SSH Energy 2025

Futuring inter- and transdisciplinary energy research, for whom, by whom?

The 5th SSH Energy Workshop was hosted on 16 and 17 June 2025. Read more about the event in this blog post by James Zimmermann Merron or download the program below for details on the presenters and abstracts.

On this page you can explore the full details of the SSH Energy 2025 workshop below — including the goals and themes guiding this year’s event, reflections and takeaways, and details of our organizing committee.

Download Download the Program (PDF, 17.3 MB)

Background and Overview

The 5th Swiss Social Sciences and Humanities Energy Research Workshop (SSH Energy 2025) was an opportunity for researchers, modellers, practitioners, and policymakers to share perspectives and insights on the societal implications, discourses, and transformation processes required to transition to a more sustainable and equitable energy system. The 2025 edition specifically seeked to learn from SSH energy initiatives with interdisciplinary (that integrate different disciplinary perspectives) and transdisciplinary (engaging with societal actors) approaches into energy transitions.

To make this critical energy transition, integrating social sciences and humanities into energy research is vital, but just how we do that is the most important question that can bring research to impact transformative change. Inter- and transdisciplinary research address the complexities of integration, aiming to move beyond knowledge production by fostering collaboration and diverse perspectives essential for meaningful change.

Growing from the discussions of the SSH Energy 2024 workshop, the 2025 edition addressed questions related to: (i) How does SSH Energy research integrate different practices and world views? (ii) Who participates? And (iii) What values guide us that affect the reception, social legitimacy and political utility of our energy research? SSH Energy 2025 aimed to:

Consolidate and enrich the ongoing dialogues on the important role of Social Science and Humanities in energy research to generate an empirical research agenda.
Provide the space to trial run workshop formats and share experiences of integrating SSH in energy research.
Create an open dialogue setting for constructive feedback on SSH energy research.
Nourish the community of practice of SSH energy researchers, potentially fostering new collaborations.
Provide a platform for early-career researchers.

The event offered space to connect, challenge assumptions, and co-reflect on research and societal challenges regarding the energy transition. SSH Energy 2025 fostered a vibrant and open atmosphere, an ideal setting for learning and exchange across disciplines and roles.

SSH Energy workshops are framed within the project “Co-Evolution and Coordinated Simulation of the Swiss Energy System and Swiss Society" (CoSi), funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SWEET programme). CoSi seeks to continue consolidating a platform for exchange to link various disciplines, develop a common understanding, and achieve a co-creation process with stakeholders. As a bridge-maker, CoSi gathers and intermingles different stakeholders and energy research communities to co-design sustainable and innovative energy transition approaches.

Reporting on SSH Energy 2025

Participants engaged in lively and constructive dialogue over 1.5 days with an inspiring keynote, paper presentations, seven micro-workshops, a poster session, and a focused workshop and roundtable on living labs. Below, you can read more about the attendees, an overview of the sessions, the event's sustainability status, SSH Energy 2025 streams, and the organising committee.

Over 70 participants joined us from across Switzerland and beyond, including Germany, Spain, Greece, Poland, and the USA. The workshop gathered people from a diverse range of disciplines and institutions, as shown in the figure below.

Paper presentations and micro-workshops

These formats triggered deeper reflection, offered new entry points into
ongoing research, and invited participants to engage in different ways. Many of these interactions sparked intense discussions and critical questions, so that time was almost always too short to explore them all. Fortunately, we planned plenty of breaks, long lunches, and an evening apéro to provide room to continue exchanges, deepen mutual understanding, and build new connections.

Among the various formats, the micro-workshops stood out as an especially interactive space for diving into specific themes. They encouraged hands-on, and engaged thinking, allowing for the kind of social confrontation and co-reflection that is essential for building shared understanding across disciplinary or professional boundaries. By working within a format that itself reflects inter- and transdisciplinary principles, participants not only discussed key themes, but also experienced the kind of collaborative, reflective, and dialogical process that defines this type of research.

Keynote

A special thank-you goes to our keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Michael Stauffacher, who opened the workshop by reflecting on nearly 20 years of transdisciplinary energy research, from nuclear waste and geothermal energy to carbon capture and sufficiency. Drawing on experiences across projects, institutions, and mentorship roles, he shared key insights into the evolving role of social sciences in energy research. His talk emphasized that while much progress has been made, realizing the full potential of SSH still requires long-term commitment, critical reflection, and structural support.

Stakeholder-focused workshop

We were especially pleased to feature a hands-on, stakeholder-focused
workshop led by guest scholar Dr. Giulia Sonetti and Dr. Luisa Pastore, with contributions from Noah Balthasar and Daniel Kliem, centered on the Suurstoffi Living Lab. Through role-play and a 3D mapping exercise based on the "Three Types of Knowledge" framework, participants explored how
emotions, assumptions, and lived experiences shape energy behavior. Rather than aiming for technical fixes, the workshop emphasized systemic understanding and participatory engagement with the human dimensions of energy transitions.

Roundtable

Another central session on the first day was the roundtable discussion moderated by Dr. Stephanie Briers, with contributions from Dr. Giulia Sonetti, Noah Balthasar, and Dr. Anton Sentic. Framed by the question “SSH energy research — for whom, by whom?”, the roundtable reflected on experiences from Swiss Living Labs and explored how societal actors are engaged in knowledge production. Discussants shared perspectives on the role of societal actors in shaping SSH contributions to the energy transition, highlighting the need to be more specific about who researchers refer to when using the broad and sometimes controversial term “stakeholder”.

Wrap-up: Fireside dialogue

The closing session was held in a fireside dialogue format, where the CSTS Group along with invited speakers wrapped up insights and reflections from the previous 1.5 days. The audience were then invited to join the discussion which aimed to inform the focus of SSH Energy 2026. Some key points were:

Engaging more diverse societal actors and being more specific about the term "stakeholder"
Finding a balance between deep integration and toolbox approaches, so common in transdisciplinary research
Paying more attention to the role of emotions and understanding how values can contribute to transformative research
Acknowledging that modelling still largely excludes ASSH (Arts, humanities, and social sciences)
A focus on Justice and second-order topics would be valued in SSH Energy 2026

We aimed at bringing together rich case studies from Swiss and international projects and programmes to generate new conceptualizations of energy initiatives fruitfully integrating the arts, humanities and social sciences with an inter- or transdisciplinary approaches.
We invited participants to explore topics ranging from and expanding the following:

Methods and tools for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations in energy research: what works best (cases and practices), how can we use it (specific tools and methodologies) and at which part of the research process to make it the most impactful (problem framing, analysis, dissemination)?
Culture-focused and social aspects in energy transitions: What are the potentials of integrating cultural approaches to energy research? What is the role of culture, values and emotions in shaping energy behaviours and policies?
Arts in energy research: What is the role of the arts and creativity in energy research and how can it ensure inclusion and hope? How art makes the transition more relatable, innovative, and inspire collective action?
Co-producing energy models: What is the role of stakeholder and public-oriented approaches in knowledge creation to inform energy policymaking? How can we account for the inclusivity and transparency of the models design process?
Meaningful SSH integration in energy modelling: How can we harness "SSH energy" to enrich or challenge energy models and rethink models’ mechanisms? How to plan integration, implement it, and account for the multidimensionality of the process?
Justice in energy research: How are justice or well-being-oriented frameworks shaping energy research? How different justice frameworks are being used to guide equitable policymaking?
Power and asymmetries: counterbalancing (de)politicization of energy research and modelling. How can we use the critical reflection on energy models for the benefit of the transition? How we can embrace the public role of SSH in energy research in democratizing the transition process?

SSH Energy 2025 was awarded the Sustainable Events Gold Label by ETH Zurich, reflecting our commitment to hosting an environmentally and socially responsible event. We took several concrete steps to reduce the ecological footprint of the event and promote inclusivity. Our commitment, amongst other things, included:

Fully vegetarian and vegan catering
Efforts to reduce food waste (e.g. sign-up form, tupperwares)
Wheelchair accessible venue and inclusive communication
Recommendations on sustainable travel and eco-certified accommodation
Use of sustainable materials and printing services

Participants could support these efforts by choosing low-emission travel options, recycling, minimizing used printing resources, or avoiding single-use items. Feel free to read more about our implemented measures in our downloadable program, and further inform yourself about "Sustainable and Inclusive Events" at ETHZ.

The 5TH Swiss Social Sciences and Humanities Energy Research Workshop (SSH Energy 2025) is organised by the Cultural Studies of Science and Technology Group (CSTS, Transdisciplinarity Lab), ETH Zurich and the CoSi Consortium.

PD Dr. Bianca Vienni-Baptista (CSTS Group lead, ETH Zurich)
Dr. Stephanie Briers (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich)
Rebecca Weber, lead event assistant (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich)
Konstanty Ramotowski (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich)
Paula Winkler (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich)

Contact: For queries, please contact Stephanie Briers ().

Funding

CoSi is a research project sponsored by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s “SWEET” programme (Call 1-2022), start date June 2022.