursula Eicker (Buildings, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department) at Concordia University, Montreal are recruiting two PhD students and one MSc student to work on a project titled "Community Energy Solutions".
This research initiative aims to provide a deeper understanding of energy communities as a multistakeholder approach to accelerating decarbonization. With community empowerment as the focus, this project includes different perspectives from affected stakeholders with regard to technology, policy and regulatory considerations, financing, business models, and governance.
The PhD projects will focus on climate action planning, collaborative governance, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building to help identify barriers to opportunities for effective climate transitions. The first PhD project will use mixed methods to investigate which Canadian municipalities are most ready to implement community energy solutions and assess the impact of climate actions across multiple levels of government. The PhD student selected for this project will have the opportunity to work with our partner the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) to conduct research that will contribute to further development of the Climate Innovation Readiness Navigator for Cities and Local Governments. The second PhD project will use a case-study approach to research energy-community governance structures, regulatory environments, and stakeholder engagement approaches, including research on Indigenous community-led energy systems.
The MSc project will analyze data on the Community Energy Systems funding stream of the Green Municipal Fund (GMF). GMF supports business case studies, feasibility studies and capital projects that support all Canadian municipalities with a streamlined approach to assess and deploy a variety of district and renewable energy systems. The focus will be on a group of municipalities that have been selected to identify, evaluate, and prioritize opportunity areas for low-carbon community energy systems, and develop mechanisms to support implementation ("Accelerating Community Energy Systems"). The goal is to identify successful governance structures using the data of GMF funded community energy projects and of case studies of the CES project. An analysis of business models and financing constellations will contribute to shape future impact GMF funding. The research findings will provide critical insights that will inform future funding design exercises at the GMF.
The students will be co-supervised by Drs. MacDonald and Eicker and will be hosted and enrolled in the Department of Management.
Eligibility: Prospective candidates should have a BA/BSc/BComm (prospective MSc students) or MA/MSc (prospective PhD students) in Management, Commerce, Geography, Urban Planning, Environment, Energy Engineering, Political Science, Economics, Sustainability, or a related discipline. Students with interests in decarbonization, climate action, climate and environmental governance, resilient community planning and development, or community-based action are particularly encouraged to apply.
Interested candidates should contact Dr. Adriane MacDonald by email. Please include your CV, unofficial transcript, and a short statement of interest, including your past experience and skills, by May 26th , 2025. For information on graduate admissions requirements to Concordia University, visit the Management MSc program website. ------------------------------
Joel Bothello
Associate Professor
Concordia University
Montreal QC
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